This is YA novel published by the new Joy Revolution Imprint, which focuses on romances featuring characters (and authors) of color. It is also Talia Hibbert’s YA debut. Her adult titles are pretty steamy, but this novel is completely appropriate for teens.

The story is told in alternating first person POV. The main characters are Celine and Brad, who are former best friends entering their final year in high school when the story begins. Celine, in particular, is very focused and driven to succeed. When they both sign up for a survival course and end up in the woods together, sparks fly. Can Celine and Brad forget old wounds and reconnect?

This is a fun friends to enemies to “lovers” story, but the part I liked the most are the comfortable handing of a character with OCD that is well managed but still part of their character, and the message that it’s okay to change your ambitions and plans as you grow. Teens really need to hear that you can change your mind about what you want to do after high school!

I hope the author will keep writing YA novels – she does a great job of expressing the internal struggles that teens face.

I received an ARC from Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Celine and Brad were best friends growing up, but have since fallen out to the point Celine doesn't even like to look at him. Then, Celine lets it slip she's applying for the Breakspeare Explorers Program and Brad decides to apply, too. He feels adrift, saying he wants to study law to appease his parents but not sure that's what he wants in life, and this seems to be a perfect opportunity to get a scholarship so that he won't feel obligated to study what his parents want him to (and to be able to have is own apartment since his OCD may make it difficult to live with another human male as they tend to be not...the cleanest).. Will the forced proximity make Celine and Brad reevaluate their feelings for each other?

Oh my, this book was just ADORABLE, and everything we love in a Talia Hibbert book--great characters, sassy banter, and fantastic love stories. Since this is a YA, we don't have any of the signature steam of the Brown Sisters' trilogy, but it's still so good! I really enjoyed this, and if you like Talia Hibbert, this would be a great book to share with younger siblings/cousins/friends/kids.

~ARC Book Review~

Thanks to netgalley for this advance readers copy of Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute. This book comes out January 3rd!

review: I really wanted to like this book. I read Get a Life Chloe Brown and part of the 2nd book in that trilogy but I really did not like them that much. I thought maybe I would like Talia Hibbert’s YA novel more but I don’t, not really. It’s not that the writing is bad or the characters are boring or anything I can really pinpoint, I just could not get into this book. It is a fairly short read, but I still took about a month to read it. If you are a fan of Talia Hibbert’s other books then I would definitely recommend this, but for me it was just kind of meh. Wish I could be more eloquent but thats really all I got lol

rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Rating 3.5

These former best friends lost their way, and now are more frenemies than friends. Now paired together, these nemeses are out to win a scholarship to help them pursue their dreams after high school. Their temporary truce has the potential to lead them back to friends and possibly a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship as each has pined for each for a very long time!

This YA book is truly a coming of age story as Brad and Celine tackle real world problems before they face adulthood. While it has it heavy moments, it is also filed with snappy dialogue and laughter. Overall, it was good read but I'll stick with Hibbert's adult romances.

Thank you Random House Children's, Joy Revolution for the complimentary Copy.

I didn’t connect immediately with the story or its characters. At first, I was quite bored and uncertain as to whether I would like this book or not. But after realizing I might have felt like this because of personal circonstances, I took a break from reading it.

When I went back into reading this book, with an open heart, I read it in a sitting. Brad directly found me. It felt like he had been written with me in mind. I had forgotten how a character could speak to me so closely.

Eventually, as the story moved on, Celine grew on me too. Their friendship/relationship was unfairly cute and I was really rooting for them to declare their feelings to one another by the end.

It’s a great YA debut.

I adored Talia Hibbert’s YA debut, Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute. Thank you to Joy Revolution and Netgalley for the e-ARC of this book.

Talia’s writing is exactly my style. I connected so quickly to both the writing and the character, Celine and Bradley. I was almost immediately laughing out loud, which is a great sign that I will end up giving a book five stars. Celine and Bradley have incredible banter, and Talia’s dialogue is so witty. It was giving Bant and Dec, the Archbishop of Banterbury, Bantersaurus Rex. An absolute delight. I also highlighted a tremendous about in this book, which is another great sign that I’m having the time of my life. The closing lines!!! To die for.

Talia is so descriptive in her writing style, and it easy to slide right into the story and feel as though you are right there with the characters. There’s a lyrical feels to some of those descriptions and her words are beautiful.

This book really IS unfairly cute 😩

Lastly, I love love love the relationship between the Bangura women. I will leave it at that because you really need to read this book for yourself. It has so much depth and is a YA novel that would be easy for anyone to pick up and relate to. Thank you for this wonderful book, Talia!

Bradley Graeme is popular and perfect in every way. Celine Bangura is comfortable outside the lines of popularity creating conspiracy theory TikToks and pushing the boundaries. It's hard to believe once upon a time they were best friends. Now they're rivals going head to head in academics and social circles. So when Celine signs up for a Survival Course that leads to a life changing college scholarship, she is surprised to find Brad is also fighting for the win. And as dirty and challenging as this course is, it turns out they must also face what went wrong in their past. Can they come out of this stronger allies, or will their rivalry strengthen further into a full on war.

I really enjoyed this book. Both main characters were very dimensional and had these real life relatable problems all wrapped up into a cute friends to enemies to lovers storyline. I was invested to see who won and I loved how they ended up coming together as much as they fought. I enjoyed that there was mental health storylines in both main characters. I am glad there wasn't a huge focus and detail on the survival course/challenge aspect of the book because I was more interested in the relationships, the families and friends rather than the grueling survivalist courses they were doing. Overall I thought it had a great balance and nuance. I'd definitely pick this one up again!

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review. This book releases 1/3

This book was so cute!! I really liked Celine and Brad. I don’t normally read ya contemporary anymore but this wasn’t set in high school so much and the author did fine with the descriptions so I could handle it. I did have to remind myself a few times they were in high school. I loved the mental health representation from this book and this book gave me Kasie West vibes.

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute is my first novel by Talia Hibbert and I really enjoyed it! This is a quick, fun YA romance novel that I would absolutely recommend to teens!

Celine Bangura and Brad Graeme are enemies, but it wasn't always like that. In fact, the two group up being incredibly close, but when Brad decided to play football and fell in with the popular crowd, he seemed to ditch Celine. Now seniors, Celine and Brad have one thing in common: both are academically talented.

When the two find themselves competing among other driven and successful teens in a scholarship program, the two have to reconcile some of their differences and they realize there may be more to their relationship than being sworn enemies.

This novel was cute. It definitely reads like a YA novel. I have no issue with that, but it may not appeal to an older audience. That said, it was enjoyable, the characters were quirky, and I loved seeing the two characters learn to love themselves as much as they developed feelings for each other.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's for an e-galley of Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute.

Talia Hibbert's YA debut does not disappoint! The relatability of her characters transcends her writing and I loved Bradley and Celine as much as Chloe and Red.

Celine has a plan and a path. Bradley has the weight of his parent's expectations. When they both decide to sign up for the same survival course, their already precarious friendship will be put to the test. Will they make it out of this competition better together or stronger apart?

This is an utterly delightful YA romcom, which is not the least bit surprising considering Talia Hibbert pretty much never misses with any of her books, from indie to traditionally published romances, and now she's more than proven herself in the YA demographic. I cannot wait to get a hard copy of this.

It was such a joy to be back in Talia Hibbert's writing! I was so excited to read her YA debut but I was nervous, especially because she's so well known for her steamy adult romances. But her character-building and witty banter were still present throughout! This was so great and I'm excited to read anything and everything by Talia Hibbert!

4.5 stars

I won't lie, I was nervous about this book when I first heard about it. I love Talia Hibbert for her romance books, as in her steamy, adult romance so when I heard that she was writing a YA romance, I was...skeptical. I used to love YA and still do from time to time but obviously as a woman in her twenties I'm not really the target audience and it doesn't really have a lot of the elements that I look for when I'm reading a book. However, I am glad that I gave this book a chance because I actually really, really enjoyed it!

I think my favorite part of this book was the reverse grumpy/sunshine trope and how both characters grew so beautifully throughout the book. Of course I would love an ending that gave us more of a glimpse into their future and to see them as adults, living their dream lives but for some reason, HFN endings seem to be popular with contemporary YA so I wasn't too shocked or disappointed. I think this book showed me that no matter what Talia Hibbert writes, chances are I'm going to love it (and you will too).

I’ve missed Talia Hibbert’s writing and characters so much! This was truly a very cute and fun read. The cast of characters were great and in true Hibbert fashion, the dialogue was so funny and charming. Thanks netgally for the e-arc!

Absolutely adorable and I loved it. I highlighted so many sections, but I ended up wanting more at the end!

Title -- amazing.
Cover -- amazing.
Characters -- amazing.
Talia Hibbert's writing -- amazing.

The only reason I couldn't give this one five stars is because Talia's adult books are so good that I was missing the steam in this YA debut! But so excited for her incredible wit and charming characters to read a new audience.

Fan of Talia Hibbert I liked her books and this is her 1st YA book and thankfully Netgalley and the publisher approved my ARC. Honestly, I am not a fan of enemies to lovers trope at first I did not like it, so much fighting and a little bit annoyed because it's more on the teenage side but definitely its for them, young readers will love it. As I dive in to the story it was good. The characters were fighting for what they want in life, typically wanting to achieve their goals and studies and hiding feelings that young adult readers will definitely relate to.

This was so cute!
Friends to (academic) rivals to lovers

Somehow I didn't realize this was YA until after I started it (this is what I get for avoiding blurbs like the plague) .
Having read The Brown Sisters trilogy, I assumed this was going to be adult. And I'm kind of glad I did because I might not have picked this up otherwise and that would have been an injustice.

I am obsessed with Talias writing and her ability to create these multifaceted characters. Celine and Bradley are so sweet, I absolutely love them and the way they support each other. They have made me see what people love about friends-to-lovers.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 starts rounded up

Okay…. I was hooked from start to finish. I absolutely ADORED this book!

Celine and Brad are so precious. I’m not usually a fan of childhood friends to lovers books, but this one DELIVERED. The banter had me cracking up the entire time.

The pacing was great— I was intrigued on why they stopped being friends, and I thought the timing on when that all was revealed was perfect. And I loved how we got to see them actually be together, instead of how in some books it’s all buildup and then they date for like a page and then it’s over.

I have such a crush on Brad. He is so sweet and quirky and caring and serious and funny. What a sweet baby that I just want to squeeze and reassure that everything will be okay.

Celine was irritating at first, but as I got to know her I really came to respect her. She is so sassy and bossy and she knows it, but she’s never mean or dishonest. Her conspiracy TikToks were so funny, I need HowCelineSeesIt to be a real channel.

I loved all the side characters too. I am SO here for supportive families, so Brad and Celine’s families just melted my heart. Minnie is such a good, empowering friend to Celine and I love her for that. Jordan is the most precious bro friend probably ever, and Donno was a great foil to Brad.

Overall: this was a solid read! I genuinely loved it. I read it while stuck in bed with the flu, and it was the perfect escape to the Scottish forest. If you want something sweet and light and somewhat free of pointless drama, this is for you!

I LOVED this book. The representation for both sexual orientation and mental illness. I loved the friendship they shared and the development of their character and their love. I would HIGHLY recommend this book!!