One thing about me: I will always eat up a workplace rivals to lovers story, even if it is a bit played out. This was a fun read and the tension was jumping off the page!

Brynn and Sebastion Hate Each Other is a sweet, clean, grumpy-sunshine romance that is full of heartwarming, emotional and funny moments that will have you laughing and crying along with the characters. I especially enjoyed seeing how the endearing town of Adelaide Springs impacted each of their lives as well.

Thank you to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book, all opinions are my own.

I don't know what to say other than I almost didn't finish this book. I just couldn't get into it. 😬

The storyline of the book seemed slow and honestly the last couple chapters were my favorite part of the whole book. This book just didn't click for me and it took me a very long time to read it.

It's just not for me so unfortunately I have to rate it accordingly.

I liked that, as the story went on, we could see that the author gave us a twist. The sunny persona is only skin deep. Not the usual sunshine/grump trope.

The story's written in first person. The main characters are intelligent, but they’re also chock full of words. Unfortunately there was a lot of rambling in the story. I skimmed and skipped ahead as scenes, and plot points, dragged on.

One of the reasons the plot dragged was that we spent chapter after chapter in sequential minutes of the same morning.

The premise is that the heroine is forced to revisit, and even champion, the town she condemned. A great hook. She’ll have to uphold her sunny façade, at least publicly, in order to achieve her career goals. But she fails, repeatedly. I did not like her rudeness. It didn’t strike me as funny. I couldn't root for her. Perhaps if we'd seen the reasons behind her dislike of nearly everyone, we could have sympathized with her. But we don't see that until later.

The hero is sort of hiding out, due to his past. I like the concept that each of them will have to come to terms with themselves, their pasts, and their beliefs about the past, in order to become what they want to be. Circumstances motivate them.

The heroine’s fatal flaw is self-sabotage. Lacking any nobility or consideration, she’s very unlikable. It was difficult to root for her to receive what she wanted from the story’s outset.

One of the themes is being true to one’s self. I like this theme. Other themes included that of a mother’s love, or lack thereof, and how that affects people. She even included psychological elements, like a description of hyper-vigilance.

I confess I did not finish this novel because of all the rambling, the tedious passage of time, and the rather unlikable heroine.

This book might best appeal to readers who enjoy a chick lit style of first-person prose.

"Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other" by Bethany Turner is a fun and engaging romantic comedy. The story revolves around the fiery, humorous relationship between Brynn and Sebastian. Turner's witty storytelling keeps the banter lively and the characters endearing. As the plot unfolds, it explores the thin line between love and hate, resulting in a delightfully entertaining and heartwarming journey of self-discovery and, perhaps, unexpected love. This book is a perfect read for those who enjoy romantic tales filled with humor and charm.

Não sei bem o que eu esperava dessa leitura, mas acho que o que encontrei passa um pouco longe. Admito que o que me pegou na sinopse foi o clima de enemies to lovers ao redor dos protagonistas e, enquanto isso até foi real sim, não foi de todo de um jeito com o qual eu me envolvesse muito.

Ao contrário de em outros livros, os primeiros capítulos desse foram bem instigantes, me deixando curiosa com o motivo por trás de Brynn ter uma reação negativa à sua cidade natal e achei promissor vê-la de volta ao lugar para tentar reverter sua então manchada imagem de apresentadora. Até certo ponto inicial isso foi indo bem, mas desde as primeiras interações dela com o Sebastian até pouco mais da metade do livro as coisas seguiram um caminho bem maçante e irritante que me fizeram quase desanimar com a leitura, já nem mais interessada na Brynn e sua história, contada aos poucos aqui e ali, mas de uma forma tão vaga que pouco surtiu o apelo que deveria, acho.

O que me manteve um pouco mais firme na leitura, porém, foi descobrir, logo mais, o que havia acontecido com o Sebastian no passado como um famoso apresentador jornalista. Era a centelha de curiosidade que me segurava na trama, e de fato valeu a pena esperar por sua revelação, ainda que no caminho até lá, mesmo romântica como sou, tenha se desenvolvido um romance que em nada me convenceu. Achei bonitinho e até divertido em alguns momentos, por entre as alfinetadas e piadas deles entre si, principalmente com menções à cultura pop? Sim. Mas não foram nenhum ponto alto na leitura pra mim.

E, bem, ao final da leitura agora, mesmo até com o tema do passado do Seb, no geral eu fiquei meio decepcionada com o quão vaga tudo foi na maior parte do tempo. Eu queria e em certo ponto até entendi sim os dilemas dos personagens, mas, em especial a Brynn, ainda me deixaram dividida sobre sua mudança ao longo da trama. Pareceu meio corrido, às vezes até forçada eu diria.

No fim, eu esperava algo clichê e não foi bem o que o livro entregou. O casal não soou tão convincente pra mim, e os temas, então importantes sim sobre notícias e o real sentido do jornalismo que autora desenvolve com eles, por ter se dado de forma ainda vaga e por vezes sem o impacto desejado para reflexão e afins, também não salvaram muito a leitura. Ok, não 3,5 não significa um livro de todo ruim como nesse caso, mas para o que a sinopse prometia, foi bem aquém das expectativas.

It takes dedication to get through the first half of this book because the main character, Brynn, starts off pretty insufferably. She is rude without cause to basically everyone she encounters. We eventually find out that she has a traumatic past and some emotional baggage that may help explain some of this behavior but it isn’t until the halfway point that she started to grow on me.

The second half is a nice story. Brynn gets her redemption arc and the romance is sweet. I love the enemies to lovers trope but this one relies heavily on a dose do insta-love which is maybe my least favorite of all tropes.

We get some wonderful found family vibes and a great small town setting that I wish the reader got to explore a little more thoroughly. Maybe we’ll see some more of the supporting cast in a future book??

I think this is the debut novel from this author. It was definitely promising enough that I would give her second book a read.

2.5 stars rounded up

For many reasons this book just didn’t work for me. The first and primary reason being the character of Brynn. She is honestly one of the worst characters I have read in a while. She immediately comes off as narcissistic, self centered, and rude. We are supposed to feel sorry for her since she had a rough childhood, but this is a woman in her late 30s who honestly thinks it is okay to treat everyone like they are below her. She is the perfect example of main character energy. I instantly didn’t like her and wanted to skip her POV chapters. The second reason this book didn’t work for me was the quickness of Brynn’s turnaround. It was almost like she had a personality and attitude transplant within a day of arriving in her hometown. It was off putting and made her seem even more fake.

Overall, this book would have worked better if the main characters were in their early to mid-20’s instead of late 30’s. This is especially true for Brynn. Many parts of the story (especially how quickly she is forgiven by her hometown) don’t make sense if she has been gone for 20 years.

3/5 stars


I really wanted to like this one. But I didn’t automatically like the FMC, Brynn. In fact, I kinda disliked her. I was so relieved to see the author post that you weren’t supposed to like her in the beginning. I wish I would have been able to like her more by the end. I did like Sebastian and wanted to root for their relationship. The first 50% was a little slow and wish I could have connected with Brynn more. I think maybe this book would be a 5 star for someone else, so I would recommend for people who enjoy the tropes.

Tropes
-Grumpy x (fake) Sunshine
- Small town
- Dual POV
- Enemies to lovers vibes

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the early read. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This ended up being a DNF for me at around 10% in. Brynn is sarcastic and reasonably unlikeable. This seems like a nice light fluffy book but it’s not giving me what I want from the MC Brynn. Thank you for the ARC opportunity and apologies for making the wrong pick for myself.

I did not finish this book. I started to lose interest around the middle because it wasn't picking up the way I had hoped. I thought the way the community treated Brynn was dramatic and not in an effective way, and didn't represent women or treatment of women well. I might revisit this book at a later date, but not for now.

I enjoyed reading this, but can't say that I loved it. The character development felt like it was happening in fits and starts - Brynn is unlikeable for too long and then the sharp switch from "hating" each other to immediately developing feelings was a bit jarring. Overall, it didn't quite have the execution that I wanted.

such a fun enemies to lovers, small town romance!! brynn was no very likable…and it was awesome. haha i absolutely loved her character growth and how she found her way to to her true self through her visit to adelaide springs. the banter between her and sebastian had was so good and had me cracking up at times. i also loved how perfectly everything was wrapped up in the epilogue! i cannot wait for joel and laila’s story!

thank you to thomas nelson for an advanced copy. my thoughts are my own.

*thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book*

Turner’s “Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other” is an enemies to lovers novel about fallen from grace golden girl Brynn coming back to her hometown to make amends all while at odds with local grump Sebastian.

One of the best aspects of the novel definitely was the banter and conversation between the main characters. For a character as prickly as Brynn is in the beginning, it was refreshing to see a love interest have no qualms about calling her out when it matters. And I liked seeing how they related to one another being their part of the industry.

Where the book fell a bit flat for me would be in Brynn’s redemption arc and also the pacing. For how angry the town got, they all seemed to forgive her all too easily and also made quite a few excuses for her poor behavior. As much as the novel tries to rationalize her reasons for her resentment, it still felt quite terrible that she was not really taking accountability for how wrong she was until the last portion of the book. The pacing also felt a bit erratic because the two main characters were at each other’s throats but then they were suddenly in love. I would have loved to have seen more development in between those two extremes.

Overall, a cute book with an interesting premise, but definitely still had some facets that could have been made better.

3.5/5 rounded up to four.

Grumpy meets sunshine in this cute small town novel. Brynn is a reporter who trashes her small town on air when her mic is left on. Whoops! Now she is going to her small town to try and rectify things and win them over.

Sebastian is the sunshine character and love interest in this novel and buts head with Brynn frequently. He has been given the assignment of looking after her.

While this wasn't my favourite rom com I really enjoyed the small town aspect of it. For me all the people in the small town were my favourite parts of this novel.

If you're looking for a quick and cute read this one is perfect. The romance didn't quite hit for me but I enjoyed this book.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for this arc

I really wanted to like this novel as a fan of enemies-to-lovers and grumpy-meets-sunshine cliches. I was astonished, though, to discover that I loathed the "sunshine" persona and sympathized more with the cranky one. I kept expecting for her salvation and for her to view things from a new perspective instead of acting like a spoiled brat. I thought her character growth was a little delayed. Furthermore, the title's emphasis on the enemies-to-lovers cliche was not the book's main topic. It should have been done better, but instead, as soon as the characters spent their first alone time together, they suddenly started like one other, which felt rushed.

Bethany Turner is an absolute queen at writing Contemporary RomComs! And this "enemies to more" plot is no exception. Not only does she write multi-layered characters that you'll either love... or love to hate, but she knows exactly how to draw you into their story and want more as well. Brynn and Sebastion are delightful characters. They both have deep pasts that have molded them into the people they are... and left a few scars along the way. They're both a little unlikeable in the beginning. But I loved how all along you're given just enough to keep your feelings for them evolving. And pretty soon, you find yourself cheering them both on! This is truly a likeable story, from beginning to end and as always, I cannot wait to read what Ms. Turner brings us next!

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.

This is a sweet, feel-good, small town story reminiscent of a Hallmark movie. If you like the enemies to lovers trope, this one has some fun banter between the MC's who do not hit it off when they first meet!

This one just never made me connect with the MC's or really feel their chemistry at all, and that's something I expected from something labeled "a love story".

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction for this e-galley.

In terms of character development, Brynn and Sebastian's transformation over time is captured in a way that is believable, drawing you into their world and making you root for them to become the people they were always meant to be. It's a fine line between self-improvement for the sake of wanting to appear as a better person versus confronting painful truths to discover the lies that have kept you from simply being a better person. Bethany Turner delves into this topic in a sensitive way for both characters, highlighting their brokenness and how they cannot and should not go about life on their own. As a result, it is the supporting cast of characters in Adelaide Springs, Colorado who shine the most in Brynn and Sebastian's story, supporting them and loving them unconditionally. This very attribute reflects the love that God has for us, along with what it looks like to be part of a loving community. Though it is not implied, the parable of the Prodigal Son comes to mind for Brynn's return home, exemplifying to readers what it feels like to still be counted as part of the family even after hurting them.

If you're looking for a book that provides the charm of mountain life, BASHEO delivers it to you on a platter amid the Rocky Mountains. Although Brynn mentions that Sebastian's name does not roll off the tongue easily, readers will find that Sebastian Sudworth is a name that is quite memorable, and for good reason. It is gratifying to see him overcome his regrets and relational failures, and even more so to see him in his element in his field. The way that Brynn and Sebastian both have to work through their past allows them to slowly peel back the layers of the other person, revealing their commonalities. If readers like a large dash of pop culture, clever dialogue, and endearing characters that are worth the wait, Brynn and Sebastian will have you wanting to see them on-camera and off-camera.

Many thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a complimentary digital copy of Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other (aka BASHEO) by Bethany Turner for review consideration. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.