Member Reviews
ughh i wanted to like this so bad but their relationship was so rushed. it took about 75% for him to show ANY interest in brynn and then he was madly in love her with her….? most of the time i saw more chemistry between sebastian and laila than brynn lol. cute ending though i guess. also um why were brynns pov's in first person and sebastian's in third...
This romance fell flat for me. It just wasn't what I was hoping for. I think the premise had potential, just didn't grab me.
Firstly the layout made this really hard to read which affected my enjoyment a lot although I assume this will be fixed in editing and the final edition. This was a fun, cute very much a typical rom-com, which didn't blow me away but this was written well with an adorable romance and good characters (although cringey in parts) so I would recommend for an easy read.
It was sweet, funny and entertaining book, but for some reason I felt like I couldn’t really connect with the characters or the story, but overall I enjoyed it.
I want to thank NetGalley and the author for providing me with an ARC of this book.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Loved the cover and the title! The story was really cute and I enjoyed the characters and their development.
There’s so much I wanted to love in this Colorado based and celeb romance (two of my fave tropes). While I appreciated the premise of the story, I struggled to “like” the characters or adjust to the pace of the book. Thank you for the ARC in exchange for an honest review! This comes out in Sept.
I must admit, I am quite conflicted over this review. To be blunt, I hated the first 20 percent of the book and I was dying for it to be over. By the end, though, I actually found myself enjoying it. I think that the biggest thing that perturbed me in the beginning was the long, unnecessary dialogue (e.g. the long parts where Sebastian argues with the town council over absolutely nothing or when we get a peak into one of Brynn's mornings at Sunup, the news station where she works, for pages on end). After we got past all of the introductions to the different characters and the pages of meaningless conversations as previously mentioned, I fell in love with the two main characters and their story.
Unlike most of the reviewers so far, I actually liked Brynn. Yes, she annoyed me to no end at times, but, more than anything, I empathize with her and can see where she's coming from. If anything, Sebastian's character fell flat for me sometimes and I wish he had a bit more development. As a couple, though, I thought Brynn and Sebastian were adorable and found their banter hilarious. I especially loved the scene with them at the end.
So, to summarize, I despised the first 20 percent-ish of the book, tolerated another 20-30 percent after that, and fell in love with the last half. Overall, I would recommend this book to my fellow rom-com lovers but also want to caution that it takes a great deal of patience and perseverance. 4 stars.
I loved these characters. I loved their hate to admire to love dynamic. I love the world Bethany Turner created in this book.
I thought the ending was rushed. I blinked and almost missed the characters’ self realizations. I wanted to know more about what happened going from point B to point C.
Enjoyable read, I just wanted more of it. :)
I wanted to like this soooo badly but I’m embarrassed to say it was a DNF for me. I got to about 42% and i just couldn’t get into it. I’m sorryyyyy
I enjoyed this! Brynn commits an on air blooper and returns to her tiny hometown to rehab her image. She meets Sebastian, a newcomer, with a secret past.
Hate turns into like… turns into love. I liked the chemistry and how the story didn’t center a physical relationship to explore belonging together.
The writing here was not great and the story kind of read like low-budget Hallmark movie. As a whole, it was a cute book but Brynn and Sebastian are two full grown adults in their upper 30s (Seb was 40!) with the maturity level of 15 year olds and I just couldn’t get over that.
What a cute story of successes and failures.
As a Journalism graduate, I really enjoyed the plot of this book. Brynn was an interesting character who you at first feel like you can’t relate to, but when the story goes on and you learn about her past, her small town life and her struggles, you realize she is just as human as the rest of us. Coming from a small island, I can totally relate to her escape from her small town and staying away from it and the people for so long. It wasn’t so much that she hated the town, but she hated the life she had to endure because of her mother while she lived in that town. I love seeing her remember all the positives of her life there once she finally returned. The fact that Sebastian was a journalist too who had escaped that world and ended up in Adelaide Springs made for a good story. I enjoyed reading about his struggles as well and find out the reasons why he ended up in that small town in Colorado. Seeing these two characters, who seemed like total opposites, fall in love was heart warming and entertaining. I really enjoyed the double POV, but found it confusing at times. There were a lot of journalism references, which I appreciated, but it made the beginning half of the book kind of drag on, but once things started to pick up I just couldn’t wait to find out how everything panned out!
Thank you NetGalley, Thomas Nelson and Bethany Turner for this ARC. #BrynnandSebastianHateEachOther #NetGalley
i enjoyed most of this book but i think i liked the town of adelaide springs more than i liked the story of Brynn and Sebastien.
i wanted to slap Brynn for most of the book, all she thought and cared about was herself. i would have liked for a bit more of her back story to come out and for her to have a little more self awareness.
I felt like the switch from hate to not-hate happened a bit to fast for my liking but it was still a cute read. I did love Sebastien's character and Murrow!!
thank you to netgalley for the opportunity to read this book
🎤🎞️🌙 brynn and sebastian hate each other by bethany turner
"i received a complimentary copy of this book. opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."
this book follows brynn a host for a popular talk show host when she makes a huge mistake she has to go back to the small town she fled from over 20 years ago and revisit both the memories and people she left behind. while she’s there she meets sebastian whose protective of the town and slightly annoyed at her presence, through the story they find themselves and each other.
i really enjoyed the character driven plot of this book, particularly learning about brynn- the reason she hated the town in the first place and how she had a personality despite the fake smiles and voice she put on for the news. I also loved reading about sebastian even though it was in 3rd person you could see his personality shining through which made this read so enjoyable! i LOVED reading about all the people in adelaide springs and their connections with brynn.
i did feel that brynn and sebastian went very quickly from hate to love, it seemed one moment they were arguing and at each others the throats and the next minute they were kissing?! however, i did see it coming particularly form sebastian.. excluding that the tension and the bickering was top-notch and I really enjoyed their interactions.
their plot was just as interesting once i got into it.. and seeing what both brynn and sebastian were going through made me want to cry sometimes.
overall, this was a cute read and i loved the characters so much!
I picked this book up because a friend recommended it as a fun rom-com. Honestly, I'd been disappointed with the last few titles I'd read by the author. But with Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other, I was pleasantly surprised.
It's funny, it's rather ridiculous--and it's very likely none of us will ever find ourselves the face of morning television like Brynn. But while she took awhile to grow on me, I was soon rooting for Brynn just as much as I was Sebastian.
What really made this book for me though was the surprising depth to be found in the pages of a book that's totally rom-com. It was the moments of insight from Sebastian and rare serious introspection from Brynn that made it a book I was glad I read.
This was a low stake romance between two people a little lost in life. Can they find their way with each other?
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you NetGalley.
This comparison will make sense to a very select group of people, but “Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other” felt like “Hannah Montana the Movie meets Gilmore Girls” to me. In it we follow Brynn, a famous talk show host who begrudgingly goes back to her small hometown. As she spends time with Sebastian, a former renowned-journalist, she begins to realize she doesn’t hate what she left behind as much as she thought she would. The world of journalism, especially the side of it that involves being on the ground in dangerous areas, was a particularly unique aspect that I’ve never read about before in a novel!
I think the physical setting was done super well in this book. My hometown isn’t quite as small as this one, but it’s pretty darn close — the descriptions of the town and the people in it were aptly-done and capture the small town atmosphere. It definitely gave off Stars Hollow energy (or Mystic Falls, for the Vampire Diaries fans reading this).
The structure of the book was less appealing, and was the most consistent issue I had with it. We have two main characters, but one of their narrations is told through a first-person POV while the other one is third-person. This may have just been a stylistic choice, but it unfortunately kept taking me out of the story. I’d need to readjust, or acclimate, myself every time we switched between characters (and narration styles); I think being consistent with either 1st or 3rd-person would be really beneficial.
The characters themselves were the other issue I had. The foundation was laid-out so that they would hate each other, but their interactions felt immature and rather forced (as in, I didn’t buy that they’d immediately be acting so hostile towards each other when each of them in every other aspect was a genuinely nice person). I also think if their shift towards liking each other had been more gradual and consistent, rather than being in short bursts that would immediately be recanted, the first half of this book would have been less frustrating. I enjoyed the second half a lot more, veering towards 3.5-4 star range, as their dynamic started to feel much more natural and became more enjoyable to read. Their texts and conversations about pop culture were really endearing!
This is a clean romance with very minimal spice and will definitely appeal to readers who don’t seek out smut in their romances, as the character dynamics are more than enough to keep you invested in their relationship!
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the ARC!
The story was ok, the news background was interesting. Loved the fact that it was mostly in Colorado, and I could imagine all the scenery.
But the "hate" between the main characters was not convincing, and their chemistry was also not very good.
All in all, it was enjoyable.
A charming story of love, community, and authenticity! This grumpy sunshine romance didn’t quite deliver the sunshine that it talks about though. Brynn is Americas Ray of Sunshine, but we don’t see much of her showing that off. I liked the background that we got on her and it explains how she acts, but we didn’t hear it from her until about 70% of the way through. The story approached mental illness in a refreshing way and didn’t make it a stereotypical plot point or critical to the characters storyline; it just existed, which is the way to include it in romances. Overall, it was an engaging read that I would recommend for anyone wanting a romance focused on finding one’s true self.
This author is so much fun to read with her references to popular tv and movie shows! Sebastian was swoon worthy and the citizens of Adelaide Springs made me want to go there to visit!
Thanks so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc. The opinions are my own.