Talia Hibbert is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author who lives in a bedroom full of books in the English Midlands. She writes witty, diverse romances, including Get a Life, Chloe Brown; The Princess Trap; and A Girl Like Her, because she believes that people of marginalized identities need honest and positive representation. Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute is her debut novel for teens. Talia's interests include beauty, junk food, and unnecessary sarcasm. You can find her online at taliahibbert.com. You can find more of my reviews of her work here.
Bradley Graeme is pretty much perfect: he's a star football player, manages his OCD well (enough), and comes out on top in all his classes . . . except the ones he shares with Celine Bangura. They used to be best friends, until Brad decided he was too cool for conspiracy-theory-obsessed Celine and literally abandoned her for the popular kids' table. (At least, that's how Celine sees it.) These days, there's nothing between them but insults and academic rivalry. Officially, Brad hates her guts—and the feeling is very mutual. So when Celine signs up for a two-part survival course in the woods, the last thing she expects is to find Brad right beside her. Forced to work as a team for the chance to win the grand prize, Celine and Bradley must trudge through not just mud and dirty but their messy past. As this adventure brings them closer together, they start to remember all the good parts of their history. But has too much time passed . . . or just enough to spark a whole new kind of relationship? Bestselling author Talia Hibbert's debut YA rom-com delivers a cheeky, laugh-out-loud story about a quirky content creator and a clean-cut athlete testing their abilities to survive the great outdoors—and each other.
I wish I'd had this book to read as a teenager! Hibbert perfectly captures all of the big feelings surrounding young adulthood, such as what people think of me, how I want to live my life, the stress of college/university application season, and so much more. Celine's and Brad's voices were so relatable yet fresh, and I just loved the premise of this story. I've never read anything like this—I mean, a bunch of teenagers doing a Wilderness Explorers-type adventure through the woods to earn a scholarship? That's so much fun, and introduces so many tensions that just wouldn't exist if the story was limited to school.
Brad and Celine's relationship advances as one would expect for a YA rom-com. Hibbert's traditional hilarity is in full-force here, making it even more fun than the YA romances I usually read. One thing I would have liked more clarity on is what Brad's and Celine's relationship looked like before they fell out. We did get a little look at what their falling out was like, but not in as much detail as I would have liked, either. They have a friends to enemies to friends to lovers storyline, but we really only saw the enemies to friends to lovers part—personally, it would have been easier to see how they fell in love if we'd seen sound of that friendship foundation from before their big falling out. I didn't feel like the storyline suffered or anything like that by not including much of this background, as the story itself felt very focused on the present.
More than anything, Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute is just so much fun. I was sick while reading this book, and I loved how it really took me on a ride through Brad's and Celine's brains and feelings, through the woods and out again, and basically just didn't take itself too seriously. While the book does address serious topics—the book is prefaced with a content warning—Hibbert handles them with compassion without letting negativity overwhelm the joyful and fun storyline or writing. I just had so much fun reading about Brad's and Celine's adventures through the woods and school and falling in love.
I am super excited for everything Hibbert writes next! Until then, you can find her online at taliahibbert.com. You can find more of my reviews of her work here.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
Comments
Post a Comment