Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute
Ratings54
Average rating3.6
Might pick this one up again. But as for right it did not capture my interest enough to keep reading
Very cute book. 4/5 - I almost DNF'd as I was not sure about reading a YA book, but when I reached the part where Celine and Brad were going back and forth, I literally laughed out loud. Their banter was worth it so I am glad I continued to read it.
If I had one word for this book, it would be cute. The banter between Celine and Bradley was top-tier. There were many lines that made me laugh out loud. In fact, it was probably my favorite part of the book. I also liked the premise that they were both competing for the same scholarship. It really raised the stakes and added to the tension between them that was already there. I also liked the main characters, but the others fell flat. It is probably because many of the side characters weren’t in it for long enough for me to really like them. Celine’s supposed closest friend is really only in it for a couple chapters when Celine needs a warm body to talk to. I also wish that more of the competition had been shown. There was only one real challenge that I got to experience alongside the characters. For a competition that is the BASIS of the novel and which lasted a week (more if you count the second part of the competition), it was barely shown. It was more of a “fade to black” type of event which made no sense to me. As a result the book was a little too much inner narrative for me. I felt like the main characters worked things out in their head more than they talked to any one character. It felt hard for me to really see any personal growth that way. Overall, it was a cute book, but not my favorite. I wouldn’t steer anyone away from it.
I've read and loved a few of Talia's books all of which were adult books so when I saw she was coming out with her YA debut I knew I wanted to read it. This book is a childhood best friends to enemies to lovers romance. It's heartfelt, cute and down right funny at times. I loved the banter between the characters. My biggest complaint is that it has the miscommunication/not communicating trope which I don't particularly like but since they are teens it makes sense.
this is such a cute lighthearted novel, if you need something short, sweet, & simple, this is the book for you :) i love talia hibbert with all my heart, the brown sisters trilogy is my absolute favorite so i was just ecstatic to learn she wrote a debut young adult book!! sometimes you just need a break from smut & pick up a highly suspicious & unfairly cute ya romance to hold you over lol ;)
Talia does it again!!!
The writing was witty, funny and sharp (just how I like it), and I like the development between Celine and Brad's relationship. Definitely a great read for getting started with Talia's books
I gotta say the enemies-to-lovers trope is not one of my favs in general, and this book like...didn't change that? I think I'm just so conflict-averse that I'm like “why are you guys bickering with each other when you could just ignore each other?” which I mean I guess, the reason why is that they are ~secretly crushing~ or whatever, but it just–it's just not a trope I like. If you like that, there is a lot of that.
Like that said, the friendship between Brad & Celine felt very real to me as did the reason why their friendship faded, and I liked them both as individual characters a lot. So, if enemies-to-lovers is your jam I suspect you'll LOVE this.