Review: Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute
By Talia Hibbert

Published By: Paitkus
Publication Date: January 3, 2023
Date Read: January 27, 2024
Genre: YA – Contemporary
Source: Bought
Format: Paperback
Pages: 336

From Goodreads:
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Brown Sisters trilogy, comes a laugh-out-loud YA novel about a quirky content creator and a clean-cut athlete testing their abilities to survive the great outdoors – and each other.

Could you brave the wilderness with your HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS and UNFAIRLY CUTE ex-best friend?

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 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.

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 dirt 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?

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute was such an adorable read. I was really happy when this book was chosen as the monthly read for the YA Book Club in January. I had previously read one of Talia’s adult romance books, and so I was super excited to see her try her hand at a YA book. I know this will definitely be a minority opinion but I loved this one even more than her adult books. It was so fun and adorable.

This book follows two best friends turned enemies turned lovers and I absolutely loved the dynamic of their relationship. I loved Celine and Brad right from the get go. They are such awesome characters and it was obvious right from the start that everything surrounding their ‘enemy’ness was a complete misunderstanding between them. They were both such great characters to read about, both with their own troubles, and I really associated with them both.

Celine is absolutely me. I loved her career focused brain, as that was absolutely me as a teenager. The only thing she thinks about is her future career and how she is going to prove everyone wrong and be the best lawyer of all time. I just adored that about her. She is so standoffish, and as a quite standoffish person, I just connected with her immediately. Brad on the other hand is the epitome of friendliness, making friends with everyone everywhere he goes. He is suffering from OCD and to see his struggles and mental health journey was so beautiful to read. I loved seeing the male main character being one that has the mental health struggles. I always see female main characters in mental health struggles and found it so refreshing for the male character to be going through this. I cannot praise Talia Hibbert enough for tackling the stigma of mental health, and in particular male mental health, in this wonderfully positive way!

When I was a younger reader, in my teen years, I would often read a book in one sitting, or one day. But now as a working adult, it is very rare that this happens. I could not put down Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute and it is the first book in quite a while that I have managed to read the entire thing in one day. That is really a testament to Talia’s fantastic and easy writing style. It’s so easy for you to just get lost in her words, and I truly loved every moment of this book. It was fantastic! My one tiny gripe was there was a definitely miscommunication trope that drove me insane at times, but let’s be fair… they are teenagers afterall! If you’re looking for a super fun romance book to lose yourself in, consider picking this one up. You won’t be disappointed.

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