Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert

Bradley Graeme is pretty much perfect: he’s 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 consipracy-theory-obsessed Celine and literally abandoned her for the popular kids’ table. (At least, that’s how Celine sees it.) These days, Brad hates her guts - and the feeling is mutual.

So when Celine signs up for a two-part survival course in the woods, she definitely doesn’t expect to find Brad right beside her. Forced to work together for the chance to win the gran prize, Celine and Bradley must trudge through not just mud and dirt but their messy past. As this adventure brings them closer, 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?

~~~~~

Talia Hibbert does no wrong. This book was such a fun read from start to finish and I always feel so safe reading Hibbert’s books. Her authors notes at the beginning just make you feel like “yes, THIS book was the right choice”. This one is a YA romance so it’s very tame and definitely features those unreasonable high school standards but I found it funny and heartwarming. Bradley was probably my favourite character in this, although I couldn’t relate to him much as I was never the popular one, it was so interesting to see how he’d stumbled into likability and how he manages his academic/social life. Celine was a force to be reckoned with and I loved her quirks. I did find the miscommunication trope in this to be a little annoying, but it was over quickly and overall, communication was pretty healthy for most of the characters in here. If you’re looking for an easy-going, quick read, look no further.

We start of with Celine, a TikTok influencer who doesn’t let her loser status dictate how she acts or feels. Her ambitions are deeply rooted in familial trauma and her exploration of her feelings and her goals provided for a really great character arc. I did find her to be a little mean at times even though the reasoning for this attitude is explained. I just feel like she never really learned on that front. She changed as a person but she still remained ruthlessly blunt with those around her and still constantly had to apologize/make up for what she’d done. I feel like there was more room for growth here.

We go back and forth between Celine and Brad’s points of view and in his we get subtle little insights on what it’s like to live as an academically and athletically excelled student with OCD. I loved Brad’s character arc as he explored his possible future out from under familial expectations as well as growth from past mistakes. I feel like he was a really well-developed character and I found him to be so kind hearted and funny. He was the opposite of Celine and they were just what each other needed to be better people. During the time when their friendship was in turmoil, you could see just how much their characterizations digressed without having each other to balance it all out.

I found the plot really fun, nothing like survival instincts to bring out the true character. It definitely connected well to the dramatics of teenagedom. When you’re that age, you rationalize things completely differently than that of an adult and it was so nostalgic to remember those overwhelming feelings. Of thinking you have to do a certain thing in order for your family to be proud, in order for people to accept you, caring so much what other people think. The one thing I didn’t love was the big reasoning behind Brad and Celine’s original falling out. It didn’t seem like a big enough deal, yes even for teenagers, to cause a 4 years stalemate on a LIFELONG friendship. That was my only hold back and kept me from being truly immersed every time their “past” came up in conversation.

This was a fast and fun read that is the perfect palate cleanser between more serious books and definitely measures up to what we come to expect from Talia Hibbert. I gave this one 4 stars.