Review: Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Brown Sisters trilogy, comes a 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.

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 his ex-best friend, Celine.

Celine Bangura is conspiracy-theory-obsessed. Social media followers eat up her takes on everything from UFOs to holiday overconsumption--yet, she's still not cool enough for the popular kids' table. Which is why Brad abandoned her for the in-crowd years ago. (At least, that's how Celine sees it.)

These days, there's nothing between them other than petty insults and academic rivalry. So when Celine signs up for a survival course in the woods, she's surprised to find Brad right beside her.

Forced to work as a team for the chance to win a grand prize, these two teens must trudge through not just mud and dirt but their messy past. And as this adventure brings them closer together, they begin to remember the good bits of their history. But has too much time passed . . . or just enough to spark a whole new kind of relationship? ~ Goodreads

Source: e-arc provided by the publicist in exchange for an honest review

Review: I've adored Hibbert's books going way back to her self publishing days - so when I saw she had her debut YA book coming out - I took the rare step or requesting an arc. 

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute his most of same notes and themes as her adult books. Mental health, quirky hobbies, witty banter - check, check, and check!

Celine and Brad used to be best friends until Brad decided to be more concerned with fitting in with the popular kids - which does not include introducing them to UFO, Big Foot - conspiracy theory obsessed Celine. Instead they've become enemies, waging verbal warfare and trying to one up each other academically. 

Their fighting goes too far during an (accidental) altercation which leaves Celine with a bum foot and Brad with a giant case of guilt.

When Celine, aspiring lawyer, is accepted to a survival course in the woods with a grand prize to meet her idol, help her career path and yeah - maybe stick it to the father who abandoned her family, she jumps at it. Brad, feeling like he needs to help her win after what he did signs up as well.

Their rivalry softens at the camp and they open up to each other more about what happened in the past and their struggles and hopes for the future.

This is a really adorable romance with two great kids trying to overcome natural insecurities, mental health issues (OCD) and abandonment - surrounded by good parents (minus the absentee dad, of course) and supportive friends. This is light, easy reading which was nice.

Having said that, I was expecting more adventure, rivalry and I guess more about Celine being a popular social media conspiracy theorist lol All of those things take a backseat to Brad and Celine's budding romance. It is super sweet, as I said, but I felt like those cool elements that made me want to pick up the book were more stated as fact than part of the plotline described int he summary.

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute does tackle several deeper issues (brilliantly by the author, as always) and both characters show a lot of growth but this is mostly a low stakes, lots of witty banter/inner monologue, romance/coming of age story vs action and big characters - which is fine! just not what I was expecting.

Overall, despite not being what I was hoping for, it was the adorable, light read I was looking for anyway,