Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute

“Me and Celine, we’ve been best friends. We’ve been enemies. We’ve even been a secret. But right now? We’re everything. Anything. Whatever we want.”

This book made me feel all the warm fuzzies! Talia Hibbert can do no wrong. I loved both of the main characters and their chemistry was so palpable to me. I loved Celine’s grumpiness and her attitude and her ability to be wholeheartedly herself. I adored Bradley’s golden-boy personality and the way he cares for others. The side characters and friendships were adorable. The dialogue was great, and the banter, OH THE BANTER!, was *chefs kiss*. Sometimes I have a hard time with YA because it makes me cringe (granted, I’m not the target audience) but this book just made me want to be young and in love and I think that’s a beautiful thing.

Content Warnings

ali1311's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was cute! Nothing crazy and a bit slow to start in my opinion, but by the middle I was hooked in. The outside plot was a little bland but that's alright because these characters had a lot of personality. Well done OCD rep and a cool way to include mental illness without it being the driving force of the story.

Content Warnings

emilicarter's review against another edition

Go to review page

lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

Having liked Talia Hibbert's other books, I was incredibly hopeful for this book, but it just fell flat for me. I found the main characters to be somewhat insufferable and the conflict to be self-inflicted.

Content Warnings

wardenred's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

For God’s sake, we are enemies. There are rules to this sort of thing. He’s not supposed to address me unless he’s calling me a know-it-all or challenging me to a duel.

For over half of the journey I enjoyed this book so, so damn much. It's written in such a fun way! The banter and the characters' inner thoughts made me laugh out loud all the time. I really liked how, at least at the beginning, both leads were pretty self-aware, except for when they were each other's blind spots (and except for when Bradley very relatable avoided considering specific things that caused him anxiety). I liked how Celine unapologetically owned her flaws while also trying to balance them with her need to succeed and being willing to listen to other people and learn about them. Even more so, I liked Bradley: his personality, his conflicts including his super relatable writing angst, the way his OCD was handled. Very often in YA, if there's a character with mental disorder, their arc is largely built around learning to handle it, so I expected something like that. Instead, Bradley comes into the story already pretty well equipped to manage his condition. There was that one highly relatable scene where Celine expected him to break down after encountering a trigger and he instead talked himself down, employing the same tricks I use to manage anxiety and emotional spikes, loved how that played out.

There were also a lot of cool side characters who, while at large they didn't get much page time, were all believable and interesting. The chapters that dealt with the Explorers program were my favorite because of all those characters and interactions the leads had with them, in addition to the fun camping stuff. But I also enjoyed the leads' families and how they interacted and how Celine and Bradley perceived each other's family life. Honestly, the parts of the book that were more pure YA than romance ended up my absolute favorites.

As for the romance, wellll... At first, I was hooked. While these two were in their enemies era, they were endlessly entertaining together. Besides, best friends to enemies to lovers is my favorite dynamic in the world, so I had high expectations from the get go. Up until they struck an uneasy truce and started talking about what transpired between them years ago, I was eating it up. But afterward, their dynamic started changing in ways that kind of made me feel they'd be better off as friends. Perhaps not even super close ones. Like, keep talking it out, sure. Then maybe drift comfortably apart pursuing your own goals, but keep in touch and keep reconnecting now and then. The egregious miscommunications and the third act break-up really didn't help me ship these two. There was also this overall mismatch between the way their individual character arcs and the romantic arc played out. Like the romance practically stood in the way of each of these kids from working through their individual challenges and succeeding at their individual goals. So that wasn't very shippy to me at all.

On the other hand, like I've said, the YA/coming-of-age novel parts were super well done, the humor was awesome, and the characters themselves were super fun to follow. So this book gets a high mark from me regardless.

Content Warnings

thehannahclaire's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

Content Warnings

bookishkellyn's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was very much on the teen side of YA, but the sarcastic humor drew me in. I’m aging myself, but the vibe reminded me of MTV’s Daria. With Brad and Celine’s dynamic reminiscent of its Black characters, Mack & Jodie–if they were British and in denial about their feelings for one another. The book’s synopsis covers such a small part of the plot. Their feud is dispatched rather quickly, and their rekindled friendship is the highlight of the book. Points deducted for the third-act “breakup.”

Content Warnings

liseyrap's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

kxtielouisexo's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

every book i've read by Talia i've loved and it was no different for this one. i love her take and honesty on chronic illness / mental illness - especially as someone who lives with one.

Content Warnings

More...