Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute

This was a bit like reading fanfic for Vivian and Jackson from Sex Education. I kept waiting for Maeve, Otis, Eric, and Amy to pop through. It is a solid YA grumpy/sunshine, frenemies to HEA, with OCD rep and someone getting started on healing their father wound. A nice gateway to the genre of modern, contemporary romance for the youths.

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thaliareads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

This wasn't my favorite of Talia's books, but it was still a cute read. I really enjoyed seeing the angst as Celine and Bradley actually came to an understanding over the course of the book over what had actually transpired in the events that led them to stop being friends.

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pia_h's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

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

5.0

I picked this novel up because I love Talia Hibbert's other novels and was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved it even though I don't read much YA fiction anymore. I really liked the main and side characters and Graeme's family dynamic as well as Celine's relationships with her mother and sister.

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kylieqrada's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

I love Talia Hibbert, so I knew I would enjoy this. YA isn't always my jam, and I was a little less invested in the romance than I'd like to be, but overall I liked the themes and plot beats. Plus I just need light fluffy stuff rn.

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abitbetterbooks's review against another edition

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emotional funny 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

4.5

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katievallin's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.0

I wanted to read this book because I adored the Brown Sister’s series and I wanted to read more of Talia’s work. This book was so damn fluffy but had some great reputation of OCD and parent abandonment which hurt my heart and made me want to hug the MCs.

This book has two points of view. The first one is Bradley Graeme and he is pretty much perfect to the eyes of everyone else. He is a star football player and is top of most of his classes except the ones he shares with his ex-best friend, Celine. He is wanting to be a writer, but his parents have big plans for him to go to Law School. He is also worried about dealing with his OCD when he goes to university. The second point of view is Celine Bangura. She is obsessed with conspiracy theories and she makes Tiktok videos on her take from UFOs to holiday overconsumptions and she’s got a pretty big social media following of people who love her videos. However, it’s not cool enough for the popular kids’ table, which is why Brad abandoned her for the cool kids years ago. 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 words to get a free ride to whatever law school she wants, she is surprised to see Brad next to her. Now they are forced to work as a team for the chance to get the prize, these two must trudge through not just mud and the forest, but their messy past. Has too much time and will they be able to get their dream university.

This book was so fun and fluffy and inclusive and had a really strong storyline. I love the banter and the humour between Celine and Bradley. I wanted to hug both Celine and Bradley, they are so strong and were both dealing with personal and family issues but we still trying to suppose everyone else. I say this in every single review and I don’t care - I love how Talia Hibbert writes the rep that she does when it comes to disabilities and disorders. The way she wrote about Bradley’s OCD and Celine dealing with her father abandonment. Like all of Talia’s work, this book was fast paced but didn’t feel rushed. I loved Bradley, he was so freaking sweet he was giving me tooth ache. But honestly, he was adorable and I wish there was 100 Bradleys when I was in high school rather than 100 Donnos. The way he was always thinking about others and then worrying about his intrusive thoughts just made me cry. Celine questioning the whole personality because of her dad being a dick made me cry. But I loved when she bumped into him and he was like Celine is that you and her response was I'm sorry do I know you - I was laughing so damn hard.

I don’t think there was any weakness, though I would have loved an epilogue to see how Bradley and Celine did at university. There were just some questions I would have liked to be answered.

This book was so adorable and basically like the Brown sisters series just without the intense smut.

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boba_n_books's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

What a sweet YA romance! I didn’t know I needed the trope of childhood friends to enemies to friends to lovers, but I LOVED it.

The OCD rep was also incredible. I’m glad it wasn’t just a stigma and was more of an accurate representation of what people with OCD experience on a daily basis.

Highly recommend this and Talia’s other books.

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