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

Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert

70 reviews

blewballoon's review

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

4.0

A cute and fun teen romance. I had a little bit of a hard time getting into it at the start, but then once I was into it I was able to enjoy the humor and be charmed by the characters. I would recommend this to readers who like the friendships and lighthearted aspects of Alice Oseman's books. I was a little annoyed with the

third act breakup

, but it was a much less frustrating instance of the trope than I've read in other books.

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wardenred's review against another edition

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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.

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bookishkellyn's review against another edition

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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.”

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kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

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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

3.5

I loved her other books but this one was more of a slow burn for me initially. I ended up enjoying it by the end. It’s a really adorable friends to enemies to lovers and coming of age all wrapped up in one. Like in Hibbert’s other novels, the characters are well-written, distinctive, and so very loveable.

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becksusername's review

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emotional 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

3.5

Fun, cute, PG (thank god)

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texcajunlibrarian's review

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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

4.0

I listened to this book as advanced copy from Libro.fm because I'm a big fan of Talia Hibbert's adult novels. I did not love this book but that is partly my fault because I hadnt realized it was a YA novel. I mostly didn't love the drawn out enemies to lovers plot. I found the story cute overall but less exciting than her other novels. Albeit I'm not the target audience of who YA is supposed to be written for, so that's worth considering.

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wii3rdo's review

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challenging emotional funny inspiring 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

5.0

BRADLEY GRAEME IS AN ABSOLUTE TREASURE, AND I SWEAR IF ANY (more) HARM WERE TO BEFALL HIM, I WOULD RAZE THIS PLANET FROM THE GROUND UP!

THIS. BOOK. WAS. PERFECT. from the portrayal of these TEENAGERS BEING ACTUAL TEENAGERS, and the discovery of finding out who you want to be and what life path you want to be put on, IT WAS SPOT. FUCKING. ON!!

there were times when Celine made me want to throttle her. she had her own issues, that much she knew, but SHE WAS THE DRAMA IN HER LIFE. after i had all the details, i had to take a second to assess the fact that 1) Bradley never left her, SHE LEFT HIM, 2) my girl had major control issues, 3) she was in DIRE need of therapy, and 4) i wouldn’t have been as patient as Bradley. he was in love with her and her best friend and had a heart of pure gold. he’s 10x a better human than i would be because if i know your situation and you know mine and you THROW MY ISSUES BACK IN MY FACE because i want to branch out and be more than just half of a duo, girl you’re getting dropped faster than a blunt at a busted rave. I’M NOT EVEN SORRY!

why did it take her the ENTIRE BOOK to realize she was revolving her life’s plan around the loser that didn’t stick around and that she needed to be more in touch with actually feeling?? that’s how you know the read was good, cause Celine pissed me tf off, but i love her sm. AND BRADLEY, he’s such a puppy. what the hell???? HE’S TOO PURE FOR THIS WORLD PROTECT HIM

the representation of OCD, though i have no firsthand knowledge of dealing with it, seemed fucking spot on. i read the acknowledgment at the end and saw the author has OCD, and then it made sense why the portrayal was so accurate. i love it when authors put a vulnerable piece of themselves into their work. it’s so RAW, you can’t do anything but love it because it makes the work truly an extension of themselves.

i also wanna say, Neneh Bangura is a WOMAN. she was not worried about that coward at all, and for that loser to think that having an omg, it’s one of the daughters i left behind moment would’ve been something Celine even wanted after he was too PUSSY to even reach out (not that he should’ve). Bradley was right to give him the stink eye, and i'm OH SO GLAD he never showed his face again.

i know i keep talking about Bradley, but how in touch his character was with his emotions, and just HIM was so swoon-worthy (not in a weird creepy way cause he’s 17)! that’s my baby fr.

Celine and Bradley are the literal definitions of black cat gf x golden retriever bf. <3

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beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

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funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

3.5

Overall I enjoyed Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute (HSAUC), although I did have a quite disjointed experience reading it.

First of all, it is very snappily written and well-paced, with a great sense of wit - some lines made me snort with laughter. Is this how teenagers talk to each other in real life? Or is it just in fiction? Who cares, it's good.

The main characters of Celine and Bradley were developed quite realistically - I thought Bradley's fears about his writing abilities were very well done, and I'm speaking as a wannabe published author myself here. Celine's desperation for academic perfection

to rub her success in the face of her estranged father

also felt believable.

I think my problem came with how their relationship developed

, from enemies to friends to, finally, lovers.

Even though once they got there I believed in it, I wasn't fully satisfied with how they got there. I feel like I missed something - I suspect it was because of what I said earlier about my experience reading it. Others may feel differently, and that's perfectly valid.

I had a good time reading this, I only wish I'd felt as fully invested from start to finish.

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booknerderika's review against another edition

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3.5

This was good but not as amazing as I had hoped. The characters were likeable and the plot was fine, I wanted more though. It felt like things were happening so quickly and the scenes were so short. I did enjoy the dialogue and the humor as usual with a Talia Hibbert book.

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bree_h_reads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.75

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