A review by sophiestbr
Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other by Bethany Turner

2.0

Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other is a story packed with pop-culture references that begins with our heroine, Brynn, morning-show host, getting caught on air talking down about her audience and hometown, setting up the stage for her to need to go back home to get some good PR. Whilst in her hometown, she has to deal with Sebastian, a former journalist, who has a mysterious history and becomes the love interest in this dislike-to-lovers story. Sebastian has his moments and is somewhat likeable but although Brynn is painted as “sunny” in the blurb, my experience of the character felt quite different.

The premise was a classic rom-com one: success story goes back to hometown to find herself and runs into a sexy charming stranger, but where it lost me was that the main character Brynn is not just grumpy or prickly, but most of the time downright rude and unlikeable, both in her actions and internal thoughts. Brynn is insufferable through the novel, arguably even right to the very end, disingenuous and patronizing to almost everyone. She does start to go through a bit of a redemption as the story goes on, we get some insight into her past that is meant to soften her, but I was not enough to make me root for her or excuse her behaviour. Ordinarily I have no issues with an unlikable lead character, but in this case it felt like the author wanted us to like her eventually and root for her, but I found it really hard to get on board.

I liked this author’s writing style though and felt it was overall well written, so I wouldn’t be opposed to reading more of her work. In this instance, I listened to the audiobook and did enjoy the narrator, her diction and cadence fit the story and characters well. It was immersive and enjoyable to listen to. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for an ARC of this audiobook.  This was an honest review of my listen of this ARC.