Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A pair of ex-best friends turned high school rivals must work together to survive the great outdoors and each other in this cozy enemies-to-lovers romance from the beloved author of the Brown Sisters trilogy.

A pure delight. This book is confirmation: no one does love stories like Talia Hibbert. Leah Johnson, author of You Should See Me in a Crown and Rise to the Sun

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?

Auteur
TALIA HIBBERT is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author who lives in a bedroom full of books in the English Midlands. She writes witty, diverse romances, including Get a Life, Chloe Brown; The Princess Trap; and A Girl Like Her, because she believes that people of marginalized identities need honest and positive representation. Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute is herdebut novel for teens. Talia’s interests include beauty, junk food, and unnecessary sarcasm.

Texte du rabat

"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 Celine Bangura. They used to be best friends, until Brad decided he was too cool for conspiracy-theory-obsessed Celine and literally abandoned her for the popular kids' table. (At least, that's how Celine sees it.) These days, there's nothing between them but insults and academic rivalry. So when Celine signs up for a two-part survival course in the woods, the last thing she expects is to find Brad right beside her. Forced to work as a team for the chance to win the grand prize, Celine and Bradley must trudge through not just mud and dirt, but their messy past. As this adventure brings them closer together, they start to remember all the good bits of their history. But has too much time passed...or just enough to spark a whole new kind of relationship?"--Dust jacket flap.

Résumé
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A pair of ex-best friends turned high school rivals must work together to survive the great outdoors—and each other—in this cozy enemies-to-lovers romance from the beloved author of the Brown Sisters trilogy.

“A pure delight. This book is confirmation: no one does love stories like Talia Hibbert.”—Leah Johnson, author of You Should See Me in a Crown and Rise to the Sun

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?

Échantillon de lecture
Chapter One

Celine

It’s the first day of school and I’m already being forced to ­socialize.

“I’m dead serious,” Nicky Cassidy says, his eyes wide and his acid-­wash shirt stained with what looks like tomato sauce. “Juice WRLD is alive, Celine. The planet needs to know.”

My TikTok account has 19,806 followers—­@HowCeline SeesIt, feel free to take me to 20K—­so God knows how I’m supposed to inform the entire planet of anything. Besides, I make videos about UFOs and vaccines (conclusion: I believe in both) and that guy who hijacked a plane and literally vanished with the ransom money. I don’t make videos about people’s tragic deaths because it’s rude and tacky.

Also, I don’t take requests. For God’s sake, I am a conspiracy theorist. There must be some glamor in that, or else what’s the point?

“Sorry, Nicky,” I reply. “Still no.”

He is appalled by my lack of sensitivity to his cause. “You’re joking.”

“Almost never.”

“Fine. If you don’t want to tell the truth, I’ll do it. Your TikTok’s shit anyway.” He storms off, leaving me to cross campus on my own.

So much for Mum’s hope that I’ll make more friends this year.

Oh well. I inhale the warm September air and stride through the school’s higgledy-­piggledy pathways alone. Rosewood Academy is a rambling maze, but this is my final year, so I know it like I know Beyoncé’s discography. It takes five minutes to reach the Beech Hut—­aka our sixth-­form common area/cafeteria, a tiny, musty building that begs to be knocked down. I snag my usual table by the noticeboard and get on with the very important business of ignoring everyone around me.

I’m on my phone stitching together some footage of cows that I filmed this weekend for a video about the possibility of cannibalistic bovine overlords running the beef industry when my best friend slides into the chair beside me and waves a glossy leaflet in my face.

“Have you seen this?” Michaela demands, her pink curls vibrating with excitement.

“I haven’t,” I say, “and if you put my eye out with it, I never will.”

“Don’t be miserable. Look.” She slams down the flyer and crows, “Katharine Breakspeare!” Then she clicks her tongue piercing against her teeth, which is Minnie’s personal version of a mic drop.

It works. I fall all over that shiny piece of paper like it’s a plate of nachos.

There she is: Katharine Breakspeare, her wide mouth severe (no ladylike smiles for Katharine, thank you very much) and her hair perfectly blown out. They did a whole article in Vogue about that blowout, which is ridiculous considering Katharine’s famous for her trailblazing career in human rights law. Commentators call this woman the James Bond of the courtroom because she’s so damn cool; she’s won at least three inter­nationally significant, high-­profile cases in the last five years; she bought her mother an entire compound back in Jamaica to retire to. An…