Review: The Unhoneymooners, written by Christina Lauren

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

Publication date: May 14, 2019 
Publisher: Piatkus(US: Gallery Books)
Pages: 400
Genre: Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Buy: Book Depository | Wordery

Synopsis:

Olive is always unlucky: in her career, in love, in…well, everything. Her identical twin sister Ami, on the other hand, is probably the luckiest person in the world. Her meet-cute with her fiancé is something out of a romantic comedy (gag) and she’s managed to finance her entire wedding by winning a series of Internet contests (double gag). Worst of all, she’s forcing Olive to spend the day with her sworn enemy, Ethan, who just happens to be the best man.

Olive braces herself to get through 24 hours of wedding hell before she can return to her comfortable, unlucky life. But when the entire wedding party gets food poisoning from eating bad shellfish, the only people who aren’t affected are Olive and Ethan. And now there’s an all-expenses-paid honeymoon in Hawaii up for grabs.

Putting their mutual hatred aside for the sake of a free vacation, Olive and Ethan head for paradise, determined to avoid each other at all costs. But when Olive runs into her future boss, the little white lie she tells him is suddenly at risk to become a whole lot bigger. She and Ethan now have to pretend to be loving newlyweds, and her luck seems worse than ever. But the weird thing is that she doesn’t mind playing pretend. In fact, she feels kind of… lucky.

– My Thoughts –

“When I signed up for this honeymoon, I had no idea it would involve so much nudity…” 

I finally finished reading The Unhoneymooners, one of my anticipated read of 2019. I knew that I couldn’t NOT love it because it was a Christina Lauren book but I finished it with some mixed feelings. Let’s unpack..

The story starts with a wedding gone wrong. It was Olive’s sister Ami’s wedding and as if it weren’t bad enough that Olive has to spend the entire day with her sworn enemy Ethan, who happens to the best man, the entire wedding party except for Olive and Ethan then gets food poisoning. Since Ami had won her honeymoon in a contest, she doesn’t want it to go to waste and begs Olive to go instead of her. Now, Olive has to go on a fake honeymoon with a fake husband who is none other than Ethan.

They plan to stay far away from each other and enjoy their time in Maui but all their plans go haywire when they find out all the activities booked for them are for couples and on top of that, there are encounters with a new boss and an ex-girlfriend. What could go wrong with one bed, being fake newlyweds in a honeymoon destination with old and new acquaintances in proximity?

“An eight-hour flight, and there’s no movie,” I say to myself, glaring at the screenless seat back in front of me. “Maybe they’re hoping your life flashing in front of your eyes will be distraction enough.” 

Let’s talk about the positives first. I love a book with the combination of enemies to lovers + fake romance + forced proximity. The sexual tension is palpable and the banter between the characters is -as usual- brilliant. The situations they get into are downright hilarious and I had no trouble finishing the book in a day. However, I had problems with how the conflict unfolded between Ethan and Olive. Ethan was so blinded by his affection for his brother that he refused to cut Olive any slack. It broke my heart seeing Olive receive so much flak from her sister and Ethan and when the time came for resolution, I felt that Olive forgave too soon. Let’s talk about the positives first. I love a book with the combination of enemies

Overall, I would recommend this book if you are looking for a funny and relatable summer romance with a beautiful setting. If you’re a sucker for fake dating/marriage tropes with forced proximity, lots of drama, hilarious dialogues and great banter, then get your hands on this ASAP!!

Thanks to the publisher for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

– About the Author –

Christina Lauren is the combined pen name of long-time writing partners/besties/soulmates/brain-twins Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings. The coauthor duo writes both Young Adult and Adult Fiction, and together has produced fourteen New York Times bestselling novels. Their books have been translated into 30+ languages. (Some of these books have kissing. Some of these books have A LOT of kissing.)

Website | Goodreads |  Twitter

Thank you for reading this far! Have you read The Unhoneymooners or is it on your TBR? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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How're you spending your weekends? Did you pick up any book? #minireview I finished reading The Unhoneymooners and it was a delightful read. I'm a sucker for enemies-to-lovers trope and this had that plus forced proximity!! The setting of Maui provided an amazing backdrop where Olive and Ethan – our protagonists- are forced to act as newlyweds on honeymoon. The situations they get into are hilarious and I had no trouble with the pacing of the book as well. However, I did have some problems with how the conflict unfolded between Olive and Ethan and let's just say it didn't sit right with me☹️ The ending kinda made up for it, I guess..it was relatable and exactly what I had envisioned it would be! 📚 Overall, pick this up if you love the duo's books but expect less steaminess! If you love enemies to lovers+ snarky banter+ beautiful setting with a side of family drama!! 📚 #gifted #bookramblerreads #bookrecommendations #bookbloggers #bookbloggersofinstagram #bookravensaug19 #bookstacksaturday #theunhoneymooners #bookstagramfeatures #bookishfeature #bookstagramer #romancebooks #bookishaesthetic #booknerdigan #booksandshares #mybookfeatures #bookfeatured #featuredbooklovers #stackingupsaturday #buriedinbooksaugust #dreambunnybookishaug19

A post shared by Shalini(she/her)~ Book Blogger (@book_rambler) on Aug 10, 2019 at 11:39pm PDT

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