The Unhoneymooners

Christina Lauren

May 2019 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

Starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews * Publishers Weekly * Library Journal

Named a “Must-Read” by TODAY, Us Weekly, Bustle, BuzzFeed, Goodreads, Entertainment Weekly, Publishers Weekly, Southern Living, Book Riot, Woman’s Day, The Toronto Star, and more!

For two sworn enemies, anything can happen during the Hawaiian trip of a lifetime—maybe even love—in this romantic comedy from the New York Times bestselling authors of Roomies.

Olive Torres is used to being the unlucky twin: from inexplicable mishaps to a recent layoff, her life seems to be almost comically jinxed. By contrast, her sister Ami is an eternal champion...she even managed to finance her entire wedding by winning a slew of contests. Unfortunately for Olive, the only thing worse than constant bad luck is having to spend the wedding day with the best man (and her nemesis), Ethan Thomas.

Olive braces herself for wedding hell, determined to put on a brave face, but when the entire wedding party gets food poisoning, the only people who aren’t affected are Olive and Ethan. Suddenly there’s a free honeymoon up for grabs, and Olive will be damned if Ethan gets to enjoy paradise solo.

Agreeing to a temporary truce, the pair head for Maui. After all, ten days of bliss is worth having to assume the role of loving newlyweds, right? But the weird thing is...Olive doesn’t mind playing pretend. In fact, the more she pretends to be the luckiest woman alive, the more it feels like she might be.

With Christina Lauren’s “uniquely hilarious and touching voice” (Entertainment Weekly), The Unhoneymooners is a romance for anyone who has ever felt unlucky in love.

Ratings and reviews

100 pages in and STRUGGLING. I bought this book based off of reviews like a moron rather than reading the free sample first. This is one of the most boring and monotonous books I've ever read. I find the main character Olive to be highly annoying. Honestly, Ethan is highly annoying as well. Might be my fault for thinking I could go from The Song of Achilles to anything else.

When I saw the cover and read the synopsis for The Unhoneymooners I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Not only was it a funny and entertaining enemies to lovers romance, but it also had so much heart. I loved how important the bonds of family (for better and for worse) were in this story. Olive's family especially was such a treat and I really enjoyed this glimpse into the Mexican-American family. Ethan and Olive did some serious verbal sparring through this book and they really lived up to the "enemies" portion of the trope. They each gave as good as they got and I loved their banter and back and forth. The forced proximity trope is always a fun one and seeing Ethan and Olive's impression of the other evolve and change as they spend more time together was wonderful. It's amazing how one look or moment can change the course of an entire relationship. As much as I enjoyed The Unhoneymooners, I can't say that I completely loved it. I think a lot of that has to do with Ethan. He certainly had some swoony moments, but honestly I'm still a little unsure how I feel about him. I don't want to be too spoilery, but mistakes are definitely made by both Ethan and Olive and a decision late in the book had me wanting to throw my kindle across the room. I understand family loyalty, but it still hurt my heart so much. I think it really colored my opinion of Ethan and Olive's relationship and caused me to not feel the "to lovers" part of the trope one hundred percent. I think having Ethan's POV sprinkled into the story would have been really helpful in understanding his character better. The epilogue left me smiling though and really brought the book full circle. Overall, this was a great read and I'm already looking forward to the next Christina Lauren adventure! *I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this book*

**I voluntarily read an early copy of this title courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review** The Unhoneymooners written by the awesome writing duo Christina Lauren was an entertaining, fun, flirty read! It also had its emotional, both good and bad, and heartwarming moments as well. Olive Torres is an identical twin and while she and her sister look exactly alike, that is where their similarities end. Olive has always felt like she was unlucky. It always seems that when something negative happens she is the common denominator, whereas her twin, Ami, has luck to spare. Ami was able to win nearly everything, including the honeymoon, for her wedding. When Olive learns she's going to have to deal with her nemesis, Ethan Thomas, the best man and brother of the groom, she's not thrilled. She's known Ethan for years, but she won't ever forget one of the first times they met and how he's brushed her off since that time. On the day of Ami and Dane's wedding, everyone in attendance at the reception, with the exception of Olive and Ethan, end up with food positioning, meaning the bride and groom can't take the all inclusive honeymoon they had won. When Ami suggests that Olive and Ethan take the honeymoon in she and Dane's place, they originally think it's a crazy idea, but knowing what it would mean to the couple, they suck it up and decide to go. While the trip to Maui starts off with a boatload of tension, as Ethan and Olive begin to get to know one another they realize that the original idea they had about one another was actually one big misunderstanding. As they grow closer, Ethan shares information with Olive that makes her mind race and leaves her extremely conflicted. Olive is forced to examine many of the relationships in her life, not to mention the very new one she is forming with Ethan. As we move through the book, Olive is challenged and is given the opportunity to really take a look at her life and the things she has always thought were important. She is able to grow from the things she has to face and the tough decisions she has to make. In the end she is happy with the person she becomes, which is awesome to see. As I said at the outset, this was a fun, flirty and entertaining romance. Christina Lauren did a great job with it and I enjoyed it very much.

About the author

Christina Lauren is the combined pen name of longtime writing partners and best friends Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings, the New York Times, USA TODAY, and #1 internationally bestselling authors of the Beautiful and Wild Seasons series, Autoboyography, Love and Other Words, Roomies, Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating, The Unhoneymooners, The Soulmate Equation, Something Wilder, The True Love Experiment and The Paradise Problem. You can find them online at ChristinaLaurenBooks.com or @ChristinaLauren on Instagram.