The Unhoneymooners by Christina LaurenPublished by Gallery Books on May 14, 2019
Age Group & Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Format: Physical
Source: Owned
Olive is always unlucky: in her career, in love, in . . . well, everything. Her identical twin sister Amy, on the other hand, is probably the luckiest person in the world. Her meet-cute with her fiance is something out of a romantic comedy (ugh) and she's managed to finance her entire wedding by winning a series of online contests (double ugh). 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 just has to get through twenty-four hours of wedding hell before she can return to her comfortable, unlucky life. But when the entire wedding party - except for Olive and Ethan - gets food poisoning, 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 becomes a whole lot bigger. She and Ethan now have to pretend to be loving newlyweds. But the weird thing is that she doesn't mind playing pretend. In fact, she feels kind of . . . lucky.
I forgot how much I love Rom-Coms!
The Unhoneymooners was cute and adorable! Olive Torres is the unlucky twin that happens to survive the food poisoning chaos at her twin sister’s wedding. Ethan was the only other person at the wedding who didn’t get sick and decided not to let the free honeymoon vacation go to waste. Olive was not letting Ethan enjoy the honeymoon alone. So she decided to go with him even though they both don’t get along.
Apparently, at this honeymoon, there are strict rules and both have to pretend that they are married. In comes the people they were least expecting to run into like her new employer and his ex who is recently engaged. It was truly great how these situations caused them to get closer and got us some hilarious and embarrassing moments.
The paintball scene and Ethan getting drunk were everything!
OMG. The interaction between Ethan and the annoying teens at the paintball place WAS FUNNY! It was honestly great and constantly laughed throughout the entire exchange. This was also the first time in which Olive and Ethan had their first serious conversation marking the beginning of a positive friendship. This changed everything as they began to enjoy their fake honeymoon together!
Ethan is the cutest and friendliest drunk that made him more endearing to me. I enjoyed how easy their conversation was and how they were honestly enjoying each other’s company. To be frank, I feel spoiled because most books are dual POVS and I would have done ANYTHING to know what Ethan was thinking at that moment. This scene was essential since it was told from Olive’s point of view. It gave us an idea to what Ethan truly felt about Olive.
The ending was my only complaint.
Ethan and Olive finally settled their misunderstandings and I was thrilled when they finally got together! There is only one dilemma that is keeping them apart and it deals with Ethan’s bother and Olive’s twin sister. This caused a rift between them, but man I was furious at Ethan. He messed up! Ethan should have listened to Olive and his instincts about his jerk of a brother. On the other hand, Olive should have made him grovel more. In my opinion, she accepted his apology way too fast. I don’t know about you but she should have made him work for it to prove that she should trust him to believe in her.
After they came back from the honeymoon, the story went a little downhill for me. It felt rushed and I would not have minded a longer book if the ending were more drawn out. So much happened within the last 100 pages and I was like damn. I was mostly mad that Olive accepted Ethan’s apology so fast. Should have made him work for it if he wanted her back so much.
The epilogue was what won me over and ALMOST (not completely) made up how I felt about the last portion of the book. It was cute and I was so glad that we read it through Ethan’s point of view. I was dying to know how Ethan viewed and thought of Olive through his eyes.
Overall, I had a great time reading this book even though I am still frustrated about the forgiveness portion of the book. Hence why it didn’t fully get 5 stars from me. I will definitely read more of their books as I enjoyed their writing style! I’ve also just heard very good things about this duo so I must read everything from them! What Christina Lauren book do you recommend I should read next?
Lupe is a 20-something Mexican-American who enjoys reading and watching movies when she gets the chance to relax. Her all-time favorite series consists of Bloodlines and Vampire Academy (among others), and her favorite author is Richelle Mead.
Sorry the ending ruined things a bit for you, but it sounds like you really loved the rest of the book! That’s awesome. I own one book by Christina Lauren and I really need to read it soon…and more by them, because there are a few that look great.
-Lauren
Hey, Lauren! Thank you so much for commenting! I really enjoyed this one even though the ending was pretty rushed in my opinion. I’ve been meaning to read Love and Other Words by them since I’ve heard such great things about it!
A strong ending has had the ability to erase anything that bugged me in a book. I have fond, warm-fuzzy memories of this book. To be honest, Ethan was not in an easy situation. The guy was his brother, even if he was sort of terrible. I had way too much fun with these two on the unhoneymoon. Lots of laughs, but also a bunch of really touching moments. Glad you enjoyed it!
Hi, Sam! I totally agree that Ethan was in a difficult situation, but I still feel like he should have put some more effort in gaining back Olive’s trust. The book was very memorable and enjoyable! I had to stop reading multiple times to simply laugh out loud. Thank you so much for commenting!
Oh I loved this one too. This was my first Christina Lauren and definitely wont be my last.
I completely agree! This will not be my last and I’m looking forward to reading another book from them!
Yassssss!!! That book needed way more grovel lol And I wanted to understand how they dealt with the brother going forward since he (for some reason) was staying in their lives.
But otherwise – I liked this one too.
Karen @ For What It’s Worth
Hi Karen! I also wonder how they dealt with the brother. I WISH this book was longer and would not have minded if Ethan’s POV was longer in the end. I still want to know what he was thinking from the time they broke up to how he was dealing with his relationship with his brother. All in all, I agree. This was a fun read!