The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
Published by Gallery Books on May 14, 2019
Pages: 416
Genres: Romance, Humor
Review Copy Provided By: Gallery Books
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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 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.
I was provided a review copy; this did not influence my opinion of the book.
❝Ethan Thomas is grand-gesturing in an ugly shirt, with a fake mai tai glass.❞
I can’t get this silly smile off my face, it’s big and probably a little alarming to those around me. The Unhoneymooners put me in such a great headspace that I’m flitting around like a lovesick human. And I am in love. I am in love with the writing of Christina Lauren. Their books are big doses of happy! In a sour mood, read one of their books, had a breakup, read one of their books, want a permasmile, read The Unhoneymooners!
Olive Torres is the unlucky, often pessimistic twin. Unlucky in love and unlucky in life, if something bad is going to happen, it will happen to Olive. From getting stuck in a toy-prize claw machine as a kid to being fired from her job on her first day, Olive never seems to come out on top. In comparison, everything her sister Amelia touches turns to gold. The eternal optimist, Ami wins every contest she enters. She has a personality people flock to, and her life is easy. That is until her wedding day when everyone at the reception becomes extremely ill after having eaten the seafood on the buffet. All but the two people who cannot stand each other, Olive and Ami’s new brother-in-law, Ethan — Olive is allergic to shellfish and Ethan refuses to eat at buffets. For years the two have had a biting relationship, they never have anything good to say to or about the other. Even though they are extremely attracted to each other physically, personally, they cannot stand one another, they are nemeses to the core. Because Ami and her husband Dane are sick with food poisoning, they suggest that Olive and Ethan take the honeymoon trip to Hawaii … pretending to be married. It’s laughable really, the two cannot stand to be in the same room with each other for more than a few minutes, and now it is suggested they spend 10 days together, on a trip of a lifetime, for free. What’s the worst that can happen when two people who hate each other vacation together?
❝I want to say something sassy, but the only coherent thought that comes to mind is how insulting it is that eyelashes like his were wasted on Satan’s Errand Boy, so I just give a perfunctory nod and turn down the hall.❞
I loved Ethan and Olive! Olive with her pessimistic view of life and others, who believes she’s stuck with the bad life throws her way, never wallows in her circumstances. Rather, she embraces and accepts her fate. She is good-humored and loyal. In reality, though, the world was just prepping her to recognize, take hold of, and fully experience all the goodness that was awaiting her.
Ethan wasn’t who Olive assumed he was. He was charming, intuitive, caring and almost perfect! He wasn’t too prideful to apologize when he was wrong and expressed just the right amount of groveling. I loved the banter between these two!
❝You look like a Skittle.❞
❝Aw, Ethan. Stop with the seduction.❞
I loved this charming, enemies to lovers story! It was funny, heartwarming, and a little heartbreaking! It was the perfect book to read on a snowed-in weekend!
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