The Honey-Don't List
Ratings50
Average rating3.4
I've seen a lot of people saying they were disappointed by this one but I quite enjoyed it! I've yet to find a Christina Lauren I don't like. 😊
This is only my second book by this author duo and while it wasn't my favorite by them I did still enjoy it.
We get the witty banter that I loved so much in The Unhoneymooners but it wasn't as good as it was in that book. The chemistry between Carey and James is off the charts but we don't get enough of their actual relationship in my opinion. The majority of this book is about how Carey and James pretty much have to babysit their bosses Melissa and Rusty Tripp who are married and actually hate each other at this point. Carey has worked for the Tripp's for over a decade and James has only worked for them for a couple of months and both of them feel trapped for very different reasons.
I hated the Tripp's so much and the way they treated Carey and James. That's probably why I feel like this book was too much of them. Carey and James is what made this book for me even though like I already said we didn't get enough of their relationship. Carey needed to grow a backbone. She let the Tripp's walk all over her and that got under my skin from the very beginning. I wish she would have stood up for herself way sooner. James is very Charming. I liked how they went from disliking each other to loving each other and I loved how he pointed out things to Carey that she refused to see on her own. This also has Dystonia which I am not familiar with but I feel like it was handled really well. The ending did feel a little rushed but overall I did enjoy this book.
It seemed unbelievable in many different aspects, from time frames to personalities, which threw me off.
3/5, Easy read! If you like reality tv and HGTV, then this might be for you. The Tripps were an annoying hoot.
This one just wasn't for me. I didn't connect with the characters and it seemed like they were trying to hard with the plot.
3.5 stars. Enjoyable, and a fun plot twist, but they moved from enemy-coworkers to lovers much too quickly.
I really wanted to love this book because I love the other Christina Lauren books that I have read. However, this book is just okay for me.
Let's start with the premise of the story. Carey and James work for home renovation stars, Melissa (Melly) and Rusty Tripp. The Tripps are experiencing trouble in their relationship, so Carey and James are given the difficult task of keeping the couple from revealing their troubles to the public. My first issue with the plot is that the Tripps are written in a way that they are too similar to a particular real life home renovation couple. I do not like the close comparison at all. Additionally, the story line of the two assistants having to basically parent the older couple is annoying to me. It is clear at the start of the book that these two people are not going to fix the relationship.
The characters of Carey and James are likable enough. Their blooming relationship is fun to watch. They are cute together, and their banter is sweet and funny. There is a lot of dysfunction in the relationships in this book, though. It is a little hard to understand why Carey allows herself to be used by the Tripps for so long. Her relationship with Melly is highly dysfunctional, with Melly taking credit for work that Carey does. It is also odd that James, an engineer, actually allows himself to be treated like a personal assistant.
The writing style, as always with a Christina Lauren book, is very easy to read. The story flows at a nice pace. It is a pleasant, enjoyable read. I just do not love the plot and characters as much as I usually do with books by these authors.
reading about Rusty & Melly was truly DRAINING. they are both insufferable characters and unfortunately, I felt like most of this book was based on them & their drama. I didn't feel at all connected to Carey or James and didn't really feel any chemistry between them either. while reading this, I just felt frustrated most of the time.
Overall this is a quick, fun read. However, I didn't feel it quite lived up to The Unhoneymooners, which I really enjoyed. If you're a fan of the genre and a fan of Christina Lauren, I'd recommend it.
The characters felt a bit flat and the plot was a little flimsy. Rusty and Melissa, the show co-hosts and the novel's antagonists, were really sad. I was sort of hoping they would have a sweet reconciliation arc of rediscovering why they fell in love, but the further we got into the novel they became almost cartoonishly unlikable.
I did enjoy James and Carey's relationship, but kept getting hung up on aspects that didn't really make sense.
-Why did this HGTV-esque show need to hire an engineer, and if they did need an engineer why was James getting coffee for Rusty, who was doing the actual engineering?
-James working as Rusty's assistant due to lack of job prospects was odd (especially since he almost immediately gets a civil engineering job after the show implodes)
-I'm assuming a lot of these reno shows are largely fake anyway, so what does it matter if Melissa is the stage talent and Carey is the designer? Couldn't they have worked this out in a professional way? Lots of artist work for companies that technically own the art they are produce, it's just part of business
-James and Carey's break-up motivation didn't make any sense. Him having a private conversation about his job with his boss is in no way a betrayal of their barely week long relationship
-Carey's motivation to stay in her job is about finances and health insurance - but when she quits she immediately buys a house and discovers she can live a year without a job and still afford health insurance
-Sorry, I am really stuck on this engineering thing. They mention a hundred times that he is an engineer but never elaborate. It just feels like the authors didn't really do any research into fleshing out their characters. They didn't even mention what kind of engineer James is - computer, electrical, mechanical etc. was he building bridges in his previous job, was he writing software? All it would have taken was two or three sentences of exposition to clear this up. It would have made way more sense to make James a designer.
I received an advanced copy.