The Unhoneymooners
Ratings406
Average rating3.8
This book was a lot of fun. I liked the dynamic between Olive and Ethan and the twist with her twin and her husband.
It feels strange that not one, but two, of my favourite 5 star reads of the year so far are contemporary romances - who am I?!
I absolutely LOVED this book from start to finish and with one book am a complete fan of Christina Lauren (I've already ordered a load of their other books!).
This follows Olive and Ethan, who are the twin sister and brother of the bride and groom at their wedding. All of the guests except Olive and Ethan eat the seafood buffet (yuck!) and get severe food poisoning meaning our two main characters have to take the package honeymoon to Maui or it's wasted...problem is they hate each other.
This book is just hilarious, it's snarky and funny and I laughed out loud many times. The chemistry between the two is so fun to watch unfold and I am 100% a fan of the enemies to lovers trope.
I've heard a few reviewers saying the ending of the book got a little dark and they weren't keen but personally I liked it, it gave it a bit more depth and felt like it wasn't just tied up in such a neat bow. It might not be for everyone but I liked it.
You know how on The Bachelor they manufacture situations to trick people into thinking they've developed a deep emotional connection when really they just went bungee jumping after meeting the week before? Everything is luxurious, everything paid for, everything separate from “real life.” Actually, probably most will not know what I'm talking about. But this book is like that.This is my third Christina Lauren read. The Unhoneymooners is much more similar to [b:Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating 40189670 Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating Christina Lauren https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1526941489l/40189670.SY75.jpg 60023585] than [b:Autoboyography 28919058 Autoboyography Christina Lauren https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1490425916l/28919058.SY75.jpg 49135502]. This one is an enemies-to-lovers slow burn. It's funny and ridiculous. Really and truly stupid. Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed myself! I don't read a lot of romance, but Christina Lauren books are just cute.I wasn't crazy about the ending (and especially epilogues) of either this or Josh and Hazel. It feels a little shoehorned in, like “don't worry, they don't just get a fleeting happy ending, they're in it for the long haul!” I approach most romance with some suspension of disbelief and idealism. I don't need every loose end tied up. I also think it's funny that multiple Christina Lauren female love interests have names that are muted brownish greens: Hazel and now Olive. Holding out hope for a Sage.
I really enjoyed The Unhoneymooners and will definitely read more by this writing team. This book was recommended to me by a few friends who gave it high ratings.
Summer Reading Challenge:
- It takes two: Read a coauthored book.
-In the friend zone: Read a book that a friend has recommended.
Far from my favorite CL book, but still interesting enough. Not my favorite trope, not dirty at all, but engaging enough to finish. 2.5 stars
second read: p much same thoughts :)first read: This was a super cute, fun, and funny read! I almost never laugh out loud while reading and this made me do just that multiple times. Unlike other books with the enemies-to-lovers trope that I've read and hated (ahem [b:Dating You / Hating You 32620304 Dating You / Hating You Christina Lauren https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1481574813l/32620304.SY75.jpg 53207990], also by Christina Lauren), this was not too over the top or juvenile with the enemies part - Olive and Ethan just had some snarky banter back and forth. The sexy times were chef kiss perfect. I loved Olive's relationship with her family and she felt super relatable to me.Something I couldn't help but notice while reading is how similar Olive is to Hazel from [b:Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating 40189670 Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating Christina Lauren https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1526941489l/40189670.SY75.jpg 60023585]. It really just felt like the authors just copy/pasted the character ideas for Hazel into this book. This was also a TEEENSE too long for me but that's just being nitpicky. I also hate the way Ethan reacted to the “drama” at the end - I get it but ... bleh.
- Hate at First Sight
- Travel to Hawaii
- Funny Banter
- Curvy FMC
- Fake Relationship
- Sizzling Chemistry
- Close Door Romance
- Rom Com
~Check out all my reviews over on The Bent Bookworm!~ “I saw that.”“Saw what?”“You checked out my chest.”“Of course I did. It's like having two other people up here with us. I don't want to be rude.”The Unhoneymooners took a very unlikely scenario and made it mostly believable, funny, and incredibly full of sexual tension. It was hysterical and moved along quickly – I finished it in one sitting on a Sunday! Olive is a very likable and spunky character. I especially loved how comfortable she was with her body, even though she mentions it not being to everyone's standard of beauty. She and Ethan have clear chemistry and it was hilarious watching them dance around it while having to pretend they were madly in love.I laughed out loud so many times while reading this. The banter is 100% on point! I kind of wished the incident that incited their intense “dislike” of each other had been handled differently, but you can't have everything. View Spoiler »4/5 stars. This is a great read for the beach or any summer vacation. It's lighthearted and breezy and fun. On the same note, don't expect depth from it...it's cute and sweet and left me with warm fuzzies, but no real lasting connection to Olive and Ethan. That's okay! It did what it was designed to do – entertain, and it did it extremely well. All the unlikely coincidences started to build up after awhile and made me roll my eyes a bit, and Ami (Olive's sister) seemed more like a caricature than a character in a lot of ways. That said, I still thoroughly enjoyed it! This was my first Christina Lauren book but it won't be my last!Blog Twitter Bloglovin Instagram
Cute and pretty enjoyable overall - good beach-read type romance. I wanted Amy and Ethan to be a little more developed as characters, especially Amy, since so much of the story is about those two relationships. I didn't think the plot thread about Olive being unsatisfied with her job and wanting something new really went anywhere, though I did like the scene with her supposed new boss and his wife in Hawaii. All in all, fun summer read.
(2022 Summer Romance Bingo: Hawaii. Would also work for mistaken identity.)
A 3.5 I guess. I definitely don't feel like rounding it up to a 4.
I'm always very excited to read a book by CLo and this was no different. I had already read a bunch of mixed reviews, but I knew to expect quite a bit of fun and I'm glad I did.
Olive is an interesting character. Bad luck seems to follow her always and her messy stories were too much fun. But she also has a happy go lucky vibe to her which I really enjoyed. Despite the antics of her various family members, she is super close to them, especially her twin Ami and I loved how they all really have each other's backs regardless of the issue. I just had a slight problem with her feelings around her weight - she seems to try to be body positive sometimes, but is also very conscious of what Ethan thinks of her curves. While I don't think it's bad to want her love interest's approval, I just didn't like that she seems to lose all her negative feelings about her weight as soon as Ethan mentions he likes her body. Ethan comes across as grumpy initially, but I liked the way their friendship develops and their banter is really hilarious and so much entertaining to read. He's also quite nerdy which endeared me to him a lot. But his blindness to his brother's douchey attitude wasn't a good look.
As I mentioned before, Christina Lauren are wonderful at writing banter and making the readers laugh and that's still the case in this book. Even the situations that Olive and Ethan get themselves into are so convoluted, they were just downright silly but fun to read and I'm quite amused at the author duo for coming up with these ideas. The pacing is also very quick and easy to get through, that I almost raced through the book. The setting of Maui and the various activities make for a nice backdrop for the enemies to lovers and forced proximity tropes. However, I didn't like the way the conflict happened. There are some very harsh words thrown at Olive, by both her sister and Ethan, and I hated that no one even wanted to understand her perspective. And I thought she was too forgiving while I would have liked some more groveling. It ends with a very cool epilogue though, so that makes up for some of the issues.
While I always seem to be nitpicky with this author duo's books, I am happy that The Unhoneymooners ended up being more on the fun side. It has a wonderful couple, a beautiful love story and a huge dramatic family. If you like snarky banter in an exotic vacation setting, then this is a fun book to read. If you like books where silly antics ensue and there's some family drama going on, then this one is perfect. Just trust me and pick this one up when you are in need of an entertaining romcom or a beach read.
There was definitely promise with the one. Great first half of the book, I like the sarcastic bantering, ok? And luckily there were little to none steamy scenes, which is exactly how I prefer my romances. But once they left Maui, I totally lost interest. The romance deflated like a balloon. I noticed the same thing with the other book I read by Lauren. The relationship built up is pretty great, it's full of funny, cute moments. But what happens afterwards is a total miss for me. It's not that I expect the relationships to stay in that stage, but I do expect them to sear clear of the excessive cheese fest. I just don't like what she does to the couples after they end up together.Ethan defending his douchebag brother to the point of breaking up with her came out if nowhere. I would have not forgiven him for it, never. How can you not notice some being a total liar and sleazebag all your life? And cheesy proposals? Not my thing either. I did like though that there were consequences for Olive for having lied to her boss.
Christina Lauren continue to be a breath of fresh air in the world of romantic comedies. Their books are always some of my most anticipated reads and I am rarely disappointed. I think even if I hadn't liked this book I still would have given it 5 stars just for the cover alone, it's so pretty heart eyes
The Unhoneymooners has two of my favorite tropes. Enemies-to-lovers and fake marriage. How can you go wrong with that? When Olive's sister Ami and Ethan's brother Dane come down with food poisoning after their wedding, each offers their respective sibling their honeymoon. Neither Olive nor Ethan, having disliked each other since the moment they met, wants to give up a Hawaiian vacation to the other so they agree to both go, figuring that the resort would be so huge that they'd barely have to see each other. Little do they realize that they'll run into obstacles that will force them to keep up the just-married facade for the entire vacation.
This book is full of the usual Christina Lauren humor. Their characters are so effortlessly funny and quirky. The tension between Olive and Ethan is almost palpable and the antics they get into in this book are entertaining and will have you laughing out loud one minute and swooning the next.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.