The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
Contemporary Romance
May 14. 2019 by Gallery Books 
Kindle * BN * Goodreads

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

This book was so good. Maybe because it was a mix of my favorite tropes… enemies to lovers, fake relationship, and forced proximity. Maybe it’s because the heroine is AWESOME and I adored everything about her. Maybe it’s because I love Christina Lauren. I DON’T KNOW, but The Unhoneymooners made me smile, and laugh and sigh in happiness.

As you can see from the above blurb, our heroine, Olive Torres is a twin. She is unlucky, slightly sarcastic and definitely does not have her life together. Her sister, Ami, on the other hand, wins every contest she enters, has a good job, a positive attitude and a fiancée that she’s about to marry in a lavish wedding that she has managed to put together for almost no money. Olive is her maid of honor and not exactly thrilled to be:

• Wearing an awful, green, too tight bridesmaid dress.
• In charge of her sister’s last minute, mile long to-do list.
• Stuck opposite her most hated nemesis: her about to be new brother-in-law, Ethan Thomas.

Unfortunately for her sister and lucky for Olive, disaster strikes the entire wedding party and guest list and the only two people spared are the two people who didn’t eat the free seafood buffet. Now Ethan and Olive are off to Maui in place of their newly wedded siblings. Hopefully they won’t kill each other.

Of course, Ollie and Ethan hate each other. (But not really.) And they can’t stand to be around each other. (But not really.) So them being stuck pretending to be newlyweds sucks… until it doesn’t. This couple cracked me up and made me smile. Running into new bosses and ex-girlfriends has them keeping up the charade even when they would have gone their separate ways. Their back and forth banter was wildly entertaining and I loved watching them go from supreme enemies to tentative friends to passionate lovers. They thought they knew each other, until they are forced to spend all their time together and they eventually figure out that they really don’t know each other at all. But maybe they want to.

Just as much as this is a romance between Ethan and Olive, its also about Olive learning to let go and enjoy the moment. She’s always thought of herself as the unlucky, and her sister is the twin who has had it all, but maybe it’s not so absolute as all that. Olive learns to trust the good things and people in her life and in the end finds her happiness.

I adored Olive’s big, supportive, close-knit family, especially her relationship with her cousins and her sister Ami. There was so much love and support in that family and I loved it.

The Unhoneymooners was a fun, delightful romantic comedy. It felt lighter and less angsty than some of this author duo’s more recent releases. It was so easy to fall in love with this couple. This is the perfect vacation, beach read and fans of Christina Lauren will be very satisfied.

Final Grade- B+

Favorite Quote:

Ami watches her go. “She’s so brave.”

She doesn’t say it like it’s an epiphany; she just says it like it’s a fact, something we’ve all always known about Olive, a core quality. And it’s true, of course, but these little truths, finally being spoken aloud, are tiny, perfect revelations, dropped like jewels in Olive’s palm.