Quick Synopsis

When food poisoning strikes everyone but Olive and her sworn enemy, who happens to be her new brother-in-law, she ends up on a dream vacation where sparks fly.

Publisher’s Synopsis

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.

Book Review

I have been in a bit of a reading slump, but I still managed to read The Unhoneymooners in less than 24 hours. Christina Lauren never fail to write a compulsively readable romance novel.

The Unhoneymooners follows Olive, a chronically down-on-her-luck twin, as she takes a long overdue vacation with her sworn enemy, who happens to also be her new twin sister’s new brother-in-law. The circumstances that lead to this not-so-dream vacation are hilarious but I will leave them as a surprise.

The Unhoneymooners satisfied my need for a bingeable book that I could dive into and forget everything else. The plot was interesting without being overly convoluted or seeming impossible. As in most romance novels, there is some reliance on large coincidences but nothing outlandish.

I enjoyed Olive and Ethan’s characters as well as their love story. Some of the side characters were not may favorite, like Olive’s twin sister, but they did not make huge appearances that took away from my enjoyment. I liked that the story built as did the romance and attraction. I always prefer when a book does not rely on insta-love and spends time developing the main relationship.

While I really enjoyed The Unhoneymooners, it is not going to be one of my favorites from Christina Lauren. There were two things that continually irritated me throughout the book. The first being that the entire reason that Olive and Ethan are enemies is based upon miscommunication. If you know me or have read my reviews, you know that I cannot stand plots that rely on non- or miscommunication between characters. It is a trope that I hate and that frustrates me to no end. The fact that the tension between the main characters was built upon the fact that neither bothered to talk to the other after being introduced nagged me. Tied to this is a focus on Olive’s body size. The way the author discussed and approached Olive’s self-image and body rubbed me the wrong way.

Overall, I quite enjoyed The Unhoneymooners and would recommend it. However, there are romances I would recommend over it, particularly if you do not like miscommunication between characters.