Unhoneymooners

The Unhoneymooners- Christina Lauren
Gallery Books/Simon and Schuster
Release Date: May 14, 2019

Rating:
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Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

Synopsis: 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.

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Olive Torres is the unlucky twin, the pessimist, the one who looks for how it can all go wrong and plan accordingly. But she doesn't consider the possible downsides of her twin's wedding being funded exclusively through a series of free contest wins.  This means a lime green bridesmaid dress and a huge seafood buffet that she can't eat because she's allergic to shellfish.  What she also doesn't consider is: do you really want to eat free seafood? Halfway through the wedding toasts the answer to that is: no when the entire seafood eating wedding party gets violent food poisoning.  Ami wants Olive to pretend to be her and take the free Maui honeymoon, Ami's husband Dane says the same to his brother Ethan.  Is a free ten day trip to Maui worth pretending to be married to someone you hate?

The Unhoneymooners is a fast paced comedy that hits the ground running with Ami's wedding and shows right off all the differences between the twins. Ami is organized, Olive goes with things as they need to happen; Ami is focused on winning things for free, Olive prefers not to wear a hideous bridesmaid dress just because it is free.  Olive believes she has bad luck- crazy things always happen to her instead of others, she was laid off two months ago and still hasn't gotten a new job, and now she's paired with Ethan Thomas in the wedding party.  She's convinced Ethan hates her, which is a problem since he's her new brother-in-law.  The two bicker and snark at each other constantly.  But neither are willing to turn down a free trip to Maui just because they have to pretend to be married. The fake honeymoon is like the wedding: a comedy of errors and a series of problems that end up showing Olive and Ethan that whatever they feel for each other, it isn't hate.  But can they keep the vacation romance going when they're home and surrounded by real life?

This was my first book by Christina Lauren, but certainly won't be my last. It was laugh out loud hysterical (don't read this book in public!), touchingly sweet and romantic, and heartbreakingly sad all in turns.  Even assuming Olive and Ethan will get over the fight at the end, you hurt for Olive having to go through it- although I was also super proud of Olive for pointing out to Ethan during his big gesture apology that he had hurt her and that wasn't something a ridiculously romantic moment could fix, and equally happy with Ethan for agreeing with her. Both of them grow throughout the book and are surprised by it, which I liked, and even the secondary characters like Ami and Dane had enough character and depth to make them real and impactful (which not all authors can/will do).  

A bit of a Pride and Prejudice comedy of errors, The Unhoneymooners is sweet and sassy, fun and funny, and an absolute must read!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review