User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Here are two true statements about me:
1) While I have never actually liked a Christina Lauren book, I really want to, and I keep trying to.
2) I love The Hating Game. (Update: I no longer love The Hating Game. But let's pretend for the sake of me not having to update this review that I do._
Here is a statement about this book I believe to be true:
1) It is just a worse The Hating Game.
To be fair, most Christina Lauren books are just a worse The Hating Game. (In my opinion, that is. Because for reasons unknown I love The Hating Game.)
I mean. Here, we have Olive, the adorkable, cringey heroine who Doesn’t Know She Is Beautiful But Does Know She Is Physically Sexy (because that’s definitely different from a woman being valued only for sexual purposes). She’s paired with Ethan, the cold and mean (but so hot and omg his ABS) guy who is actually sooooo nice once you get to know him and all those times he was a total asshole? Just a misunderstanding. Well I mean it staaaarted a misunderstanding, but then the girl was like, so mean to him (and also so sexy, he was distracted by her boobs / butt / legs can you blame him), so then he just HAD to be a mean vengeful child about it for literally years on end!
Essentially The Hating Game.
And I have to tell you, I’m getting realllllll sick of this trope. It’s just childish bickering teeming with misunderstandings then sexy time then a major misunderstanding then make-up sexy time and finally, mercifully, The End.
I like The Hating Game, though, because it’s charming and I found the romance believable. Not only was I not charmed by this book, not only did I not find the romance believable, but...well.
Let’s do a list.
1) The Huge Misunderstanding That Threatens To Ruin Everything Even True Love is very, very stupid. Putting this point in spoiler tags: (view spoiler)
[Our protagonist, Olive, has a twin, Ami, who is married to Ethan’s brother, whose name I couldn’t remember if you paid me. I had to look up everyone else’s names in the synopsis. Anyway, Ethan’s brother - let’s call him Stupid Jock With No Traits Who Doesn’t Matter, Jock for short - comes onto Olive in a super creepy way, and when she tells Ami and Ethan about it, they both accuse her of lying. In spite of the fact that, supposedly, they both love her in respective once-in-a-lifetime level bonds. There is literally no reason for them to think she’s lying and to believe Jock, who is sh*tty and gross, but they do. Because drama. (hide spoiler)]2) There’s such a halfhearted subplot for Olive about her needing a DREAM CAREER. One of the first things we learn about her (after the first round of the countless descriptions of her sexy curvy body) is that she genuinely enjoys her career path and is good at it. But for some reason...that is not a dream career? Am I an emotionless robot for not understanding that? The rest of the book is teeming with Motivational Passages from Ethan and Olive’s internal monologue about her Not Settling and Finding Herself and I just...don’t get it.
3) The way the world works in this book feels completely unfamiliar to me. Like, Olive’s twin Ami pays for her entire wedding - venue, food, dress, hotel, honeymoon, everything - with...coupons? What? That’s not a thing. Olive gets fired for a reason solely related to her personal life, which makes no sense. Everyone believes there’s such a thing as a definitively good or bad luck? What. Where are we. What’s going on.
But worst of all...I didn’t care about this at all. Where was the CHEMISTRY. Where was the CHARM. Where was the part where I FALL in LOVE and also they FALL in LOVE.
Why am I reading a rom-com and feeling neither ROM nor COM.
Bottom line: Will I keep reading Christina Lauren books? Who’s to say. (Probably.) (But then, that’s the masochism talking.)
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pre-reviewCALLED IT
review to come / 2.5ish stars
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tbr reviewi am probably not going to like this book but by god i won't let that stop me
Rating: really liked it
I can treat this trip like an actual vacation on a tropical island.
Yes, it’s with my nemesis, but still, I’ll take it.
Guys, I don't think it's working out. I'm trying so hard to get on the Christina Lauren fanwagon, but there are just lots of little things that aren't floating my boat.
The Unhoneymooners is not bad at all. It's quite funny and enjoyable for the most part, actually. It's just... well, I'll start with the first thing I noticed. This is only the second Christina Lauren book I have tried, with the other being Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating, and yet right away I realized that the characters were virtually identical. Both Olive and Hazel are klutzy, embarrassing heroines who don't know when to stop talking, each with notably amazing boobs. Ethan and Josh are both aloof, cynical guys who supposedly view their respective heroines with disdain until they, um, don't anymore. And they are both - I'm quoting here - boob men (curious - does this boob thing come up in all their books?).
Boob joking aside, Olive and Ethan could just as easily be Josh and Hazel. They read like the same couple. Also, I see a lot of reviewers talking about this promised "enemies-to-lovers" romance, but I'm just not that convinced. I am a sucker for the love/hate relationship thing, I'll be honest. I don't know why. Add it to my list of issues. But whether it's Jardan or Spuffy or the good old Fitzbeth, I'm all for a bit of "I hate you, let's fuck" angst.
Olive and Ethan, though, are not enemies. Sure, she calls him her "nemesis" and declares how awful it's going to be going to Maui with him, blah blah, but it seems pretty clear to me from the beginning that they really love bickering with each other. They don't hate each other! They're not enemies! Their first conversation makes them seem like an old married couple bitching at each other. In fact, I find it weird how Olive basically fabricates some faux-hatred at the start, but is later very easily forgiving when, in my opinion, Ethan was completely in the wrong.
So far this has definitely sounded more negative, but it is a fun, easy read. I like how both Olive and Hazel are unwilling to apologize for who they are and the way their bodies look. I like the back-and-forth between Olive and Ethan:
“Ethan, I’m a terrible liar.”
“Really? You hid it so well.”
“It’s never been my strength, okay? Those of us who aren’t summoned by the Dark Mark consider honesty to be a virtue.”
I also really liked the single perspective of this story. Seeing as almost every romance novel these days has multiple perspectives, I must be in the minority on this one, but I actually find it much easier to enjoy a romance and fall in love with the object of the MC's affections if I'm reading a single perspective. Getting inside the other person's head dampens some of the tension for me.
Oh, and I also liked the super hot massage scene. For obvious reasons.
Hell, I don't even know at this point. It's not like I'm not having a bit of mindless fun with these books, but with so little time to read, do I really want to keep spending it with 3-star reads? Huh. Maybe I'll try one more.
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Rating: really liked it
me, normally: the concept of romantic love is nothing but a marketing scheme for greeting card companies, a lie sold by the government, a-
me, after reading this book: [through an oversized megaphone] CAN SOME ROMANTIC SHIT HAPPEN TO ME ALREADY DAMN
Rating: really liked it
4.5/5This was cute as heck!!
Rating: really liked it
Going into
The Unhoneymooners, I expected this to be a light, fun rom-com based on all the gushing reviews out there. After all, I enjoy a good love/hate relationship as much as the next gal. Instead, coming out of it, I'm left wondering if I read the same book everyone else did.
The initial pages were bubbly and charming as events unfold that lead to Olive and Ethan going to Maui together. Then, bam! The awkward train arrives, and my enjoyment of this book completely falls apart. You guys, I don't understand this coupling at all. There is no chemistry between them. It was odd how they were cold towards each other one moment, then hot the next. Love/hate relationships are only fun if I can understand the whys of one and the other, but all I got was whiplash trying to follow along.
As far as I can tell, Olive likes Ethan solely because he's attractive. On every page, Olive mentions his muscles, his abs, his biceps, his beautiful face, his long lashes, his blue eyes. Please, someone make it stop. And Olive hates Ethan because she thinks he doesn't like her. And the only reason Ethan gives for liking Olive is her boobs. *facepalm* Can we just try a little harder here to make the reasons more than skin deep?
The supposed flirty banter between these two made me cringe in embarrassment for them, especially Olive. She tries so hard in their interactions to be snarky, but it comes across as forced, inappropriate, and awkward. And she reads into everything he says, and ends up incorrectly interpreting almost everything. It was exhausting to read. And Ethan doesn't help, giving signals he's thinking about his ex, then acting like a clueless dumbass when Olive is hurt.
Usually a romance either has a few explicitly steamy scenes or the author can chose to let all those happen behind the curtains, and either is fine with me. But this book oddly tries to straddle both. There's no explicit scenes shown, but instead we are told constantly at random, unrelated times that they happened A LOT. It's so awkward.
But for all this, it wasn't until the last 100 pages that this book took a complete left turn to somewhere stupid, for no reason. The story was wrapped up, and then it kept going, right off of a cliff. When someone you care for tells you that they got an unwanted advance and it made them uncomfortable, your response should not be in the vein of "I don't believe it. Really it's he said/she said. And what does it matter what the truth is anyways?" Umm... say what?
I found this book to be an odd mix of boring and awkward, with a good dose of "Oh hell no!" thrown in at end. This is my second book by this author duo, and I'm starting to think that they aren't for me. In both books, silly main characters acting on questionable calls make it hard for me to see them as viable romantic leads, which ultimately defeats the whole purpose of a romance.
Rating: really liked it
A humorous enemies-turn-lovers romance fills out the first half of The Unhoneymooners. It's engaging, funny, and sexy. But the co-written aspect of this novel makes itself known as the storyline morphs into a more dramatic second half with several climaxes related to career, trust, family, and relationships. In my opinion, this reading experience felt like two different books were placed under the same cover, and I quite liked the fun one more. However, overall, The Unhoneymooners is indeed enjoyable and will surely satisfy Christina and Lauren's many fans. Check it out.
Thank you to the following for permitting me access to an advance reader's copy (ARC) of The Unhoneymooners. This generosity did not impact my honesty when rating/reviewing.
Source: NetGalley
Author: Christina Lauren
Publisher: Gallery Books: Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books
Genres: Romance
Pub Date: May 14, 2019
Rating: really liked it
never in my life have i read a book that had the same sense of humour as me - until now. this is honestly one of the funniest books i have ever read. i was giggling like a dweeb pretty much throughout the entire thing. gosh, its such a depressing thought to know i will never be as funny as olive and ethan.
the charming humour aside, this might be the best execution of the enemies-to-lovers trope since
‘the hating game.’ is everything in the story convenient? sure. is it super emotionally compelling? not really. but it absolutely nails the fact that relationships dont work unless you know your partner on a friendship level. and i love the natural connection that developed between olive and ethan.
my only complaint would be that the ending is a little rushed. there is a massive shift in story dynamic when olive and ethan return from their trip (almost feels like an entirely seperate story) and it just feels like it ends too soon. i think there are some things that could have been explored more and i honestly wouldnt have minded a longer book. oh well. still a fantastic story overall!
↠ 4.5 stars
Rating: really liked it
ARC provided by Gallery Books in exchange for an honest review. “That’s the point of luck: it happens when and where it happens.”
This is my favorite Christina Lauren book since Roomies! I’ll be honest, I wasn’t too in love with Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating or My Favorite Half-Night Stand, but this felt like the famous duo was back and resecured that special place in my swoon-worthy romance heart. This was so funny, this was so heartwarming, and since I’m leaving in a few weeks for Hawaii, the setting was pretty perfect for me, too! This is a hate to love, enemies to lovers, fake dating romance that features two characters who are forced to be around each other because their siblings are marrying each other.
➽
Olive Torres - Biracial (white and Mexican), twin of the bride, has been unlucky her entire life.
➽
Ethan Thomas - Brother of the groom, and Olive’s archnemesis.
“I want to say something sassy, but the only coherent thought that comes to mind is how insulting it is that eyelashes like his were wasted on Satan’s Errand Boy, so I just give a perfunctory nod and turn down the hall.”
And these two had a very rocky, and very confusing, first meeting. But they are trying their best to put their differences aside for this wedding, even if they are antagonizing each other every single chance they get. But the wedding takes an unexpected turn when everyone gets sick from the seafood buffet that was served, except for Olive and Ethan, since neither of them ate from it.
Their siblings insist that they take their Hawaii honeymoon, instead of letting the trip go to waste! And they both decide to, because once they get to Maui, they won’t have to see each other except for sleeping. That is, until Olive's boss and Ethan’s ex fiancé happen to be at the same resort, and they are forced to play the part of happy newlyweds, because Olive doesn’t want to get caught using their sibling’s honeymoon by the resort and be forced to pay for it out of their own pocket, and Ethan doesn’t want his ex to see him single. And honestly? It was just the perfect fake dating setup, let’s be real.
“The problem with lying about relationships is that humans are fickle, fickle creatures.”
And I truly believe the banter in this book is the best that these authors have ever crafted. It’s smart, witty, and truly hilarious. I also just loved Olive and Ethan as characters so much, and I easily shipped them together; maybe harder than any Christina Lauren characters. The setting was perfect, the plot was genius, and this was just an overall really easy book to escape into and love.
But I am very curious to see how plus-sized reviewers are going to feel about the representation in this book. This is not my lane, so please know that while reading this paragraph, but this book puts a huge emphasis on how Olive thinks Ethan fat-shamed and body-shamed her. She constantly talks about her body, her curves, her stress baking and eating, and how things look on her body, and even tears clothing that’s too small for her, while always kind of comparing herself to her thin twin sister. Like, I was 100% sure Olive was plus-sized through the entire start of this book, but then, once they arrive in Hawaii, it seems like the only big and curvy thing about her is her breasts, which are obviously perfect! And then, at the end of this book it starts feeling like she and her thin sister are identical in bodies, too, and she also gets compared to Selena Gomez. Like, I just didn’t understand. It was like they wanted to have a plus-sized main character, but they didn’t want to actually go there or hire any beta readers. Like, again, this isn’t my lane, and I’m obviously not saying that thin people can’t have body dysmorphia or just have unhealthy relationships with food and their bodies, but the way this read personally felt bad to me. I just honestly think this book could be really triggering because of the emphasis it has on Oliva’s relationship with food and her inner monologue about her thoughts about her body, while also painting a very hazy picture of her actual body.
Also, there is a very small conversation between Olive’s family members questioning if a family member is queer, and… it was really badly done.
"Because lesbians use those strap-on things" and apparently have short haircuts. And I completely understand it was supposed to be funny because older generations “don’t get it” or whatever, but it wasn’t cute; it was offensive and poorly done. And the mom saying she wishes she was born a lesbian, like… gag me with any spoon you can find. Like, it was so minuscule, and I have no idea why it was even part of the book or why editors thought it was a good thing to keep included, but it just made me side eye and put a bad taste in my mouth.
Okay, I know those last two paragraphs seem bad, and they are, I’m not making light of them whatsoever! But I will say that if you took those two elements out, this is a really good book. Like, the best I’ve read from Christina Lauren in years. It was laugh out loud funny, it was romantic and swoon worthy, and I really shipped this enemies to lovers dynamic. I never wanted to leave Olive, Ethan, or Hawaii, and I think this is just going to be the ultimate beach read of 2019.
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The quotes above were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.Content and trigger warnings for talk of cheating (not the main characters), A LOT of talk about food and bodies that I think could be potentially triggering, and the brief but questionable conversation about sexuality that I mentioned above.
Rating: really liked it
Total waste of time…
* A couple with no chemistry or no connection whatsoever.
* A hatred for two and a half years for no reason at all - or a stupid one that is not understandable.
* A story that is not even funny at all other than a few good jokes but they cannot save this book.
* A boring and lame relationship that never feels like romance. It doesn't make you feel.
* A heroine who is quirky and a hero to hate! They make a couple like cartoon characters.
*********************************************
That’s the short summary of the book. Here’s a longer one:The hero (Ethan) likes the heroine (Olive) when they first meet and she also thinks he is a hot guy. Ethan actually wants to ask Olive out but his brother, who is going out with her twin sister, says “No". He says that she is a bitter person and she is his girlfriend’s twin sister and it would be weird and he listens to him.
He listens to him!!!! and goes out with other women! Then he has a serious relationship with a woman, he proposes to her but she leaves him.
I should have stopped reading when I saw what a lame guy he was by listening to his brother but for some dumb reason, I still tried hoping it would get better.
*********************************************
As I said, his brother is the douche-bag boyfriend/fiancé and later husband of Olive's twin sister, Ami, whom we later discover that is a cheater. Dane is a cheater and a liar and he is a manipulative bastard!
When Ami and Dane are getting married, all the wedding guests, including the bride and the groom get poisoned by the buffet food, it’s only Ethan and Olive, who are left unaffected because they didn’t eat from the buffet. Everyone is so very sick and Ethan and Olive end up going to the honeymoon not to waste it.
*********************************************
Their hatred is based upon nothing at all. Ethan's brother said she was a pessimistic and bitter person so he hates Olive based on it. What a tool! And Olive thinks that Ethan thinks she is fat and unattractive so she hates him. What a fool!
Whatever! In the hotel they stay, they join every stupid activity that bore me to death! And there, they see Olive's future boss and Ethan's ex-grilfriend with her new fiancé and they decide to pretend. This pretension slowly diminishes their hatred and feelings start to emerge but it is so badly written that I never felt their chemistry or I never actually believed in their feelings.
*********************************************
The romance is so very badly written all along the book. Only a few jokes are funny and I smiled a few times. But the romance was so bad… so very bad… And the whole story was utterly boring! A yawn fest, indeed!
And when they finally get intimate, there are only
a few kisses and then fade to black scenes…
Seeing how badly the writers write the kissing scenes, it might be good that they didn’t try to write a love-making scene but still I hate “fade to black” love-making scenes!
*********************************************
It was also frustrating that the writers wrote embarrassing scenes to make it funny, such as falling on the bathroom floor naked on top of each other before there was anything between them.
Oh, and then, there was a naked massage he had to apply to her and she was both embarrassed and turned on - yeap, he HAD TO do it while she was naked just because the massage therapist who thought they were married offered it and they thought they should pretend... Pretend, my as*! This is utter stupidity that the writers are trying to make us believe!
*********************************************
OK, with such an “emotion-less” and “boring” story that gets to be funny very rarely, I was already going to rate it low (maybe 2 or 3 stars) but it soon earned its 1 star when the hero showed how lame he really was (I would give it a zero star if I could, by the way).
Here is what happens that made me go crazy with anger!(view spoiler)
[The twin-sister Ami’s husband Dane is the hero’s brother, as you might remember, and he cheats on his wife. He cheated on her many times all along these years while they were going out and now when they are married, he still cheats on her.
When Ethan talks about his brother’s affairs to Olive, she is frustrated on her sister’s behalf but Ethan believes that his brother is perfect so he insists that Ami should know they had an open relationship and she was ashamed to tell it to Olive. (what a reasoning!) However, they are twins and Olive is so sure that her sister thought they were exclusive. Still, Ethan doesn't want her to talk about this to Ami and for the time being, she agrees.
When they come back from the honeymoon, the married couple sees that their siblings are now together. First they are shocked but then, they seem to accept it. One day, the disgusting brother Dane hits on our heroine Olive (as if all the women he was cheating on his wife with weren't enough already). And the pig suggests that they can spice things up by changing partners. Such a low person! She already was angry with him and when he suggests this, she is furious!
And when she talks to Ethan about what his brother did, our hero DOESN’T BELIEVE his girlfriend!!!!
He just cannot believe his brother would do that!!!!
She insists that he DID propose it but he still doesn’t believe her and when they cannot agree, he breaks up with her…
Yeap, he breaks up with her!!!!
She asks him what she could gain by lying about him but Ethan doesn't have the brains to understand that the woman who he has witnessed as the worst liar in the world cannot lie about such an important thing. During the honeymoon, he saw how bad she was at pretending and how she couldn't tell lies easily. And he doesn't even give her the benefit of the doubt. Only a woman who is a fool and misunderstands people easily or an evil woman with a hidden agenda would tell such a lie and Ethan puts the woman he supposedly loves in one of (if not both) categories.
And the writers must have thought that wasn't bad enough, so when the time comes and she talks to her sister Ami, she also doesn’t believe that her husband cheats on her and that he also hit on her own sister.
She accuses her sister of being evil!!!! I never liked Ami anyways and I was right about her.
Our poor heroine is blamed by the two most important people in her life: the man she loves and her own twin sister.
And weeks later, Ami discovers her husband's cheating ways and as you might guess, when Ethan sees it with his own eyes, he feels sorry for thinking his brother is the perfection. He apologizes to Olive a few times and she forgives him and I want to throw my kindle at the wall, yelling, “How could you forgive him, you fool!!!??” But of course, I don’t, as this lame book is not worthy enough to sacrifice my Kindle.
But seriously, imagine this:
Your boyfriend’s brother hits on you and suggests you should have sex for a change to spice things up. Obviously, you feel disgusted. You talk to your boyfriend about it and he doesn’t believe you. He doesn’t even offer to go talk to him to make sure there is a misunderstanding – he just believes his brother would never do that and says you must have misunderstood (because you are such a fool!) or making it up because you hate him.
Then, because you cannot agree on this matter, he breaks up with you.
Well, some time later, when he sees with his own eyes that his brother is a douche-bag and a cheater, he understands that you might be right about him, so he comes and says he is sorry and he wants you back.
Would you forgive him?
If you would, then feel free to try this book…
I would never ever forgive such a lowlife! A man who does this once will do more and worse things later. Nope, this is something unforgivable in my book!
(hide spoiler)]NOTE TO SELF: Add these writers to your avoid shelf! After 2 huge disappointments and one mediocre read, it's time to stop trying their work.
Rating: really liked it
There’s no getting around it, so I’m just going to get it over with and put it out there. The Unhoneymooners is
not my favorite of the dynamic duo’s rom-coms. Truth be told, this is the only Christina Lauren to date that has earned less than four stars from this reader. And believe me, as someone who’s been a longtime fan of their work, it would be so much easier to gloss over the things that bothered me, as opposed to confessing this didn’t work for me in its entirety, but it is what it is. So, hear me out. Or not. Your choice.
Was the journey fun and light?
For sure.
Were the coauthors successful in pulling out the laughs?
You bet.
Even more importantly, were there swoon-worthy moments capable of rousing my inner giddy and giggly gal?
Of course.
Was it up to snuff with some of the duo's other novels?
Nope.This time around, Christina Lauren brings readers to the Twin Cities for a wedding paid for entirely with sweepstakes and giveaways wins. In hindsight, maybe partaking in a
free seafood buffet isn’t the best idea. Food poisoning, anyone? How about everyone? Well, except for the two people who opted for the chicken plate instead. When optimistic Ami and her new groom find they can’t peel themselves off the bathroom floor, let alone think about heading to Maui for their all expenses paid honeymoon, they enlist their siblings to take their places—aka the pessimistic twin sister Olive and her “nemesis” Ethan.
While there are some hilarious one-liners and dialogue—total laugh out loud moments—exchanged between the “enemies”, it takes reading half of the novel (
around 200 pages) before anything couply transpires between Olive and Ethan. In the meantime, readers are fed a steady diet of faux hatred and convenient situations. Running into one person you know from home, okay I’ll bite. Maybe I’ll even refrain from rolling my eyes. But two, when you’re an eleven-hour flight away on a tropical island? Come on ladies, dig a little deeper next time. There were so many other ways the situations and feelings inspired by those “chance encounters” could have been introduced into the storyline. Just saying.
With the epilogue being the exception, the entirety of the story is told from Olive’s perspective, which is a bit of departure for the duo (
Roomies being the only other, I think?) and kind of a downer. Even more so considering the co-authors attempted to sell this whole “nemesis” idea. Seeing their rivaling thoughts firsthand would have fed into the fun. Instead, readers are privy only to Olive’s thoughts, while facial expressions and dialogue have to suffice for Ethan. The perfect breeding ground for misinterpretations and assumptions. And the borderline simplistic idea—by some standards—that the crux of the entire novel relies on.
In some respects, this enemies-to-lovers storyline presents as disjointed and weak. The pacing itself is consistently inconsistent. Slow to progress at points, yet too much all at once in others. It screamed for more storyline development and actions driven by emotion, as opposed to enlisting those things simply to get the characters where they needed to be for things to "work".
When Olive and Ethan return home, after ten days in paradise, there are a host of issues for the pessimist to contend with: finding a career that feeds her passion, realigning her outlook on life, appreciation for her family and a desire for love. The authors utilize Olive and Ami’s large extended family here, but there are no standout moments that hit home or provide any emotional value, instead conjuring those feelings of convenience once again. Not to mention, I imagine it would be a tad overwhelming for
anyone to attempt to tackle their entire outlook on life in such a short timeframe (
100-ish pages?). Look who the pessimist is now.
*wink*All of that complaining aside,
turning the pages was effortless. Sure, there were a few times when it felt like I was simply going through the motions, but for the most part, The Unhoneymooners was delightfully fun. Not quite special enough to knock Josh and Hazel—the quirky couple who garnered hordes of fans with their infamous guide to not dating—from the throne, but entertaining enough.
For me, it was Olive and Ethan’s perfectly imperfect ending that proved the journey worthy. Bonus points to the writing duo for offering readers a much-needed glimpse of life from Ethan’s adoring eyes.
*A HUGE thank you to Gallery for sending my gorgeous copy. This colorful cover and the possibility of what was to come brightened my day. The review copy in no way altered my opinions.
Rating: really liked it
4.5 stars. This is my new favorite Christina Lauren book. I'm OBSESSED. I do wish the plus-size rep had been a little more... definitive? But other than that I ate this UP. If you're looking for something to fill in the Hating Game sized, enemies-to-lovers hole in your heart, look no further. THEY EVEN GO PAINTBALLING. Fuck, I loved this.
Rating: really liked it
So,
I just reread this book and it was just as great the second time and I noticed more things that I love about it. Yes, I read this book twice within one year and yes it still makes me smile and giggle and feel all the warm fuzzies. I adore Olive and Ethan so much and I'm a huge fan of the trope when a pessimistic person gets paired with an optimist, and I think I love this book especially because Olive is more of a pessimist, realist personality whereas Ethan is the optimist. I feel like it's so rare in romance novels to see the female being the more negative one because usually the females are always trying to make the males more optimistic but in this book it's really opposite, which is why I relate to Olive so much because I tend to be such a pessimist myself so I just really relate to her character, and her close relationship with her twin sister is also something I strongly relate to. I just adore this book so hard and I think it's something I want to reread every now and then because it makes me so damn happy.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
Holy shit I loved this so much. Christina Lauren is one of my favorite authors and I was absolutely STOKED when Gallery Books sent me an ARC of their latest romance The Unhoneymooners. I think I honestly have a new favorite from them. This one or Autoboyography is my favorite book from this author now, ahhh.
This is an adorable rom-com that follows this girl named Olive who is chronically unlucky, and her twin sister Ami who is absurdly lucky. Ami is marrying this guy named Dane and Olive can't stand Dane's brother Ethan. At Ami and Dane's wedding, the entire wedding party gets food poisoning except for Olive and Ethan who didn't eat the fish, so Ami tells Olive to take her nonrefundable honeymoon trip to Hawaii and Dane tells his brother Ethan to take the trip: so Ethan and Olive take the trip to Hawaii together.
This romance has a lot of my favorite romance tropes: hate to love, slow burn romance, fake dating/fake marriage, it really has it all. I am absolute trash for the fake dating trope I just love it so much and this book does it sooooo well.
It's been along time since a romance novel has made me so giddy. I just adore the hell out of Olive and Ethan both, and this book reminded me of one of my all time favorite romances: The Hating Game because their banter is
so on point. Like for real,
this is one of the funniest fucking books I've ever read, I giggled out loud many times, and I devoured this story is two sittings. I could not put it down. Their chemistry is so contagious, I was grinning form ear to ear the entire time I was reading this. This story would make for the perfect rom-com beachy movie. I could picture it all in my head so vividly.
I love Olive's mexican family which reminded me so much of my own. I love her relationship with her twin sister Ami, they were totally adorbs. I also loved how her parents have been separated for so long but never divorced, and her gay cousin Diego. The closeness of their family and the way they supported each other through everything just reminded me so much of my own family and it was just really sweet. Also, Olive's unlucky streak was entertaining as hell and she has some really great stories about unlucky things that have happened to her I was cackling. I tend to be more of a pessimistic person too like Olive so I found her general attitude towards life really relatable.
Ethan is my favorite kind of male love interest: he's strong but soft and he seems so rough around the edges but once you get to know him he's a total softy, and he's a cute drunk and he wants to see the best in people and he respects women and he's crazy passionate about his nerdy job and I just adored the shit out of him.
I just loved this so so so so much. I've found a new all time favorite romance/OTP/book. I just want to run around recommending this book to everyone and I want to reread it immediately upon finishing it which is always a good sign. Don't skip this one in May!
Book 1 of the Contemporary-a-thon is complete!
Rating: really liked it
“It sounds dangerous.” This makes him laugh. “Dangerous, like we’d end up either naked or dead?” 
This was such a cute rom-com filled with glorious belly-aching laugh out loud moments. I finished it in one sitting, and the pages just flew by! It really does play out like a movie, and you can practically see it on the widescreen while you are reading. Completely a feel good book with all the fluffy romance and sexy tidbits you'd want in one.
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The Story The Unhoneymooners follows Olive Torres during a honeymoon that she goes on falsely identifying as her twin sister Ami, who just got married. After a bad case of food poisoning at Ami's wedding, the only two unaffected people are Olive and Ami's husbands brother, Ethan. Ethan and Olive have supposedly hated each other from the moment they met each other, so they both agree to disagree and go on the honeymoon together. What starts as a fake marriage and an excuse for a free holiday soon turns into many misadventures, misencounters and misunderstandings. Soon, Olive and Ethan start to realize that they have immense chemistry between them and maybe they were wrong from the start...
Firstly, I want to call it and say that the enemies to lovers trope is going to swoop 2019 away from me like a storm. There is honestly very little that can go wrong with the trope and this book was evidently showed how electric it can be. It truly was such an easy and fast-paced read that had little bouts of sexual tension that made it unputdownable.
This was really hard to rate for me. Without giving too much away, the first 65% of the book felt like a 4 -5 star read, full with funny and lovable characters that all had their own charm. However, after that mark something felt so unbalanced and I disliked the way some issues were dealt with alongside some dynamics. Yes, it was unrealistic and the story arcs that were created have been done before, but that still did not take away from how effortless it felt to sink into Olive and Ethan's story. I'm glad the story had no obvious insta-love aspects but during the last quarter there were some cringey lines that felt uncomfortably close.
The Romance All this book really left me with was a strong desire to go pick up more Christina Lauren books. Not very many romance contemporaries can do that for me, so that was really refreshing. The romance between Olive and Ethan was electric, it sparked and flew off the page. I could feel their hate but I could also feel how slowly they dissolved into each others company. I really enjoyed that Olive is a strong woman that learns her self-worth and sticks up for her curves throughout the story. So all in all the romance was charming.
Once the book neared the second half, I could feel my rating drop slightly. I was initially going to give this 4 stars but knew that wouldnt be true to what I thought of the story as a whole. During the end, I started being very cautious about the way that Olive and Ethan solved their problems. With no spoilers, they didn't really solve their problems. Then when a couple chapters passed, there was a massive reveal that I felt needed a bigger reaction from Ethan.
With that being said, I loved the family dynamic and the friendship involved with Olive and her relatives. It didn't feel like it was a filler, it felt like it belonged and made the story all the more delightful. But still, I need more girls to stand up for girls this 2019. I really enjoyed this story and definitely will read more of the authors' works.
Rating: really liked it
4.5 stars - I stayed up later than was probably wise reading this and I have no regrets (yet.. ask me in the morning).
Enemies to lovers. Fake dating. Misunderstanding that isn’t completely irrational. Bickering couple. Protagonist that’s a bit bitter but trying her best. Thanks I love it.
Rating: really liked it
↠ 5 starsHave you ever read a book so romantic it hurts? This left me with an ache in my chest that I can only attribute to Olive and Ethan. Good job guys, now all I want to do is fly to Hawaii and try to recreate your whirlwind romance. The Unhoneymooners takes fake dating, and says, "Lets level this all the way up to fake marriage, except they hate each other" and I love it so much. After Olive's twin sister's entire wedding party comes down with food poisoning, she and the brother of the groom decide to take the honeymoon originally planned for the couple. Doing so means pretending they're married, and that despite all their misgivings, maybe they do like each other after all.
What can I say, I would throw any current read out the window for an enemies-to-lovers story. The Unhoneymooners is by far the best one I have read in the contemporary romance genre. It's a comforting and escapist read that I often return to whenever I feel the need. Reading this for the first time is like being enveloped in warmth. I don't know, the tenderness and yearning really got to me I guess. Christina Lauren have created a story so hilarious and imaginative that watching it all play out is like nothing you've ever read before. The Unhoneymooners essentially said, the real villain is miscommunication, and while I am not a person who usually goes for that, I'm surprised to say I really enjoyed it. However, my favorite thing about this novel is the focus on these two people working towards communicating effectively and building a healthy relationship. What I often see is characters overcoming initial barriers and then riding off into the sunset together without a care in the world, contrary to how life works. This book shows just part of the work that goes into being in a relationship with another person, beyond those initial steps. It also doesn't hurt that the main couple is freakin adorable. Seriously. This book basically made me crave a vacation romance that will never happen. But isn't creating insane expectations and scenarios for yourself after reading a romance novel the whole point to reading them in the first place?
Trigger warnings: cheating, manipulation, toxic relationships, fatphobia, alcohol consumption
