I read a lot of intense books and ones that can be pretty emotional, so sometimes I just need something that makes me laugh. Christina Lauren is a well known name when it comes to romantic comedies and after reading Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating, I knew I needed more. So a good friend of mine and I decided to give The Unhoneymooners a go. What did I think? Keep on reading to find out!

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 are 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.

Review

“The only coherent thought that comes to mind is how insulting it is that eyelashes like his were wasted on Satan’s Errand Boy”

Our main character Olive think she’s doomed to only have bad luck and everything that happens to her keeps on proving that. It doesn’t help that her twin sister does seem to get all the luck, including winning so many thing she doesn’t have to pay for her wedding at all. That luck does seem to change when almost everyone becomes extremely ill after eating food from the seafood buffet at the wedding. I can’t imagine having that happen on what’s supposed to be such a special day, but the way it’s described in this book had me laughing out loud. Also, Olive’s luck seems to turn around, because now that her twin sister can’t go on her honeymoon to Maui, she can! Except she has to go with her enemy Ethan.

I’m a big fan of fake relationships, especially when the couple doesn’t even like each other. To pull off this fake honeymoon, they need to make sure no one finds out they’re not actually a couple! This leads to so many hilarious situations that had me laughing out loud. The banter between Olive and Ethan is so much fun to read and flows really nicely. We all know they eventually will fall in love and I loved reading about this happening. Olive and Ethan realize they may not have valid reasons for disliking the other. Even when they’re happy it’s still funny, because Olive is Olive and can be awkward at times. It was also interesting to see them after the vacation. I loved how much of a homebody Olive is and I can totally relate.

Of course, as in all romantic comedies something comes along that causes some issues. This is where things kind of got weird for me. I felt bad for Olive, because when certain events play out (can’t say without spoiling) it’s sad to see how she gets treated. I really think she could’ve used some more support than she got. That’s also why I think I felt the ending went a bit fast. I felt that Olive forgave everyone awfully fast, but the ending did end up leaving a smile on my face!

Also, I can’t end this review without mentioning Olive’s crazy family. I loved reading about them so much. They may have had their issues, but they take care of their own and really love each other. Every time they were involved I almost always had a reason to laugh. They definitely gave an extra element to The Unhoneymooners that I really enjoyed.

The Unhoneymooners had me laughing out loud and I can’t wait to pick up another book by this author duo! I know I’ll definitely need their holiday book releasing later this year. If you’ve read anything by Christina Lauren, I would love to know what your favorite book has been so far.