The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
Also by this author: My Favorite Half-Night Stand
Published by Gallery Books on May 14th 2019
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Tropes: Enemies-to-lovers Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley, Gallery Books
Buy on Amazon, Buy on Audible
Narrator: Cynthia Farrell, Deacon Lee
Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
Goodreads

Olive is always unlucky: in her career, in love, in…well, everything. Her identical twin sister Ami, on the other hand, is probably the luckiest person in the world. Her meet-cute with her fiancé is something out of a romantic comedy (gag) and she’s managed to finance her entire wedding by winning a series of Internet contests (double gag). Worst of all, she’s forcing Olive to spend the day with her sworn enemy, Ethan, who just happens to be the best man.

Olive braces herself to get through 24 hours of wedding hell before she can return to her comfortable, unlucky life. But when the entire wedding party gets food poisoning from eating bad shellfish, the only people who aren’t affected are Olive and Ethan. And now there’s an all-expenses-paid honeymoon in Hawaii up for grabs.

Putting their mutual hatred aside for the sake of a free vacation, Olive and Ethan head for paradise, determined to avoid each other at all costs. But when Olive runs into her future boss, the little white lie she tells him is suddenly at risk to become a whole lot bigger. She and Ethan now have to pretend to be loving newlyweds, and her luck seems worse than ever. But the weird thing is that she doesn’t mind playing pretend. In fact, she feels kind of... lucky.

THE UNHONEYMOONERS

by CHRISTINA LAUREN

THE UNHONEYMOONERS is my second book by this author duo and it only cemented my opinion about them. They write hilarious banter, smart humor and sexual tension like nobody’s business. I can’t get enough.

Are you nauseated?” he asks me quietly.
“Beyond at the sight of this? Or you? No.”
“Impending diarrhea?”
I stare at him. “How are you single? Frankly, it’s a mystery.”

Olive thinks she has the worst luck but that seems to turn when she gets the job she applied for an her twin sister and future brother-in-law (and the whole wedding party) are the victim of a severe case of fish poisoning, and Olive and her arch-enemy Ethan, the BIL’s brother, get to take the (un)happy couples place and go to Maui. Although they vow to go out of each other’s way, circumstance forces them together and soon they notice that it’s not a hardship to be in the other one’s presence. The more they talk, preconception and assumptions they made about each other are being seen in a completely different light.

Olive is da bomb. She hates Ethan’s guts and has zero issues to let him know. Her sass, her spirit, her ability to laugh about herself, to learn to get out of her comfort zone, it all is one endearing package. I loved her so hard. Her growth from beginning to end was phenomenal and huge.
Ethan hates Olive’s guts right back and while I didn’t understand his reasons for his animosity (because enlightenment comes later) I couldn’t hate him. He could be so charming and adorable, it was really hard to hold a grudge.

“You think I’m cute?”
“In a gross way.”

Olive and Ethan’s relationship was built on brutal honesty, which came naturally having been enemies and I really loved that. I did have an issue with Ethan’s behavior closer to the end. I thought that his reaction to Olive’s allegations towards his brother was naive. There was glaring evidence that his brother was a douche and why would Olive suddenly start to lie about stuff that wouldn’t have changed their relationship. But we get an awesome grovel so ultimately I wasn’t too mad.

I haven’t felt like this before—this type of intense, free-falling happiness that doesn’t carry with it any unease or uncertainty about me and Ethan and what we’re feeling. I’ve never adored someone with such heated abandon, and something tells me he hasn’t, either.

I adored the family dynamic of Olive’s Hispanic family. They were, of course, always in each other’s business but also had each other’s back.

I love books that make me cackle gleefully and laugh giddily. THE UNHONEYMOONERS by Christina Lauren definitely falls into this category. With its hilarious banter, smart humor, slow burn and sweet storyline it was an absolute delight to read and unputdownable. This is how you do the enemies-to-lovers trope right!