This was such a funny and heartwarming story! The fake dating trope was handled so well, and I simply adored the main characters! Olive and Ethan had such an interesting dynamic right from the beginning, and seeing them evolve all throughout the book was not only fun to read but was so cute!
The only thing I wasn’t too happy with was the plus-size representation. Olive did not read as a fat person, the only thing that was plus-sized about her was her breasts. It could have been handled way better.
(3.5)

How have I never read a book by Christina Lauren before? This hit all the right spots for me and I am so happy I was able to read it.

First though a warning there is a particular scene at around the 8-10% mark that I feel I should warn you not to read if you are currently eating too. It really put me off the rest of my dinner - it did set up the reason why Olive and Ethan are going on their siblings honeymoon despite hating each other.

They do though need to pretend to be a pair of inlove honeymooners, not just so that the hotel doesn't force them to pay or kick them out, as the honeymoon was won in a competition with strict terms and conditions, but when they run into first Olive's new boss and Ethan's ex-girlfriend, well things become a bit more complicated than they first imagined.

The continual bickering between Olive and Ethan really amused me, and I absolutely adored the variety of activities they took part in. From Snuba to Paintballing, oh and the couples massage is priceless. For a pair that didn't want to spend any time together, they are now actively wanting to do things together, while they are on their holiday of a life time, an all expenses paid trip to Hawaii.

I loved their dynamics, but also enjoyed seeing Olive's relationship with her twin sister Abi, and Ethan's with his brother Dane, and from conversations more about Abi and Dane's relationship too. If that sounded complicated it is. but it isn't, at least it isn't confusing!

I was amazed just how large a family Abi and Olive have, they seem to have about a million aunts, uncles, cousins all clamouring for their time but its also clear they are a family with a lot of love.

This book was a delight to read, on a sunny day in the garden and I think it will also be perfect poolside / beach reading as and when restrictions ease.

I definitely need to read more from this author, and I absolutely adored this book!

Thank you to Piatkus and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily,

I am a big fan of Christina Lauren's books and this one was actually one of my favourites. I loved how the characters really hated each other, and I adored how the authors brought them together slowly. The parallel story of the infidelity of their siblings was also great in the way that it unfolded. This was a really great read, perfect for summer.

Really good read. Would recommend to friends and family. I could sympathise with characters (important for any fiction novel!) and looked forward to picking it up and reading the next few chapters! Interesting plot line and a good ending. Will look out for more novels by the author. Thank you.

3.5 stars

Olive Torres is accident prone - if something is going to happen, it's going to happen to her. So imagine her surprise when, at her twin sister's wedding, it's not her who gets food poisoning but all the other guests! Well, except for the groom's brother Ethan. But every single other person has been affected - in hindsight, a free seafood buffet was not the best idea. Ethan and Olive have never seen eye to eye, they actually hate each other. However, right now, they have to put their antipathy aside because Ami - that's Olive's sister - is sending them on her honeymoon! In Maui! This trip simply can't go to waste. They decide to give it a go - well, there are so many things to do in Maui, they don't have to see each other, right? Wrong - they meet Olive's new boss and then Ethan's ex - fiancé and so they're forced to play a happy newly - wed couple which results in misencounters, misunderstandings and misadventures. And growing chemistry between the two of them... But not everything runs smoothly in paradise...

Olive, after my initial confusion, because I have to admit that the beginning was somewhat hard for me, what with the negative dynamics between her and her sister Ami, I wasn't sure what to think about their sisterly relationship where one sister clearly uses the other one and the other one allows this meekly, turned out to be a very colourful and entertaining character, and a very accident - prone one. Sometimes she didn't know when to stop talking, and it was a bit surprising for me, because at first she truly looked like a sheep without her own voice and opinions, however as soon as she was alone, without her huge family around her, she always turned into a chatty and sharp young woman.

The love - to - hate relationship doesn't evoke such extreme emotions in me as in many other readers, so it seems, but of course my like and dislike depends on the way it is written. Here it worked. It was sharp, genuine and with the right dose of chemistry between the characters.

I think that adding Ethan's perspective would be a great and refreshing idea, as we hear only Olivia's point of view. Yes, they talk to each other, of course, and they are relatively open with each other but reading Ethan's real feelings would be so much fun, don't you think?

The story was brilliant and funny until it wasn't, to be honest. I absolutely enjoyed the plot, and trip to Maui, the banter between the characters, the growing interest between them, it was truly hooking and funny for the most part. But then it started to feel too old and too utilised and repetitive and I thought that if I read the "I hated you/you hated me/do I hate you now/do you hate me now" conversation, I'm going to start to cry. It. Was. too. Much. And it stopped being funny. Also, the end is very, very rushed and I was screaming for more plot development, not only going around in circles, taking us and the characters where they needed to be at the end. The book was also full of stereotypes and things that didn't sit so well with me, like body - shaming and with the characters turning out to be very slim, but it's not deep enough to go into this - I've just noticed those things on a side note and I'm truly not in a mood to tear the book apart because of them, but they could be for sure better done, with more sensibility. Things happen very conveniently but this is why I've reached for this book. I'd say that the pace was rather on the slow side - it takes about half of the novel before things start to move forward and it's not only the banter.

Altogether, "The Unhoneymooners" is a light, easy and entertaining read with some great one - liners. The banter between the characters is smart and witty and pushes the plot forward. Ultimate beach read for this summer. The humour was absolutely my kind of humour which made the book one of the funniest - just what the doctor ordered.

This book has received a lot of hype and I can see why. From the very first page I was hooked. Reading other reviews, I expected a fun, laugh-out-loud comedy and was not disappointed! Whilst the plot was very obvious and predictable, I couldn't get enough of it and it was just the kind of perfect escapism I needed during these dark times.

I loved the characters and was invested in them right from the start. The way they each grew through the story was palpable and honest. I loved it, start to finish. The story was delivered with candor, vulnerability and humour with surprisingly insightful moments exploring male/female perspectives, luck and choices.

I've already added more Christina Lauren to my wish list, and can't wait to read more from her.

Thanks so much for my copy of the Unhoneymooners. I thought it was a brilliant laugh out loud rom com and I was rooting for the unlikely romance to blossom the whole book! Love the idea of winning a dreamy holiday like this too, so it did have me wanting to enter competitions when I'd finished reading so maybe a dream free holiday might come my way one day!

I have just finished this little gem!
The opening is humorous and engaging with some serious wedding faux paus. The plot is dramatic, sexy and romantic. I loved the characters, especially the whole Torres clan. There is a slime bag but what is a good chick lit novel without one?! I have really loved this book and have enjoyed escaping to Maui with the Unhoneymooners.
4.5 stars simply for the fact that there was some editing issues due to it being an #ARC, which meant I missed out on some of the text messages which added to the drama throughout.
Thanks to @netgalley for this copy and @christinalauren for this wonderful book ♥️
Perfect for chick lits fans everywhere 🤩

What happens when, instead of the bride and groom, the Maid of Honor and Best Man are forced to go on honeymoon?

Olive Torres has the worst luck on the planet, her inexplicable mishaps being meme-worthy. Ami, her identical twin, on the other hand, is the eternal champion of good luck. She has managed to finance her entire wedding, dress and honeymoon included, by winning a series of contests. Unfortunately for Olive, the only thing worse than her constant bad luck is having to spend the wedding day with the best man and her sworn enemy, Ethan Thomas.

It seems, though, that Olive’s run of bad luck may be ready to turn. When the entire wedding party – except Olive and Ethan – get food poisoning, there is an all-expenses-paid honeymoon up for grabs. Out of a job, this is Olive’s only chance for some fun and she isn’t about to let Ethan enjoy paradise by himself.

Setting their mutual hatred aside, Olive and Ethan head to Maui, determined to avoid each other for the next ten days. When a chance encounter results in Olive’s tiny white lie spiralling out of control, they are forced to pretend to be the luckiest newlyweds. Olive, it seems, doesn’t mind pretending, after all.

The book has all the flamboyance of a Mexican-American family. It’s what brings out Olive’s character. Then there is Ethan, who is nothing like her, and she is surprised by how little she knows him, which is about when the can of worms starts to fall apart.

So what if you can see what’s coming from a mile away. The point is it’s a fun, cute, rom-com, perfect to carry on your next holiday, and since we don’t foresee those for a while, reading this might just feel like you’re dipping your toes in the balmy ocean.

The Unhoneymooners By Christina Lauren. Published in May 2020. This ARC courtesy Of Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group UK.

This is my first book by this author, so i dint know what to expect but the more i read, the more i was interested and before i knew it, it had ended. Must read.
We begin with twin sisters, Ami is getting married and then we have Olive, not Olivia. Ami is the slimmer more sucessful one whereas Olive struggles with most things and that includes just getting a job. Ami enters so many competitions and usually wins them all so when the wedding is won who is she to turn it down? Olive is in the most awful green dress as a bridesmaid and is one of two guests who doesnt eat the seafood buffet, lucky for her and Dane other than they HATE each other for whatever reasons and law and behold every single person at the wedding gets sick..
Beforte we know it, the only two who arent sick are twin sister and Dane, yes they cannot stand each other but for their free trip to Hawaii, they must pretend to be married. Luckily for them they kow noone in hawaii, until Olives new boss is in the same hotel along with the slim sexy Ex of dane, things cant get any worse can they?
They plan their days with fun activities whilst hating each other and being offerred drinks of an evening. Time progresses and Dane ad Olive discuss their reasons why neither likes each other and a few home truths come out about Amis new husband who happenes to be Danes brother. All in all, they have a great trip and by the time they arrive home they are an item... until danes brother flirts with Olive and with what shes been told by Dane she offers no chances and goes to tell Ami but she doesnt believe her., They fall out until Ami realises her husband is in fact a philandering dog. She catches him out and rekindkled her twin sister in the process but can Olive forget whats happened and trust dane again. Within a day of getting a new hob, she looses it as fast and Olive isnt feeling too good.
This is a great book, i thought it ended rather abruptly and i wanted another chapter or two but thats because it was so good.

This was JUST the right book for week 1000 of lockdown and a sunny bank holiday in the garden. The classic enemies-to-lovers romance trope is given a fresh twist by making protagonists Olive and Ethan the siblings of newly-married couple Ami and Dane, whose disastrous wedding buffet-induced food poisoning leaves only seafood-allergic Olive and buffet-avoiding Ethan* well enough to take the free honeymoon. Dane is a pleasingly sleazy and villainous antagonist, while Olive and Ami's huge Latinx family bring the heart-warming comedy. Recommended for fans of Jennifer Weiner's intelligent, complex rom-coms.


* in a post-Covid 19 world, his stance on buffet foods seems extremely sensible

The Unhoneymooners is the sort of book that doesn't know what it wants to be. From a structural point of view, it's a mess. The first half is a silly rom-com reminiscent of Hating Game, which I rather enjoyed. The second half is filled with family drama which really made me uncomfortable.
There's a huge "he said/she said" situation in the second half. And of course, our honourable hero doesn't believe the heroine. Even though the facts are all in front of him, he decides to follow the path of 'willful ignorance'. I hope I won't have to explain how wrong that is.
By the end, I was really against this ship and hoped they won't end up together. If the heroine had ended up alone this would have received a much higher rating. But sadly, this book tried so hard to sell me this super problematic romance with this super problematic love interest.
And I'm honestly so done with that shit.

In the interests of full disclosure, I don’t read romance novels. I’m not sure that I’ve ever read a romance novel in my life. I decided to give this one a chance because I’m trying to widen my reading preferences, and I’m also trying to keep an open mind about new genres in the hope that I’ll find a new one to love.

Now that that’s out in the open, I can say that this one was just okay for me, but that’s a me-problem and not a book problem. After giving this one a try, I’m fairly convinced that the romance genre isn’t for me and it’s not going to be one that’s going to appeal to me going forward. As most of you know, my favourite genres are thrillers and crime novels, and the darker the better. I like weird and twisty plots, I like dark, evil characters and warped minds. It goes without saying that those requirements aren’t going to be found in your standard adult romance novel and so it was probably wishful thinking to imagine that I may love a romance novel. And that was true of this novel too. I found it to be very sweet, girlie, feminine, above board and flowery. For me, it felt a little bit superficial and lacked the pull and the draw that often hooks me in thriller novels. While I was reading this book, it all seemed a little bit pointless. There was nothing there to stretch my imagination, to get my bloody pumping or to make me feel like I was really being entertained. I was just plodding along, turning the pages without much emotion.

I won’t labor the point, and so let me just say that I decided on a 3-star rating because I didn’t want to be unfair to the book or the authors. The fact that the romance genre isn’t my cup of tea isn’t their problem. This is a well written book and the story does have a good pace to it. There are some interesting characters and overall, I can see how people will be entertained by this one. Personally, it didn’t do much for me and a true reflection of how I felt would probably be a 2-star rating, but that just doesn’t seem right. If you’re a fan of romance novels, then give this one a chance. It’s not a bad book. As for me, it’s back to my pile of thrillers to find my next read.

I really enjoyed this one. I have been reading loads of romance during the lockdown to help my sanity and devoured this one in two sittings. A really clever mix of tropes – enemies to lovers, forced proximity and fake dating – alongside some brilliant banter. It was really funny and touching. I might have enjoyed a bit of Ethan's POV through the story though.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

An Unintentional Honeymoon.....
Two sisters, one best man, one wedding and an all expenses paid trip to paradise. Ami is getting married, sister Olive is not. When full blown food poisoning afflicts the whole wedding party excepting Olive and best man Ethan the pair head off for an unintentional honeymoon. A Summer romcom which will transport you to the sun soaked island of Hawaii for a short while. Ideal escapism.

Another great read from romance author duo, Christina Lauren! An enemies to lovers story, this book is ideal for lockdown - transporting you to a sunny holiday when you’re stuck inside at home!

The Unhoneymooners was so much fun and proper escapism! Ami and Olive Torres are identical twin sisters. When Ami marries the love of her life Dane Thomas, everyone at their wedding falls sick with food poisoning bar Olive and Ethan, Dane's brother. So Olive and Ethan get to go on Ami and Dane's honeymoon to Maui, Hawaii... But there are a couple of massive catches - they are arch enemies and they have to pretend to be married!

Things get really hilarious when they start bumping into people they know from their Minnesota hometown, and Olive and Ethan have to put on a show to make everyone believe they are actually married. Olive begins to realise that she doesn't mind spending time with Ethan and masquerading as his wife. Maybe he's not as bad as she thought he was - and maybe she can't get enough of being with him. But how much of their deceptive behaviour is real and what parts are an act? What will happen when they leave paradise and go home to Minnesota?

The Unhoneymooners includes some terrific characters that I found myself really rooting for. Christina Lauren also peps things up with some spicy scenes, and there is bucket loads of great humour, that regularly had me chuckling away to myself. Even though I could predict most of what happened I was still so hooked on the story and charmed by it, that this was irrelevant. This novel pulled my emotions in every direction - it is witty, smart, sexy, and such a joy to read.

The Unhoneymooners is definitely one for fans of bright, fun contemporary romances, or if you just want a lighter book to divert you from brooding thrillers.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Little, Brown Book Group UK/ Piatkus via NetGalley and this review is my unbiased opinion.

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.

I’ve wanted to read Christina Lauren for what feels like an age and I am SOLD. I’d been interested in reading them for a while, their romance books, particularly this one, get mentioned a lot over on booktube and I’ll admit, I was curious, so I thought I’d start off with this. Honestly, I think fake romances that become something more might be my new jam (you’ll see why later in this post!).

As far as the writing goes, this isn’t the most incredible book in the world, but it was a lot of fun and I adored all the sarky banter between Olive and Ethan and honestly, it was so sweet in places that I may need to see a dentist as soon as the lockdown is lifted! The beach scenes were enough to fill the adventure sized hole in my life and Ethan and Olive’s story has made me consider reopening my Bumble account or something…

You can always rely on Christina Lauren for a feelgood rom-com and The Unhoneymooners is certainly no exception to that rule! Delightful characters, a light but not fluffy storyline and an exotic island setting - it's a recipe for a read that will whisk you away for a few hours and help you forget your troubles. I'm not sure this book is quite the 'enemies to lovers' that it's billed as (they're not really that antagonistic, even at the beginning) but the premise was very fun regardless. Like a free holiday to Maui, it's the perfect escapism!

This was my first time reading a Christina Lauren novel and I was so impressed! I had quite high expectations as I’ve seen a lot of people posting about their books, but wow. I fell in love with this story, hard.

I loved Olive from the very first page. She was likeable and funny, and I was truly invested in her storyline. I wanted so bad for her to be happy. And Ethan, oh my god, SWOON. He was a delight. Every time he smirked or laughed I fell a little more in love with him (just like Olive did).

I love romance fiction as it is so comforting and fun to read and this is a perfect example. The plot was fast paced and entertaining, the characters were great and the setting was amazing. It really made me crave a holiday. Fake dating is one of my favourite romance tropes and I loved all the scenes between Olive and Ethan when they had to pretend to be in love. The paintballing followed by the couples massage was a particular favourite of mine. But, let’s be honest, the whole book was a highlight for me and I loved every second of reading it.

This book warmed my heart and made me laugh out loud at so many points. It was the perfect form of escapism and was so much fun. Thank you so much to Little, Brown Book Group UK for gifting me this wonderful book via #netgalley. It was such a great read and I cannot wait to read more Christina Lauren books!

(Review will be posted to @marthabethanreads blog and Instagram on Monday 19th May).