The Unhoneymooners (Unhoneymooners #1) by Christina Lauren

 

Summary (from the publisher): 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.

Review: When Olive's twin sister's wedding goes south and everyone ends up getting sick except for her and the groom's brother Ethan, her sister encourages her to take the honeymoon trip she had planned. The only problem is that Ethan has hated her since the first time they met. But once they embark on the trip, force to play along with the charade that they're a happily married couple, the pair begin to realize they might actually like each other?? And Olive realizes that maybe Ethan didn't really hate her all along. 

I read The Paradise Problem by this writing duo and immediately sought out another title by them. This one had similar themes - fake dating, finding love on vacation, and horrible family members complicating the relationship. It took a little bit longer for me to get hooked into this story, but once Olive and Ethan were embarked on their trip, I was all in. I loved all the funny scenes on their trip of them running into her new boss and his ex and also the time they had to bond and the honest relationship they develop. This was far more closed door than the other book I've read by these authors. 

I thought it was fun that Olive has an identical twin but yet they are so different in terms of personality. Also, it was such a random but fun character point that her sister is obsessed with entering contests and wins so much free stuff. Really spoke to my thrifty, free-stuff loving heart! I am looking forward to getting more of the sister's story in the next book. 

This book was a solid four stars except for something Ethan does near the end of the book that I found really difficult to forgive. It turns out that Ethan's brother (who is married to Olive's twin sister) is AWFUL. Obviously, this is not Ethan's fault. But it does complicate their relationship. At a key juncture, Ethan takes his brother's side over Olive's. I get that that is his brother. But I'm not sure I could have forgiven him considering the details of what happened. I would take this down a half star for that reason alone. Other than that, this was such a fun read and great on audio. 

Stars: 3.5 

Related Title: 

• The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren