**Spoilers Ahead, Read On With Caution**
Now, bare with me, I know I say it a lot and it’s probably very old and boring by now; but this might be a new favourite of mine. Especially for Christina Lauren and Piatkus – after my week last week with Little, Brown Book Group for work experience as a publicity intern, I was brilliantly excited to be able to get a copy of THE UNHONEYMOONERS to read and review. So here we are!
For two sworn enemies, anything can happen during the Hawaiian trip of a lifetime.
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 (ugh) and she’s managed to finance her entire wedding by winning a series of online contests (double ugh). 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 just has to get through twenty-four hours of wedding hell before she can return to her comfortable, unlucky life. But when the entire wedding party – except for Olive and Ethan – gets food poisoning, 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 becomes a whole lot bigger. She and Ethan now have to pretend to be loving newlyweds. But the weird thing is that she doesn’t mind playing pretend. In fact, she feels kind of . . . lucky.
“Don’t threaten me with a good time”
First things first, I love a good story that has the whole enemies to lovers plot running through it. Evident in my favourite books THE HATING GAME, RIGHT WHERE I WANT YOU, HERO and FIGHT OR FLIGHT. Love a bit of tension and misfortunate angst. Olive and Ethan are exactly the couple you want to read about, simply because of their misunderstandings from the beginning, and then continued by never addressing it and smoothing it out. Olive is fun, loyal and larger than life. She’s deeply herself, and absolutely intelligent in her remarks and comebacks to Ethan. Ethan is a bit older, adventurous, somewhat mysterious, and loyal to a T.
“Should I have told them about the time you gifted me that Last Will and Testament software at the family Christmas party? I mean honestly-?” “I was looking out for you loved ones.”
The characters are written in a way where they don’t quite jump off the page, but instead they reach out and yank you inside. You smell the excessive vomit from the wedding party food poisoning, you feel the anger from the honeymoon situation, and you definitely feel all the perks of being in Hawaii. All the breezes, the smell of the ocean, the sun; you’re right there in the middle of it with Ethan and Olive. Their banter is one of the best things about the book, and it’s so fundamental Christina Lauren, that you do find yourself chuckling, squeeing and gasping along with them.
“Rumor has it your dad brought her flowers and she pulled off every petal and used them to spell PUTA in the snow.”
Filled with a cast of vibrant characters, unbelievable scenic descriptions, and flowing conversations it’s the perfect book to kick back and relax with this summer.
Thank you to the ladies at Piatkus for giving me a copy, I loved it!
BECAUSE BOOKS 