The Unhoneymooners - Christina Lauren

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 is a contemporary romance novel released in 2019, by authors Christina Lauren.  It is set in a tropical, romantic destination, featuring hate to love and pretend relationship tropes, and full of humor and wit. It's written mostly depicting the heroine's POV, Olive, who replaces her sister after she falls ill with Ciguatera. On the groom's side, Ethan, his brother, and Olive's nemesis goes on the same trip. 

For all the goodness to be found in a hate to love and pretend relationship trope, this did not seem as exciting as I thought it was going to be. I'm not sure if the hype surrounding it online had something to do with my high expectations. Now... I am not at all saying it's a bad read, it's entertaining if you're looking for a quick, light-hearted read. But the heroine lacked the strong personality I usually look for, she often sounded childish and petulant. The plot, although easy to follow, seemed superficial. The banter between the main characters, though, was engaging and adorable. Something else I liked, was the authors' depiction of Olive's family. As a latin woman myself, I appreciated the boisterous, lively convey of each of her family members, even though, on ocasion, they fell short giving Olive the support she needed.

Up until the moment they went back to the continent, everything was rather sweet and funny, but I feel as if the conflict when they arrived was rushed, hazy, and incomplete. Even though the book seemed realistic going in, apologies were too easily accepted and no time was spent on healing which made it unrealistic in the end. Overall, the book was ok, even though it was rather predictable. If you're at an airport and want a book to spend some time with, this could be the one for you; it won't ensnare you bad enough to make you miss your flight. I give it 3.5 inconspicuous stars.