Series Review: The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

Series Review: Is this series worth your time? Does it get better as the novels progress? Or does it get worse? Find out below:

Synopsis for The Unhoneymooners (from 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.

SERIESous’ Top Picks: Must Read Author
Author: Christina Lauren
Series: The Unhoneymooners
# of Books: 2 (Full Reading Order Here)
Book Order: Connected
Complete?: Yes
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Heat Rating: Warm
Point of View: First Person, Single (#1); Alternating (#1.5)
Publication Dates: May 2019 – August 2023
Source & Format: Public Library–Paperback (#1); Audiobook (#1.5)

Why I Picked it Up / My Expectations:

I didn’t actually have this book on my immediate radar but that changed when I was on a recent cruise vacation. My Kobo didn’t sync like I expected and I didn’t have internet onboard so I hit up the ship’s library and found this. With only 24 hours to read it before we disembarked, I set out to devour this (which wasn’t all that hard as you’ll read below).

The Plot:

I love Christina Lauren’s more rom-com based romances. The ones that focus more on the fun and the characters than sexy times. This book was so much fun! Watching these two navigate the seemingly endless obstacles thrown their way was both hilarious and charming. It was so easy to get lost in this story and just keep flipping the pages.

The Characters:

I’m just as unlucky as Olive sometimes so I easily connected with her character. She’s so funny and I love how she challenges Ethan at every turn.

Ethan nails the silently brooding charmer role. He is had me from page one with his witty retorts to Olive. But there is more to his character than even Olive knows, so I enjoyed watching her uncover that.

The Romance:

This was such a good slow burn romance! I loved their chemistry and their banter. Every scene between them was just a treat to read with the tension just simmering between them.

My Audiobook Experience (#1.5 – The Honeymoon Crashers):

So the sequel novella is actually an audiobook original. I loved listening to a full cast of characters give us this extended epilogue and wrap up some of the loose ends from the inaugural novel.