Antonia Bernardin

My 25th book of the year was The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren. This had a big moment on booktok for a while and I’m always dubious and big books on there but this ended up on too many rec lists for me not to try it.

A summary attempt

Olive is the unlucky twin, that is just an established fact, until the day of her sister’s wedding that is. Amy is the lucky twin and her aggressive competition and giveaways entry campaign in the lead up to the wedding has meant she’s gotten most of her dream wedding for free, including the honeymoon. The twin’s luck seems to switch though when the (free) buffet makes the entire wedding party, including the bride and groom, sick. The only people who were safe was Olive, thanks to shellfish allergy, and her least favourite person, the brother of the groom who has a thing against buffets.

Not one to loose out on a free vacation, Amy insists her (identical) twin sister goes on the non-transferable prize vacation in her place but to her great displeasure, Ethan was also offered the groom’s place. When neither of them will back down from a free holiday for the other, they decide to put up with each other for the chance of a dream vacation. They only have to pretend to married at check-in and then they should be able to go their separate ways (apart from sharing a room that is). Until Olive bumps into her new boss at the spa, where he overhears her being called ‘Mrs Thompson’ by the masseuse. They hope they’ll only have to pretend for one night longer, as her boss leaves the next day, when Ethan runs into his ex, who is already engaged to someone else.

Forced to keep up the act, they start to find themselves enjoying each other’s company…. is it the dream vacation, or could Ethan and Olive maybe not be enemies after this?

My thoughts

You know what? I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book. It’s funny, I liked the characters and the male lead is not some grumpy, unlikeable asshole for a change. The female MC is witty, sarcastic and so real. Obviously, the concept behind this book is ridiculous but somehow, the author makes it work and it doesn’t feel silly because who wouldn’t take a free 10 day holiday in Maui? I listened to this as an audio and it was literally making me laugh out loud, I even had to pause it once while driving because it was distracting the hell out of me, where normally I don’t struggle to listen to audios and drive.