I gave myself a few weeks to write The Unhoneymooners review for a few reasons. One, I somehow felt conflicted about the book. Two, I just didn’t feel up to writing. Which has been happening a lot lately. I read this book mostly in one day. I was on my road trip back home from college. Squished by my belongings from over four years, I opened this book, ready to go on my own mental vacation.
Goodreads Summary
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.
Personal Review
I will admit, I did go into The Unhoneymooners thinking there were explicit spicy scenes for some reasons. Even though there really wasn’t, I absolutely LOVED the tension. The chemistry between Olive and Ethan was beautiful, palpable even. It was one of the most realistic relationships I have ever read.
I loved Olive. She was relatable and felt like a real person. The themes that the authors delve into with The Unhoneymooners were brought up consistently and woven into the plot seamlessly. Coming from a big hispanic family myself, I found plenty of parallels. I laughed at certain dynamics between cousins, aunts and uncles, parents. The nosiness and gossip that travels at lightening speed in Olive’s family, is unique to this book. The way the family comes together when one person is struggling is heartwarming.
I liked the fact that this book went beyond the vacation. A lot of books I feel would have cut off soon after the honeymoon. The main conflict right at the end of the trip and the characters reconcile after the trip. It gave more insight to how day-to-day life would have been like. The Unhoneymooners felt like such a genuine book complete with the descriptions of a traditional Hispanic family that made it heartening.
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