The Unhoneymooners on May 14, 2019 Pages: 416
Format: Paperback
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Olive is always unlucky: in her career, in love, in…well, everything. Her identical twin sister Amy, 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.
When this popped up in my email, I wasn’t sure what to think. I’ve wanted to try this author (these authors technically, since they’re a team), but I’m not a huge fan of Contemporary Romances written in first person present point of view. These books always have a certain Rom Com vibe, and while I enjoy Rom Com movies, for some reason, I don’t enjoy that in my books. I don’t like when the heroine is embarrassed over and over (like in Bridget Jones’ Diary for example).
The voice took me a bit to get used to, but the authors are funny and the book seemed fun, so it wasn’t too difficult. I just really don’t love that present tense. I’ve also discovered I don’t usually care for first person point of view in a Romance. It works for me in Urban Fantasy, but it turns out I want the hero’s point of view in a Romance as well as the heroine’s. The main reason is that first person can make for an unreliable narrator.
Olive is maid of honor in her twin sister’s wedding, and her entire life, Olive has always been the unlucky twin. This is a point that is beat into the reader’s head over and over. Seriously. It’s like the driving action for the first chunk of the book. Her sister has won the wedding, the vacation, the dresses, the food, well you get the picture. But what Olive doesn’t see is that entering all those contests is practically a full-time job. Her sister isn’t actually luckier than she is.
Ethan is the groom’s brother. He and Olive have hated each other since they met. Or have they…
There’s a food poisoning issue at the wedding, and Olive and Ethan are the only two who didn’t eat the food. Her sister tells her that she and Ethan will have to go on her honeymoon. The catch is that they’ll have to masquerade as the bride and groom or else they would have to pay for the free honeymoon.
The idea is so cute and fun and totally something I normally enjoy. But this one didn’t completely do it for me.
This book was a mixed bag for me. I almost DNF’d it about 60% in. There’s a scene where they are talking about something important, and Olive makes a skeevy comment. It’s out of character and I hated it. I’m glad I finished the book, but this comment, this stupid throwaway comment was unnecessary.
I also feel like this book was too long. It was fun and funny, and then certain parts of it dragged, or seemed unnecessary. There’s a subplot involving her sister and new husband that I just found frustrating. I won’t spoil it, but I was really surprised that’s the direction the authors went.
I feel like the ending was a great ending, and the book on the whole was good, I just don’t think these authors are for me.
***ARC provided courtesy of the publisher
