The Unhoneymooners - Christina Lauren

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

First Paragraph(s):

In the calm before the storm--in this case, the blessed quiet before the bridal suite is overrun by the wedding party--my twin sister stares critically down at a fresh painted shell-pink fingernail and says, 'I bet you're relieved I'm not a bridezilla.'  She glances across the room at me and smiles generously.  'I bet you expected me to be impossible.'
     It is a statement so perfectly dropped in the moment, I want to take a picture and frame it.  I share a knowing look with our cousin Julieta, who is repainting Ami's toes ('It should be more petal pink than baby pink, don't you think?'), and gesture to the bodice of Ami's wedding gown--which hangs from a satin hanger and on which I am presently and painstakingly ensuring that every sequin is lying flat.  'Define bridezilla.'

My Thoughts:

After posting a query to everyone a few days ago seeking advice for my choice of first book to read in 2020, I totally ended up reading another book, The Unhoneymooners.  I actually picked this one because it had flowers on the cover and I was looking for something to go with my 2020 word 'BLOOM'.  Ha!  Plus, I read a few paragraphs and started laughing and just continued on.  I did like this book and it has been a while since I read a book that could easily be a good romantic comedy movie.  In it, Olive and Ami are twins.  Ami is lucky (or so Olive thinks) and always has been.  If something bad could happen, Olive is the twin that experiences it.  All the way from childhood.  However, even though Ami won practically everything for her wedding free, including Olive's crazy green satin maid-of-honor gown, the seafood buffet ends up making everyone very ill - everyone but Olive and Ethan, the groom's older brother and best man.  Now Olive and Ethan have met before, but neither liked the other (or so it seemed).  Ami insists on Olive taking her place on the 'free' honeymoon in Maui and Dane, the groom, insists the same for Ethan.  And the comedy begins.

This is the first book I've read by Christina Lauren, who is actually two people, Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings.  Their books have been quite popular and I'm glad I tried this one.  Was it perfect?  No and I did get a little tired of some things, but overall it was a nice 'first book' for 2020.  Cheerful, snarky, and even a little poignant.  Olive and Ethan find out that they are not so different in many ways and Olive discovers that life isn't all 'lucky' for Ami.  Wonder if it will be made into a movie?  Now I'm off to find my next book...what to pick...

Blurb:

Olive Torres is used to being the unlucky twin: from inexplicable mishaps to a recent layoff, her life seems to be almost comically jinxed. By contrast, her sister Ami is an eternal champion . . . she even managed to finance her entire wedding by winning a slew of contests. Unfortunately for Olive, the only thing worse than constant bad luck is having to spend the wedding day with the best man (and her nemesis), Ethan Thomas.

Olive braces herself for wedding hell, determined to put on a brave face, but when the entire wedding party gets food poisoning, the only people who aren’t affected are Olive and Ethan. Suddenly there’s a free honeymoon up for grabs, and Olive will be damned if Ethan gets to enjoy paradise solo.

Agreeing to a temporary truce, the pair head for Maui. After all, ten days of bliss is worth having to assume the role of loving newlyweds, right? But the weird thing is . . . Olive doesn’t mind playing pretend. In fact, the more she pretends to be the luckiest woman alive, the more it feels like she might be.