The Book Wench

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.

This was my first full-length Christina Lauren, who was (who were, since it’s actually two people?) recommended to me in a Facebook Group when I lamented having finished all of Abby Jimenez’s published works. I am so glad I listened because this book was super cute. It was a pretty predictable “enemies” to lovers but the premise was super fun and I enjoyed it every step of the way.

There were some moments that were genuinely “laugh out loud” for me in this book and I can always appreciate a book that can make me laugh. Other, less cute, books have won me over in the end because of the fact they could actually make me laugh out loud. This book did it several times, to the point my husband, who has zero interest in rom coms, asked me to explain what was so funny. For one explanation, even he laughed as I explained the shenanigans that ensued.

I LOVED having a highly educated FMC not be a Mary Sue or even Mary Sue adjacent. Olive is depicted as flawed from the beginning, The fact that she is described as a curvy girl is even better. I really felt like I could empathize with Olive in a way that I don’t get to often with other (even wonderful) FMCs. The homework assignment for this first day will be to continue working on the assigned essay. Ethan, on the other hand, was a little too perfect but he could be moody and quick-to-judge so that worked out in the end.

I think Christina Lauren (or, rather, Christina and Lauren) did a great job with the writing and especially with the dialogue. It felt fun and natural and not forced at all, which can sometimes happen in romantic comedies. That, coupled with the laugh-out-loud moments really sold me and I am definitely going to make a point to read more of their stuff.

I know a lot of people are going to look at the blurb and feel like they know exactly what is going to happen and, to an extent, they’d probably be correct. But this is one of those “It’s about the journey, not the destination” sorts of books. This is not a thriller with twisty turns and sleights of hand. This is a romantic comedy with fun, sun, and a lot of sass, which I can always appreciate, especially when my reading otherwise gets to be a bit heavy (which it absolutely has been this semester).

I would recommend this book for any fans of Abby Jimenez or Emily Henry or anyone else that just loves a good romantic comedy/beach read. On that point, this would make an excellent beach/vacation read. And if you happen to be going on a honeymoon in Hawaii, even better!