There were times that I giggled out loud at an interaction between Olive and Ethan, and times that I blushed at how sweet they were to each other, however overall, this book just didn’t capture my interest.
Olive’s characteristics felt very “I’m not like other girls” and Ethan’s top quality was being Hot. Those character points might work for some readers/other books, but they just didn’t do it for me here – it made them feel like very shallow/two-dimensional characters. I love a good enemies-to-lovers trope, however this one just fell a little flat because it was so one-sided (all of the “enemy” energy was just projected by Olive). Add in the little bit of Olive’s internalized fatphobia, plus my least fav narration styles (first person narrative and single POV), and Dane’s whole cheating plotline, and unfortunately The Unhoneymooners was a miss for me. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book before that’s had so much dialogue or communication between two characters, and still have so much misunderstanding occur; so much was said and yet nothing of significance for so long.
I think the book had its moments (when Ethan got drunk drinking mai tais and also paintballing!), but I can just not get over how deeply both Ethan and Ami dug their respective holes in their relationships with Olive. Like I found some of the things Ami said to be truly unforgiveable and to watch Ethan refuse to address that Dane might have done wrong was icky; the fallout being chapters long and the “grand gesture” being so…bland also doesn’t sit well with me. And to add insult to injury, Olive getting fired on her first day? I feel like we could’ve done something a little different here.
I’m disappointed I didn’t enjoy The Unhoneymooners as much as I had hoped.