The Honeymoon Crashers (Unhoneymooners, #1.5) by Christina Lauren Also by this author: Roomies, My Favorite Half-Night Stand, Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating, Love and Other Words, The Unhoneymooners, Twice in a Blue Moon, The Honey-Don't List, In A Holidaze, The Soulmate Equation, The True Love Experiment
Series: Unhoneymooners 1.5
Published by Simon & Schuster Audio Originals on August 1, 2023
Genres: Romance
Format: Audio Book •Source: Scribd
Goodreads
Ami is determined to break the Torres family wedding curse. Her own disaster of a reception ended with all the guests getting food poisoning, and she left her cheating husband soon after. But even though she’s still processing her own divorce, Ami won’t let her twin sister Olive’s day be anything but perfect. Olive may think she wants a private ceremony in Maui, where she and her fiancé Ethan first fell in love, but Ami knows better and secretly flies the whole Torres family out to surprise the couple. Now she and her meticulously organized binder have less than two weeks to get everything together for the big day, thousands of miles from home.
Enter Brody, Ethan’s best man, who happens to be living in Maui and insists on helping with the preparations. His playfully elaborate schemes and happy-go-lucky attitude are the last thing Ami needs. When sparks start to fly, could it derail all her carefully laid plans?
This was cute! I hadn’t listened to an audiobook in a looong time prior to this, but I was curious about it and thought I heard it was only available via audio (?) and when Spotify Premium informed me that I had access to audiobooks through my subscription, I thought why not? And proceeded to put it on during a day of catching up on chores around the house.
And it was so good! I think this was my first audiobook with a full cast and it made SUCH a difference (normally I feel sort of second-hand cringe when a female narrator is doing the male love interest’s voice, and vice versa). Also there were some subtle yet well-placed sound effects (ocean waves, gentle chatter, etc) that really lent itself to the atmosphere of the story. I definitely need to look up a list of more audiobooks with these traits because now I am hooked.
The story was cute and a nice callback to one of CLo’s popular novels, The Unhoneymooners. Now it’s been a hot minute since I read that one (4.5 years according to my blog!!) but I found the story pretty quickly coming back to me through references in this one. Following Olive’s twin sister Ami (yes, that Ami with the unfortunate seafood poisoning wedding), the story returns the characters to Maui for Olive’s wedding this time, where Ami has to team up with Ethan’s childhood friend Brody who seems like her complete and total opposite.
Because this is a romance novel, Ami inevitably warms to Brody and his laid-back ways over the course of the two week or so wedding planning. Their story was cute and realistic (with Ami initially trying to ditch him every chance she got, lol) and Brody of course turning out to be ~more than meets the eye~. I really LOVED seeing Olive and Ami’s giant hispanic family congregating on Maui for the wedding (the family scenes were hilarious, and OMG I need cousin Nat to have her own story!) It was also really fun just reading about the island vibes as Ami and Brody explored various spots on the island as part of the wedding planning process.
Overall: This was sweet, fun, and perfect for what it was- a quick novella! Honestly I think this was an excellent idea and would love to see CLo explore more of the secondary characters from their previous stories in novellas like this one!
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