15 EPIC Books Like The Unhoneymooners

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I love rom-com, so when I stumbled across The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren, I feel like I found exactly what I was looking for; witty, relatable characters and sweet enemies-to-lovers romance plot.

I found The Unhoneymooners really easy to digest, and it wasn’t as fluffy as other romance books. The storyline had me laughing in some places and crying in others.

Needless to say, I was sad when it ended, which is why I looked long and hard for some similar books to fill the void.

If you’re looking for books like The Unhoneymooners, then you’ve come to the right place.

Whether you’re looking for other romantic comedies or you’re looking for something in the enemies-to-lovers romance troupe, I’ve got 15 books to add to your reading list.

Go take a look!


Quick Answer: Top 3 Picks!

Need a book fast but don’t have much time? Don’t worry. Here are our top three favorites.

Our Favourites!

#1 Best Highly Acclaimed Book

The Spanish Love Deception by Elina Armas

  • Written by a New York Times and USA Today bestseller
  • Another fake relationship romance
  • A witty storyline with a slow-burning angst romance

#2 Best High Fantasy Book

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

  • An adorable friends-to-lovers romance story
  • From the New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read
  • Winner of the 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Romance

#3 Best Humorous Fantasy Book

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

  • A tik-tok sensation!
  • The story of two doctors entering a fake relationship
  • Winner of Amazon’s Best Romance Novel, 2021, and Goodreads Choice Award nominee.

Summary of the Unhoneymooners

Before we get into the top similar books to The Unhoneymooners, let’s quickly recap the story. Don’t worry. I won’t reveal any spoilers if you haven’t finished reading it yet.

The Unhoneymooners is about an unlikely duo who previously hated each other, and come together in the most unlikely way.

After a wedding dinner goes wrong and the whole party, including the bride and groom, gets food poisoning, there are two spots on a honeymoon up for grabs.

Olive Torres, the bride’s sister, and Ethan Thomas, the best man, are the only two not to get sick. With a free vacation to Maui up for grabs, Ethan jumps at the chance – but Olive won’t let this annoying man take a trip to paradise alone.

They agree to put their differences aside for the chance of a free trip. The pair begin pretending to be newly weds and to their surprise, they actually enjoy this fake relationship romance. They may even like it too much…


Books Like the Unhoneymooners

Now you have been reminded of the story, it’s time to show you the best books to read if you liked The Unhoneymooners.

1. The Love Hypothesis – Ali Hazelwood

One of our favorite feel-good novels like The Unhoneymooners is The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood. Olive Smith is a third-year PH candidate who has always put her career first.

She has analyzed everything about her life and came to the conclusion that she doesn’t believe in long-term relationships. However, her best friend is a hopeless romantic who won’t get out of her case.

In a rash decision to convince her best friend that her love life is fine, Olive kisses the first man she sees. This man happens to be Adam Carlson, a well-known hotshot professor who is willing to go along with her “fake boyfriend” plan.

Despite his reputation for being a grade-A jerk, Adam surprises Olive with how supportive he is when she really needs someone in her corner. 

Could she be wrong about relationships all this time? This is a heartwarming medical romance novel with a gripping storyline.


2. Ugly Love – Colleen Hoover

Ugly Love tells the story of Miles and Tate, who meet when Tate visits her brother’s apartment.

Despite initially hating each other, they find mutual attraction and eventually develop a physical relationship.

However, Miles is unable to commit to a real relationship due to deep emotional scars from his past, and Tate doesn’t have time for a relationship due to her stressful nursing job.

They enter a “no strings attached” physical relationship. But of course, with all “friends with benefits” relationships, it’s never that simple.

Ugly Love is an enemies to lovers romance book with some smutty scenes and some thought-provoking elements too.

It makes you realize love is complicated and relationships are hard work – though some are worth the effort.


3. The Spanish Love Deception – Elina Armas

The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas ticks all the boxes if you’re looking for a sizzling romance story you’ll come to adore. 

Playful and funny, we read about Catalina Martín’s desperate attempts to find someone who’ll pretend to be her boyfriend for a transatlantic journey to a wedding in Spain. 

Although she cannot tolerate him, her colleague Aaron Blackford seems like the unlikely best choice—rather, the only choice Catalina has—and they embark on a trip that will change their relationship forever. 

Swoon-worthy and steamy, The Spanish Love Deception is a foray into the rambunctious wedding that brings Catalina and Aaron together.


4. The Deal – Elle Kennedy

The Deal is a college romance novel that’s part of the ‘Off Campus’ series by Elle Kennedy but can be read as a standalone novel. It follows a good girl Hannah Wells who has finally met a boy who sparks an interest in her. 

There’s only one thing, though, she’s not confident in the bedroom.

To make him notice her, she steps out of her comfort zone, even if it means tutoring the cocky captain of the Hockey Team so she can set up a pretend date.

Garrett Graham has only ever wanted to play hockey in a professional league but his GPA is threatening his future prospects. When he meets the sarcastic Hannah Wells, he’s only interested in improving his GPA and making it to the professional league.

However, one kiss between them leads to a night in the bedroom they will never forget. Is a deal of a date to seduce another going to cut it for Garett?


5. People We Meet on Vacation – Emily Henry 

Unlikely best friends Poppy and Alex live apart year-round, except for a singular week during summer vacation, which they’ve been spending together every year for a decade.

Until one trip changes everything and creates a rift between them that lasts for two whole years.

Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation is sure to quench your thirst for books like The Unhoneymooners, as it explores the complicated realities of love in the way of Alex and Poppy’s perfect reconciliation and slow-burning love. 

An adorable romance story and the winner of the 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Romance, People We Meet on Vacation is an ode to being true to yourself and your feelings.


 6. Anna and the French Kiss – Stephanie Perkins

What happens when the trip to Paris Anna was loathing turns out to create an ill-advised, irresistible romance? 

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins is a lighthearted novel about relationship.

It blooms between Anna, an Atlanta girl taking her senior year of high school in Paris, and Etienne, whose swoon-worthy accent is a cross between English, French, and American. 

Though Etienne is in a long-term relationship and Anna’s getting serious with her crush back home, newfound feelings between the two blossom. 

Stop your cravings for books like The Unhoneymooners with this adorable romance novel and get transported to Paris, where the big question will finally get answered—will Anna finally get her French kiss?


7. A Not So Meet Cute – Meghan Quinn

Meghan Quinn is a USA Today bestselling author, and A Not So Meet Cute is one of my favorite pieces of hers. It’s a romantic comedy about a desperate billionaire looking to find a fiancée.

Often described as a modern-day Pretty Woman, this hilarious billionaire romance novel will have you howling throughout.

It starts when Lottie, a good girl who was just fired, decides to stroll around a wealthy neighborhood in Beverly Hills to search for a husband.

That’s when she bumps into Huxley, a man she takes an instant dislike to…but agrees to marry him anyway. But why?


8. The Hating Game – Sally Thorne

Lucy and Joshua love to hate each other—they’ve created an endless competition in their shared workplace, caught in a deadlock in Sally Thorne’s The Hating Game

The two are at opposite ends of the spectrum, Lucy with a laid-back, easygoing attitude, and Joshua who stays reserved all throughout. 

It’s a high-stakes game for Lucy, who’s gunning for an upcoming promotion, but she finds herself looking forward to more than just that as the situation progresses.

It all comes crashing down when they share a passionate kiss during an elevator ride. 

If you’re looking for more books like The Unhoneymooners, give this novel a chance to get your heart-wrenching and get lost in the angsty romance between these two office rivals.


9. Beach Read – Emily Henry

Beach Read is a great rom-com novel about a romance writer who no longer believes in love. 

Augustys Everett is an acclaimed author or literary fiction, and January Andrews writes bestselling romance. The only problem is they are both stuck with writer’s block.

To find inspiration, they have been sent by their publishers to a beach house, where they will spend three months working on their next book.

Until one evening when too much wine leads them to strike a deal – Augustus will write romance, and January will write the next Great American Novel.

The pair take each other on a series of dates to inspire the other with their novels. 

At the end of the three months, each will finish their book, and no one will fall in love…


10. It Happened One Summer – Tessa Bailey

Tessa Bailey’s It Happened One Summer is a romance novel to read if you’re itching for books like The Unhoneymooners

After an unfortunate party mishap, Piper Bellinger, Hollywood “It Girl”, gets thrown into a world she can barely stomach—Westport, Washington, the small town she was born in. 

Everyone, including herself, thinks she won’t make it, but the desire to prove them wrong burns strong as she does her best to get acclimated to this small new world where everyone knows each other. 

Worst of all, burly sea captain Brendan, who challenges her at every turn, won’t get out of her sight. But as the story develops, so will Piper’s feelings—finding belonging in a place where she otherwise never would have thought to look.


11. The Kiss Quotient – Helen Hoang

If you’re looking for a heartwarming romance read after The Unhoneymooners, then you will love The Kiss Quotient

Stella Lane loves data, and she thinks math is the only thing that connects everything in the universe. 

Her job is to come up with algorithms to predict customer purchases — a job that pays well but doesn’t allow for much time for dating.

Stella also has Asperger’s, and she’s not too confident with kissing. She decides she needs to practice with a professional. 

She then hires an escort, Michael Phan, a Vietnamese and Swedish heart throb who agrees to help her tick off the boxes on her list. 

Soon she not only learns how to kiss, she learns to appreciate them, and even crave them – as well as all the other things he’s making her feel. 

Their strange partnership turns into something that starts making sense. Stella must learn that love is the best kind of logic.


12. Every Summer After – Carley Fortune

Persephone Fraser has spent every vacation for the past ten years in the city with friends until one day, she receives a call to go racing back to Barry’s Bay, a place where she made the biggest mistake of her life.

Here she bumps into Sam Florek, a man from her past who she never thought she would live without.

Every summer for six years, they spent hazy afternoons by the water and the evenings working in his family’s restaurant. 

Percy and Sam were inseparable. But when that friendship turned into something more, it quickly fell apart.

When Percy comes back for Sam’s mother’s funeral, the connection is still as undeniable as it had been. But Percy has yet to confront the biggest mistake of her past.

The story is told over six years and one weekend, and offers a glimpse of a relationship that stands the test of time. This is a heart warming second chance romance novel that will restore your faith in love.


13. The Cheat Sheet – Sarah Adams

Bree Camden is hopelessly in love with a hot quarterback and good friend Nathan. He’s the package deal; smart, funny, and talented.

Only she’s convinced that Nathan doesn’t feel the same, like their polar opposites. When Bree accidentally let’s slip how she feels to a reporter, she is forced to fake date Nathan for three weeks up until after the Super Bowl.

Nathan is putting on a show for the cameras, and it does nothing to help Bree control her feelings. It’s only three weeks, but can she fight it? Is this going to end in tears or will Nathan see Bree as more than just a friend?

This is one of those best friends to lovers books that’s full of angst and promise.


14. The Wedding Date – Jasmine Guillory

Alexa Monroe is usually hesitant to go out with guys she’s not familiar with, but Drew Nichols is different. She finds him irresistible and agrees to go to his wedding even though she knows it’ll be uncomfortable.

On the day of his ex’s wedding, Drew is minus one. He has to find a plus one for the festivities, but he gets stranded with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend.

After enjoying an evening of fun with each other that they never thought possible, Drew has to leave for Los Angeles the next day.

It resumes his job as a pediatric surgeon, while Alexa heads home to Berkeley to continue her work as the mayor’s chief of staff. 

Unfortunately, they can’t help but think about each other all the time.

The two professionals are on a collision course toward the long-distance dating disaster of the century–or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want.


15. Say You Do (A Wedding Bells Alpha Novel, Book 1) – Weston Parker

Cyrus’s brother is getting married, and the beautiful florist, Luna, has been tasked with helping him pull off the big day.

Faced with the fact that he will be seeing his ex-wife at the wedding, he asks Luna to pose as his fake wife.

The only thing is, Cyrus doesn’t want Luna to be his fake wife after the wedding. They decided to be friends with benefits, which turned into fake relationships, which soon became real. She’s ready to commit, the other not so much.

This good billionaire romance novel series is one rollercoaster ride that keeps you hooked throughout.

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books like the unhoneymooners

Final Word on Books Like The Unhoneymooners

So there you have it, those are fifteen books similar to The Unhoneymooners, and as you can see, there are a lot of great choices to choose from.

Whether you enjoyed the hilarious scenes and comedic elements, the enemies-to-lovers troupe, or the slow-burning romance – you’ll find something you like from this list.

Do you have any more books like The Unhoneymooners to suggest? Let us know in the comments.

Disclaimer: This website uses affiliate links, meaning I may earn a commission if you make a purchase through a link at no extra cost to you.

Last Updated on March 20, 2023 by Louisa

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About Louisa

Editor/Founder - Epic Book Society

Louisa is the founder, editor, and head honcho of Epic Book Society. Once a published poet at the age of 7, she aspired to become a journalist, but that career hit a wall so here she is writing about books instead. When she's not writing about books, she's teaching English to primary school kids around the world.

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