Books like The Unhoneymooners

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne is the office-bound cousin of The Unhoneymooners' vacation comedy. Lucy and Josh sit at adjacent desks, competing for the same promotion and tracking each other's every move with an intensity that screams attraction.

Thorne and Christina Lauren share a talent for writing physical comedy that doubles as sexual tension, turning elevator rides and eye-contact battles into foreplay. Both novels feature heroes who appear antagonistic but are secretly paying obsessive attention, and both heroines are competitive women who read hostility as safer than vulnerability.

The Hating Game runs at a slightly higher emotional register than The Unhoneymooners, digging deeper into its characters' family wounds, but the fundamental pleasure is the same: watching two people who claim to hate each other slowly run out of convincing reasons. Thorne's single-setting approach (the office) creates a different kind of claustrophobia than Christina Lauren's Hawaii resort, but both use confined space to force honesty.

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry follows Poppy and Alex, best friends who take an annual summer trip together, through ten years of vacations and the fallout from the one trip that ruined everything. The vacation structure parallels The Unhoneymooners directly: both novels use travel as a pressure cooker that strips characters of their routines and forces them to confront feelings they have been avoiding at home.

Emily Henry writes with more emotional weight than Christina Lauren typically does, spending more time inside her characters' heads, but both authors understand that comedy and heartbreak serve each other. Poppy and Alex's dynamic, like Olive and Ethan's, runs on the tension between what they say and what they mean.

Both novels use alternating timelines to build suspense around a central question: what went wrong, and can it be fixed? Henry's book is longer and more introspective, but readers who loved The Unhoneymooners' vacation energy will feel right at home.

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren pairs cynical single mom Jess with geneticist River Pena after a DNA test reveals they are a record-breaking romantic match. Same authors, different premise, but the same talent for writing slow-burn chemistry between two people who think they should not work together. Where The Unhoneymooners uses a fake marriage as its engine, The Soulmate Equation uses science, but both books build on the gap between what data (or circumstance) says and what the heart knows.

Jess shares Olive's skepticism and her protective instincts, and River shares Ethan's quiet steadiness. The single-parent element adds stakes The Unhoneymooners does not have, since Jess is not just risking her own heart but her daughter's stability. Christina Lauren brings the same comedic timing to both books, with witty dialogue that moves fast and physical comedy that grounds the romance in real bodies.

If you loved their voice in The Unhoneymooners, this is that voice matured slightly.

The Layover by Lacie Waldon strands flight attendant Ava Greene in Belize with Jack Stone, a cocky former pilot she has clashed with for years. Their mechanical delay turns into a weekend at a luxury resort, and their rivalry turns into something they did not plan for. The structural similarity to The Unhoneymooners is almost mathematical: two people who dislike each other, trapped in a tropical paradise, forced into proximity by circumstances beyond their control.

Waldon writes with a breezier, more escapist tone than Christina Lauren, leaning harder into the resort fantasy and lighter on the emotional complexity. But the comedic pacing is similar, with short chapters that end on hooks and banter that accelerates through each scene. The travel-industry setting (Ava is a flight attendant contemplating retirement) adds workplace dynamics that parallel the professional awkwardness Olive faces when she runs into her boss in Hawaii.

Both books deliver vacation romance with a side of personal reckoning.

It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey drops socialite Piper Bellinger into a small Pacific Northwest fishing town after her stepfather cuts off her credit cards. There she meets Brendan Taggart, a crab boat captain who has no time for her Hollywood nonsense. Bailey writes with more overt heat than Christina Lauren, and the small-town setting trades Hawaii's resort polish for something grittier and more lived-in.

But the enemies-to-lovers arc follows the same beats: mutual disdain built on surface-level judgment, forced proximity that reveals hidden depths, and a gradual thaw that makes the eventual payoff satisfying. Piper, like Olive Torres, is underestimated by the people around her and has to prove herself in an unfamiliar environment. Brendan, like Ethan, is a reserved man whose intensity comes through in action rather than words.

Bailey writes longer and steamier than Christina Lauren, but the comedic bones and the character arcs rhyme closely enough that one naturally follows the other.

The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas sends Catalina Marti to her sister's wedding in Spain with Aaron Blackford, the coworker she cannot stand, as her fake date. The fake-relationship-at-a-family-event premise is the direct bridge to The Unhoneymooners, and both novels mine the comedy of maintaining a romantic facade while privately wanting to strangle each other.

Armas writes at a longer, more indulgent pace than Christina Lauren, giving the slow burn more room to develop. The Spain setting adds cultural richness that Hawaii's resort backdrop does not quite achieve, grounding the comedy in real family dynamics and generational expectations.

Both books feature heroes whose apparent coldness masks deep caring, and both feature heroines whose stubbornness is both their greatest strength and their biggest obstacle to happiness. The wedding context raises the stakes similarly to The Unhoneymooners' honeymoon setup: there is an audience, and the performance must be convincing.

Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren tells a dual-timeline story about Macy Sorensen and Elliot Petropoulos, childhood best friends who shared a closet where they read books and traded secrets, reuniting years after a devastating falling-out. This is Christina Lauren at their most emotional, and the tone is quite different from The Unhoneymooners' comedic romp.

But both books share the same understanding of how proximity creates intimacy, how two people build a private language through shared space, and how a single misunderstanding can fracture something that seemed unbreakable. The past timeline in Love and Other Words, which follows Macy and Elliot from ages eleven to eighteen, builds the kind of slow ache that The Unhoneymooners achieves through its bickering: you know these two belong together long before they do.

This is the pick for Unhoneymooners readers who want the same authors going deeper emotionally.

Sarah Adams's The Cheat Sheet hands Unhoneymooners readers the same easy banter and pent-up longing, just swapped into a sports-romance frame. Bree Camden has been in love with her best friend Nathan since college, but he is now a star NFL quarterback and she is the dance instructor who keeps telling herself friendship is enough.

When a publicist drafts a fake checklist of relationship milestones to boost Nathan's image, the two start acting out a romance neither of them is sure is fake. Adams keeps the tone light and the dialogue quick, the way Christina Lauren does, and the slow reveal that both leads have been pining for years lands with real warmth.

The story leans tender rather than spicy, so it suits readers who loved Olive and Ethan's reluctant truce. A breezy, feel-good pick for anyone who wants the next charming romcom in one sitting.

Coming straight from the Christina Lauren shelf, Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating is the obvious next stop after The Unhoneymooners. Hazel is loud, messy, and proudly herself, while Josh is the buttoned-up guy who once watched her throw up on his shoes a decade earlier.

Reconnecting as adults, they decide they make better friends than partners and set each other up on a parade of terrible double blind dates, each one funnier and worse than the last. The same voice that made Olive and Ethan crackle is here in full, with snappy chapters that alternate between the two leads.

Watching them insist there is nothing between them while the reader sees the truth a mile off is the whole joy. Warm, goofy, and genuinely sweet, it is comfort reading for anyone who wants more of this duo's signature charm.

Abby Jimenez's The Friend Zone opens with the same kind of zippy banter Christina Lauren fans love, then quietly digs deeper. Kristen meets Josh while planning her best friend's wedding, and the two fall into the kind of fast, funny rapport that makes them perfect for each other on paper.

The catch is that Kristen is hiding a medical reality she believes makes a future with him impossible, so she keeps trying to push him into the friend zone while their chemistry refuses to cooperate. Jimenez balances laugh-out-loud texting and bickering with a genuinely moving emotional core, which gives the romance real stakes.

Readers who want the Unhoneymooners wit but also a story that earns its tears will find both here. It is the rare romcom that can make you snort-laugh on one page and tear up on the next.

Elena Armas's Practice Makes Perfect is the underrated companion to her viral Spanish Love Deception, and it gives Unhoneymooners readers a fresh take on the fake-romance trope. Lina Martin plans dream weddings for a living but cannot get her own love life off the ground, so she hires gruff, reserved Cameron to give her flirting practice before her sister's wedding.

The lessons are supposed to be purely instructional, which of course means the lines between practice and real feeling blur fast. Armas writes the grumpy-sunshine dynamic with the kind of slow-building tension and playful sparring that fans of Olive and Ethan crave.

It flies under the radar compared to its predecessor, but the small-town wedding setting and the steady warmth between the leads make it a cozy, satisfying read for anyone chasing more low-angst fake-dating fun.

Lyssa Kay Adams's The Bromance Book Club is a charming oddball pick that earns its place for the same reason Christina Lauren works: a high-concept comic premise wrapped around real tenderness. Pro baseball player Gavin Scott is blindsided when his wife asks for a divorce, and his teammates introduce him to their secret weapon, a clandestine book club where Nashville's toughest men study romance novels to fix their love lives.

Using the steamy Regency they are reading as a playbook, Gavin tries to court his own wife back. Adams nails the banter-heavy male friendships and the slow, funny work of winning someone over, and the second-chance romance gives it the emotional punch Unhoneymooners readers expect under the comedy.

It never got the BookTok blowup it deserved, which makes it a perfect hidden gem for fans of clever, warm-hearted romance.

Sarah Hogle's Twice Shy is a quieter, dreamier take on the enemies-to-lovers thaw that powers The Unhoneymooners. Maybell Parish inherits a charming house in the Smoky Mountains and arrives ready for a fresh start, only to learn she has to share everything with Wesley, the grouchy groundskeeper who has his own plans for the property.

The two clash over the future of the house while slowly discovering the soft centers under each other's defenses. Hogle writes with a whimsical, interior style, leaning into Maybell's vivid daydreams and the gentle work of two guarded people letting their walls down.

It is lower on banter-fireworks and higher on cozy charm than Christina Lauren, but the forced-proximity grump-meets-romantic setup hits the same sweet spot. A warm, escapist pick for readers who want their enemies-to-lovers with a softer, more tender glow.

Abby Jimenez's Just for the Summer, released April 2024, is the recent romcom Unhoneymooners readers should reach for next. Justin has a strange reputation online: every woman he dates finds her soulmate right after they break up.

When Emma, who has the exact same curse, messages him, they hatch a plan to date each other so their jinxes cancel out and they can both move on to real love. The setup is pure romcom fun, complete with a rented cottage on a Minnesota lake and crackling banter, but Jimenez layers in heavier family material that gives the story real depth.

It delivers the lighthearted fake-dating hook fans of Olive and Ethan want while pushing the emotional stakes further. A warm, current pick for readers who like their romcoms funny up top and tender underneath.

Tessa Bailey's Wreck the Halls, released October 2023, gives Unhoneymooners readers a festive, opposites-attract romp with plenty of banter. Melody Gallard restores old books and dodges the spotlight, the quiet daughter of a rock legend.

Beat Dawkins, the charming son of her mother's old bandmate, is everything she is not, and the two of them are thrown together on a madcap mission to convince their mothers to reunite for one last show. The childhood spark between them reignites fast as they bicker and scheme their way across the project.

Bailey keeps the chemistry warm and the pace quick, in the playful low-angst register Christina Lauren fans love, with a holiday backdrop for extra coziness. A fun, recent pick for readers who want forced-proximity, a sunshine-and-introvert pairing, and a romance that goes down easy.