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The Honey-Don't List Book Review

Christina Lauren books always hit the right notes. In The Honey-Don't List, there's a fun concept with excellent execution, combined with the right amount of romance and character growth, and ends on a beautiful high note. All of this makes The Honey-Don't List my absolute favorite Christina Lauren novel to date! 

Christina Lauren is the combined pen name of longtime writing partners/besties Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings, the New York Times, USA Today, and #1 internationally bestselling authors of the Beautiful and the Wild Seasons series, Twice in a Blue Moon, The Unhoneymooners, My Favorite Half-Night Stand, Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating, Love and Other Words, Roomies, Dating You / Hating You, and Autoboyography. You can find them online at ChristinaLaurenBooks.com and @ChristinaLauren on Instagram and Twitter. You can find more of my reviews of their works here. 

Carey Duncan has worked for home remodeling and design gurus Melissa and Rusty Tripp for a decade. A country girl at heart, Carey started in their first store at sixteen, and—more than anyone would suspect—has helped them build an empire. With a new show and a book about to launch, the Tripps are on the verge of superstardom. There's only one problem: America's favorite couple can't stand each other. James McCann, MIT graduate and engineering genius, was originally hired as a structural engineer, but the job isn't all he thought it'd be. The last straw? Both he and Carey must go on a book tour with the Tripps and keep the wheels from falling off the proverbial bus. Unfortunately, neither of them is in any position to quit. Carey needs health insurance, and James has been promised the role of a lifetime if he can just keep the couple on track for a few more weeks. While road-tripping with the Tripps up the West Coast, Carey and James vow to work together to keep their bosses' secrets hidden and their own jobs secure. But if they stop playing along—and start playing for keeps—they may have the chance to build something beautiful together . . .

I was instantly drawn in by the concept of The Honey-Don't List, which can basically be described by the question: what if Chip and Joanna Gaines actually hated one another? I can easily see how the Tripps were borne out of this question—two people under one brand which can be defined by their easy marriage and great home remodeling company. The way Casey easily slotted in as Melissa's and Rusty's company as their assistant/almost-daughter/designer was also seamless/ With all of this, Christina Lauren is able to really layer in a bunch of different types of tensions, from marital, familial, workplace, and personal tensions between these three character. And then, they threw James into the mix, and it was the perfect recipe for an unputdownable read. 

Usually I don't always buy into romance stories where the characters only interact over the course of a few days and fall in love. Usually, that's too close to instalove for me. But with Carey and James, I really felt that they could have had this forced proximity relationship that bloomed into something more, in about a week or so timeline. Especially since they were always in such a high-stakes environment, those emotional connections were a lot deeper, and longer-lasting. And since Christina Lauren always does such a good job describing how the characters utilize their time apart, it makes that reunion at the end that much sweeter, and that much more genuine. I loved the romance between these two, and how it always juxtaposed the marriage of Melissa and Rusty! It just made their happily ever after that much happier.

I also adored how we're introduced to this story from all angles. Christina Lauren expertly balances two main characters' first-person points of view, while also layering Twitter threads, news articles, book reviews, and excerpts from the Tripps' book. Doing all of this created a whole world and an external understanding of the Comb+Honey brand, which contrasted nicely with the characters' internal understandings, and all of which  worked wonders on making this whole world feel instantly believable. I mean, I almost expected to open Instagram and see Carey's designs on an official Comb+Honey account! That's how well Christina Lauren is able to build an empire, and then write truly authentic and believable characters into it.

I can't wait to pick up my next Christina Lauren read. Until then, you can find them online at ChristinaLaurenBooks.com and @ChristinaLauren on Instagram and Twitter. You can find more of my reviews of their works here.

*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*

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