The Honey-Don't List
by Christina Lauren
Publication Date: March 24 2020
Publisher: Gallery Books
Pages: 308
ISBN: 9781982123918
Genre: Romance | Contemporary | Adult Fiction
Source: ARC
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Synopsis: Carey has worked for Melissa and Rusty Tripp since she was 16 years old. She started out in their store and then found herself in the role of Melissa's assistant, now that Melissa & Rusty are home remodeling and design gurus. Carey has been behind the scenes, helping them to build their empire.
James, an MIT graduate, found himself hired as a structural engineer for the Tripp's. This is a fantastic opportunity for him since his last job ended in a shocking whistle-blowing scandal. However, James finds himself filling the role of Rusty's personal assistant and babysitter - a position he didn't sign up for.
With their new book about relationships about to drop, and their new designing TV show set to launch, Melissa and Rusty are off on a book tour. There's only one problem, Melissa and Rusty can't stand each other, and Rusty has been up to some questionable behavior. Forced to keep them in line, Carey and James have to travel with them on their tour, a job neither of them wants to do.
Review: I love Christina Lauren books, anytime I see a new one being released it automatically goes onto my to-read list. The reviews for this book were pretty low compared to others so I was apprehensive about reading it, thinking that perhaps I wouldn't like it nearly as much. Thankfully I decided to give it a shot because I ended up really enjoying it. It's very unlike their other books though, it doesn't have a really funny storyline or a really touching story, which is typically the directions they take.
I found the characters hard to relate to. Carey was one of the only characters that I found a tenderness for. Melissa came across as this awful human being with no decency at all. Rusty's character came across as a fratboy who was only interested in drinking and sports. It was hard to picture that they were ever happily married when they both seemed to loathe each other so much. James' character was kind of bland. That being said, the relationship that was starting to develop between James and Carey was really sweet.
“I want to make her life better by being the best thing in it.”
― Christina Lauren, The Honey-Don't List
Overall I would say that the story had a lot of potential but there were also quite a lot of missed opportunities. Melissa's behavior is never really dealt with, and that's a shame. Carey was the genius behind the entire company and looked at Melissa and Rusty like parental figures. Yet, Melissa treated Carey awfully, and took advantage of her the entire time, without any repercussions.
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