The Unhoneymooners: Let’s Talk About Dane and Ami
Image of book provided by author for purposes of book review and discussion. Copyright © 2024 Christina Lauren. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Love must be one hell of a drug and the fog must be a force field because if Dane’s cheating wasn’t obvious; his consistent lack of concern for Ami and her needs should’ve tipped her off to the fact that he didn’t give a rats booty cheeks about her.
He clearly wasn’t a good candidate for marriage. I mean it almost felt like she was in an unrequited relationship.
Him throwing up on her wedding dress felt purposeful like he was punishing her. He turned directly towards her and puked all over it.
You mean to tell me he couldn’t turn towards the floor, everyone’s least favorite uncle, cup his end of the table cloth up, literally anything else other than his new bride?
Then he goes on to leave her alone while she’s sick. Not just once but twice.
You would think that two sick people who not even an hour ago vowed to stick together in sickness and in health, would stay together in one of the two bridal suites and try to take care of each other, right? Nope.
While Dane stays peacefully alone, recuperating in one. Ami is left in the other with multiple cousins and her mother, all of which are also sick. Then when he’s feeling better, he’s out and about while she’s sick at home.
Clearly, he’s not worried about her in the slightest and Ami consistently brushes things off and makes excuses for him.
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He’s never there for anniversaries or holidays because he’s out cheating and using his brother as an excuse.
Seriously, every single special occasion? He can’t manage to stick around for a single one and yet she never suspects a thing? Her response is to just blame Ethan.
It should seem to her at the very least they need to have a serious conversation because Dane is either too scared or just incapable of saying no to his brother.
Don’t even get me started on the fact that he offers up the honeymoon -you know the one that Ami worked her butt off apply to sweepstakes for- to his brother without even checking with her first.
Then when Olive and Ethan get back from the unhoneymoon and they all agree to meet at a bar to hang out, Dane gets there before her and is completely unconcerned about where she is. He doesn’t even attempt to check in. Just assumes she’s at work.
Meanwhile, at the very first opportunity he is alone with Olive, he starts hitting on her. His wife’s twin! Even though he knows Olive is with his brother now!
Like girl, he doesn’t like you! What are you missing? The flags are crimson!
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Another thing I’m going to nitpick about this story is the fact that Dane just left five month old messages of the women he was cheating with on his phone? For real?
I’m not saying I’m shocked he didn’t delete the numbers. He’s a sleazebag. Of course he’s not going to delete the numbers. But if he hasn’t hooked up with any of these girls in five months, why keep the evidence?
Is he so arrogant that he won’t get caught or can talk his way out of it that it doesn’t even cross his mind to delete them?
….Never mind…don’t answer that….
Ami’s Treatment of Olive
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Despite how Ami treated her after she revealed the truth about Dane, Olive still misses her and needs her as she’s going through her own crap with Ethan.
I wish I would miss a sibling that said all that horrible stuff to me after telling them about their cheating spouse. I understand it’s human nature to shoot the messenger. But all of that was way below the belt.
We have no evidence to suggest that Olive doesn’t try at things. Yes, she may give a little too much belief in having bad luck, but that doesn’t mean she never tries at anything.
I mean we know she’s a scientist with two degrees, who just so happened to lose her job, and has actively been searching for one since. That doesn’t sound like a person who doesn’t try to me.
It could be argued that she never tried to find her dream job until now. But that’s irrelevant. Some people just get a degree they know they can get and a job that pays the bills and that’s fine.
Out of Olive’s relationships mentioned, we mostly get humorous antidotes where she had bad luck while out with them, not necessarily because of them.
We only know of one, where she felt he lost attraction to her for loosing her cool a little and that was the end of the relationship. We can assume Ami knows that, but that is not reason enough to believe she doesn’t try in relationships either.
Ami claimed that Olive gives too much power to the curse of bad luck but she believed it as well. In the beginning of the book, she tells Olive to leave her wedding dress where it is instead of bringing it to her because she didn’t want it to get messed up.
It’s fair to assume this is because she also believes Olive has bad luck. Now why you would bother asking someone you believes has bad luck to steam iron your wedding dress in the first place…
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Ami and everyone else comes for Olive about her being jealous of Ami. Now Olive may not be the most reliable narrator.
Even though she says she’s not jealous of her twin, loves her for her outlook, and wants the best for her, it could still be true that she is jealous.
However, we are never given any reason to believe she is. She is a pessimistic person (not that there’s anything inherently wrong with that) but during the course of the story, she has never said anything bitter towards her sister.
We certainly don’t have any evidence of her saying that Ami never had to work for anything. It seems to me like that was Ami’s own insecurities projecting. I just think she took it too far.
Ami’s revenge on Dane was nice. But then she doesn’t even have the decency to warn her sister what the plan is or that Ethan is coming by at all.
Then again why would she? That doesn’t serve the plot point of: Ethan finds out the truth (that was literally right in front of him the whole time).
She said, “oh I think he owns you an apology.” When she had yet to give a more thorough apology to Olive about the part she played in all of it. Maybe it would have been better to focus on that before she started dictating others.
Also that’s not for Ami to decide. It’s up to Olive if she wants to give Ethan anymore of her precious time whether it’s for an apology or not.
Her deciding to go meet with Ethan because “he didn’t hurt her, Dane did” is one thing but there was no need to drag Olive further into it.
I would also say he did hurt her when he decided not to even broach the conversation with his brother to get some honesty out of him about their relationship.
He had all the keys to the information once Olive pointed everything out to him and he willfully stayed in the dark, content to leave her there as well.
At the very least, this could have left her heartbroken and at the most, in a very vulnerable and unsafe position. Ever heard of an STD? Dane is not exactly the brightest crayon in the box. We can’t exactly expect him to be safe.
Aaaannnd if he hurt your sister, he hurt you! I mean you could at least show Olive some sisterly support and sibling loyalty after everything you said to and about her.
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Rating: They needed to leave those brothers alone!
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