The Honey-Don't List by Christina Lauren was a pleasantly endearing novel. Usually I find CL a barrel of drunken monkeys to read but this book was different. While there were numerous laughs, I found myself in a different, more contemplative mood after finishing the last page. It was a refreshing feeling. I found an added range to the author duo which I thoroughly enjoyed.

What a fun book to read! Carey and James are assistants to the new home designer couple on TV, their job is to keep the couple from killing each other! Is too much togetherness going to work?

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

The Tripps are home design and renovation gods, known for their stores, merchandise lines at big box stores, books, and shows. Carey has been working with the Tripps since she was 16, working day in and day out to keep this empire afloat. Now everything is on the verge of collapse as the Tripps start to publicly get noticed for arguing.

This was very enjoyable, but for a romance book, it wasn’t very romance-centric. The romance just felt like it was more of a back burner plot and the actual fall of the Tripp empire was the focal point. I still enjoyed it, but it just wasn’t quite what I was expecting out of a romance.

I am really loving the range that Christina Lauren has been able to do. The Honey-Don't List is an amazing story that has you on your toes, swooning, emotional and all the things in between. Highly recommend it!

I discovered the writing duo Christina Lauren a few years ago through their Beautiful series, which is still a favorite. I found The Honey-Don't List to have a lighter, more rom-comy feel. With the popularity of married design/build married couples dotting the pop culture landscape these days, it was fun to read about a duo on the staff of one of those couples. Carey and James were so fun together and just plain charming, especially when framed again the backdrop of nightmare bosses Rusty and Mellie. After I read the book, I purchased the audiobook. Patti Murin and Jon Root were new-to-me narrators, and I found both fantastic. It appears that this is a first work for both of them on Audible and I definitely hope to hear more from them in the future. I listened at my typical 1.25X speed and it was perfect.

Good cute story. I really enjoyed the characters. I thought they were all very realistically written. It was interesting to watch a romance begin while another relationship was imploding. A nice escape during these scary times. I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley and the publisher and this is my honest opinion.

I loved this book so much! I really enjoyed the plot, the characters, I loved the romance! I just thought this was a fantastic book and really well written. Christina Lauren can do no wrong in my eyes! Highly recommend this! It has witty banner, a great romance with two awesome characters, and just a fun story.

So I would recommend it for anyone who is a loyal CLo fan, however, I found the emotional abuse and gaslighting from Melissa to Carey (boss to main character) was addressed, presented as bad and never solved. This left a really bad taste in my mouth because when you're a big writer with a loyal following you have an important role in displaying hard topics. I felt like they condoned emotional abuse in this book and said "it's okay when it's a Mom-like character, you can still rely on them", which is a really dangerous notion for a lot of people in triggering situations.

The romance plot itself was good and I did finish and relatively enjoy this book, I just can't in good conscience recommend it.

My first book by this combo author team was The Unhoneymooners last summer and I absolutely loved it. The Honey-Don't List was a cute romance story, but did not have the level of humor I keep expecting like The Unhoneymooners had. The two leads were very likable, but neither was flawed in any meaningful way, which just made this book a sweet romance, with not a lot of drama. All the drama was with two supporting characters, modeled after a Joanna and Chip Gaines type TV couple, but everyone's nightmare version of them. I will continue to check out Christina Lauren novels, but am hoping they will slow down their churning out of books enough to reproduce one that had the impact that The Unhoneymooners had on me. This one was cute and I enjoyed it, though. Thanks to the publisher for an advanced ecopy in exchange for an honest review.

Loved every second of this one! Carey and James are perfect in their roles as aides to spouses on a home renovation show, and when things get real, it turns out they may be perfect for each other too. But there is a lot more to factor in than just their feelings, and the author team of Christina Lauren hits the nail on the head.

This was so fun! I loved the premise of the design/remodel gurus and their assistants trying to hold things together when the couple publishes a marriage book while their own is falling apart. The two assistants, Carey and James, are fantastic together! Love the chemistry between them. The conflict wasn't too angsty (these days have enough angst of their own), but there were legitimate roadblocks the couple had to overcome. I thought there could have been more made of the sort of "learned helplessness" that Carey is living with, feeling trapped in her situation. In the end it turns out she has enough money to have made a switch, so something else was keeping her there. In the end, though, it didn't matter because I was invested in seeing what happened between Carey and James. They might be my favorite couple from a Christina Lauren book. (Language, sex)

[2.5/5 stars] Christina Lauren books are auto reads for me, but this one didn’t quite live up to some of my favorites by them. The premise definitely interested me and I really liked the main characters, but the faux Chip and Joanna storyline ended up being a bust because the characters were so unlikeable (and I love Chip and Joanna!!).

I wish there would have been a little more character development and relationship building between the main characters and less emphasis and details on their horrible bosses. It was a quick read and had some fun flirty moments, but it wasn’t for me.

"I am very clearly the Pigpen to his Schroeder."

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Any quotes I use are from an unpublished copy and may not reflect the finished product.

First of all, I want to point out that the synopsis says Carey Douglass, but the story I read had a Carey Duncan. I'm not sure if it's a typo, or if the authors decided to change the main character's last name after the review copies were sent out.

The Honey-Don't List was enjoyable, but not my favorite book by this duo. I dislike it when the main conflict arises due to a lack of communication or secrets, and that's basically all this book is. Melly and Rusty don't communicate, Rusty is keeping secrets from Melly, Melly and Carey don't communicate, Melly and Rusty are keeping secrets about their business and Cary's involvement, and James doesn't communicate something that eventually turns into a secret. From the moment he said, "I'll tell her later," I knew it would be what came between their relationship. Nobody likes to be kept in the dark, especially when there's no reason for it.

I thought Carey's relationship with the Tripps was really unhealthy. I hate that she stayed with them for so long and let them get away with stealing her ideas and claiming them as their own. It's not really a spoiler, since you learn about it pretty early on (and it's alluded to in the synopsis), but it was a big issue for me in this book. Why didn't Rusty say something, if he felt so bad about it? How was their relationship able to continue the way it did for so long? How had no one ever bothered to tell Carey that she was in a parasitic relationship (before James)? It just wasn't believable that Carey spent 10 years of her life with these people, and they never fully appreciated her or acknowledged how she contributed to their success.

I hated both Melly and Rusty, so following them around the entire time was not a fun experience. Additionally, there's very little time spent between James and Carey, so it was hard to feel invested in their relationship. It was adorable watching them go from teasing co-workers, to hesitant friends, and then eventually lovers, but there wasn't really anything solid between them. At the beginning James mentions his sister and nephews, and I wish we'd delved more into their respective backgrounds. I thought their individual lives were interesting, and think more shared information would have helped them build a stronger connection. The L word was said way too soon, in my opinion. They've known each other for months, and most of that time was wrapped up in other people's craziness.

"Right now I’m looking at Carey’s face, thinking it’s like a song I’ve heard a few times now, and every time I hear it again I like it more."

I like home makeover shows, so I thought that aspect of this book would appeal to me more, but it's not really a focal point. It's always there in the background, but we mostly see the Tripps on tour promoting themselves and fighting. Always fighting. I think seeing some of the behind-the-scenes interactions would have been an awesome addition to the story. Their respective interviews with police officers started off well, but I felt like their questions led you to believe something bigger would happen at the end. After everything was said and done, those snippets felt unnecessary.

The ending really bummed me out. Carey still doesn't know who she is, or what she wants to do. James is back where he started, so it feels like everything he went through was for nothing. Carey's relationship with the Tripps is still complicated and exhausting to experience, and I was left feeling exasperated instead of elated. It wrapped up nicely, sure, but it didn't have any of the resolutions I was hoping for. (★★★⋆☆)

This was a good CLo book but it wasn’t one of my favorites (which is fine because I love so many others! 😂). I liked Carey and James’ friends to lovers trope but I just don’t think this book stands out very much. I will continue to read whatever CLo writes and am looking forward to their next one!

I chose not to post my review on Instagram because I honestly didn't much to say about this book. It had flat characters that never drew me in. Having two couples (one minor, one major) did the major characters a disservice as the minor couple distracted rather than added.

Not my favorite by this great duo. I still love Love And Other Words the most!

From the description, I immediately thought of Chip and Joanna Gaines (Magnolia Table). But upon further reading the real story was that of the Tripps’s assistant, Carey and Jame McCann. See these two are as opposite as you can imagine, but thrust together to work for the Tripp’s. At first they can’t stand each other, but as the book unfolds they begin to not only trust each other, but possibly find love in the least unlikely source. A rom-com worth reading.

Being a fan of Christina Lauren’s books, it’s always a joy to read their latest story. The fun thing about reading their books is that each story is unique from their previous one. Granted, they all still have major romance and sexy times in them, but their stories don’t follow a familiar pattern.

That goes with this one, The Honey Don’t List, which presumably might’ve been inspired by the real-life, now-divorced couple who hosted HGTV’s “Flip or Flop” series. But that’s beside the point, because this is the story about a couple of assistants, or more like babysitters, who have to prevent a popular home designing couple from killing each other as they go on a book tour.

Sounds like a fun story, right? That’s exactly right.

The authors are pretty much all about fun when it comes to writing up their characters and giving their main couple situations that can be hilarious, yet momentous as they deal with their often-developing feelings with each other.

That’s where Carey and James come in. Carey is assistant to Melissa Tripp, the so-called person behind all the home designs that have made the couple famous. And James is actually a structural engineer tasked with the unfortunate job of keeping Melissa’s husband Rusty in line and away from any potential women that could distract Rusty. As it is, Melissa and Rusty are on a book tour for their newest book on having a successful marriage.

It’s not long into the book where you see the problems that Carey and James have as they accompany the famous couple on this tour, and there is, of course, some hilarity involved, but there’s also moments of tension and sadness and all those other human feelings that are relatable to any person that’s been through a relationship.

Overall, like I said earlier, The Honey-Don’t List is fun and heartfelt in a way that my romantic heart craves. Another winner from Christina Lauren.

I’m a big Christina Lauren fan so when I got approved for this arc I knew I needed to read it ASAP! I loved the premise of the book because I love home improvement and HGTV is my channel. Our main couple in the story Melissa and Rusty run a home improvement show but don’t get along and I found it to be hilarious. I loved the banter and the tension they had. I also really liked Melissa best friend Carey and their friendship. The romance in this was cute and I like the characters but half way through the book it got slow and I found myself putting this book down way to often. I really enjoyed the beginning but the middle was slow and the ending wrapped up. I thought the budding romance between Carey and James was cute but wish we had more. Overall it was cute but not my favorite from this duo. 3/5 stars.

Carey had worked for Melissa and Rusty Tripp since she was sixteen and worked in their home décor store. Almost a decade later, as the Tripp’s went from obscurity to fame, Carey had stayed by their side and became an integral, but uncredited, part of their success.

James was hired as an engineer for the Tripp’s mega popular home DIY show but instead found himself thrust into the role of Rusty’s personal assistant. Since his last job ended in scandal, he felt obligated to stay in his role in order to boost his resume before moving on.

The Tripp’s book tour (a book all about maintaining a successful marriage) was about to coincide with a big announcement about the launch of their new TV show. And all of this was happening just as the Tripp’s marriage was imploding. Carey and James were strong-armed into going on tour with Melissa and Rusty in order to keep the peace and ensure their perfect public personas remained intact. And you can imagine just how well that worked out.

While the story is told from James and Carey’s points of view, the focus is largely on the Tripp’s. Their career, their marriage, their drama. It left me feeling like I barely knew Carey and James. And that, in turn, made it hard to feel invested in their relationship and its outcome, or even them as characters. It was easy to empathize with Carey, a young woman who worked tirelessly, had an unhealthy relationship with her employers, and was truly taken advantage of. However, other than a few mentions of her roommates and her brother, Carey had no personal life. Everything about her revolved around Melissa and Rusty Tripp. With James, it was cursory mentions of his former employment and a sister. That was all I learned of James. Again, his story was really told only in relation to the Tripp’s drama.

The Honey-Don't List is billed as a romantic comedy but read more like a sort of humorous look at a marriage going down the tubes and how the fall-out affected those in the wake. Even though it felt very much like the story of Melissa and Rusty Tripp, as told by Carey and James (which was not what I was expecting), it was still entertaining. I enjoyed seeing Carey experience some growth and come into her own. And James was… pleasant. But for me, The Honey-Don’t List was missing much of the charm and humor (and romance!) of Christina Lauren’s previous novels. I think readers who can connect with the HGTV/celebrity aspect will likely get a lot more from this one.

Christina Lauren has been one of my go to authors since last summer. I never thought of myself as someone who reads romance but they definitely changed the game for me. They use the common romance tropes but write them in a way that don't feel overly done and with a handful of humor and wit thrown in.

The Honey-Don't List revolves around the two "assistants" for a Fixer Upper type couple, Melly and Rusty Tripp. While the Tripp's look picture perfect to the audience, Carey and James have to keep them on a short leash in order for their marriage not to explode in front of a national audience. Of course, Carey and James end up finding a confidante and bed partner in one another but obviously challenges arise.

While I don't think this is Christina Lauren's best work, I did enjoy more than their last outing (Twice in a Blue Moon). There weren't an abundance of plot holes, the dialogue wasn't overly cheesy, just the right amount of steam and a gratifying ending. I enjoyed that we did get a decent amount of backstory on all of the characters which did bring them to life a bit more than usual.

I would definitely recommend this book to fans of the romance genre but also to those just looking for a light, fun read to take their mind off the stress of quarantine.