Nearlywed is such an amazing story. Kip and Ray are engaged. They are complete opposites- Ray is a Millennial writer who is used to sharing his whole life through his writing while Kip is a Gen X doctor who prefers to keep his life private and doesn't have a social media presence. Ray and Kip have different opinions about their wedding too- Ray wants a large wedding and a huge celebration while Kip wants to go get married at the courthouse. Both Ray and Kip were previously married.

Instead of having bachelor parties, Ray wants to take an earlymoon in his hometown. An earlymoon is a trip that takes place before a wedding. Ray's parents had one, and he has always dreamed of having his own with his future husband. While on the earlymoon, Ray and Kip meet other couples, and they are forced to think about their relationship and have difficult conversations with each other.

I liked that the story took place over the course of their trip. It allowed the reader to see how things can change in a day. Ray and Kip went through so many emotions on their trip, and their journey showed the strength of their relationship.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for an ARC.

A funny and heartfelt summer read about two gay men taking an 'earlymoon' before they get married which rather than being relaxing seems to bring up all the problems in their relationship they haven't dealt with before. Layered and great on audio narrated by Michael Crouch, this was an entertaining read perfect for fans of authors like Timothy Janovsky. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

It took me a minute to get into this story but then it took hold of me until the very end! If you love MM romance, give this a read/listen! Ray is a millennial and Kip is Gen X. The age gap might not seem that daunting but it is so interesting and eye opening to see the relationship dynamics between the two. And that’s just based on the stigma against gay men at the times they both grew up!

Lovely story!

Up until his divorce Ray was a click bait writer, marriage obsessed since childhood. Since then he’s a pinch more private, a lot more disillusioned.
That changes after a chance meeting with Kip, a bit older and a lot more private. Also divorced, but from a woman (and still mostly closeted, this will be a recurring issue for them)

But time has passed, and now they’re living together in the burbs, and engaged. During the compromises between Ray’s public wedding extravaganza dreams and Kip’s desire for a private courthouse formality, one sticking point was that Ray wanted to go to the same resort his parents did before their wedding for an ‘earlymoon’ - basically a pre wedding honeymoon, which I had never heard of, but sounds kind of awesome if you could swing it.

Ray’s boss wants him to report on it - of course - and to spite Kip’s resistance he goes for it. His interviews are not going as expected. Flirtations to full on propositions, faces from the past, and a series of fights that put his future marriage at risk, all make his earlymoon far from the perfect week he’d imagined.

For me, there were so many points where this read more rom-dram than the expected rom-com. In fact for a while I was actively rooting against this couple (and as someone that demands a HEA with every romance, I’m wasn’t sure what that said about me)
That said, the story was super interesting. I was fully invested in seeing how things turned out, and the ending did not disappoint. I especially liked the final essay/article in contrast to how the story opened.

Nearlywed is an enjoyable different approach in the romance genre. Ray Bruno and Kip Hayes are partaking in a resort's known earlymoon vacation prior to their own wedding. The idea of an earlymoon is an obsession of Ray's since childhood, having grown up near the resort, and his dream of a perfect wedding.
Ray and Kip are a typical opposites attract love story. Ray is the bubbly, social media oversharer and is employed in that field. Kip is a much more private doctor, 10 years older, who prefers to have nothing about his life on social media and has not loudly come out of the closet since his divorce from a woman. These differences come to a head while on their earlymoon, and Ray and Bruno finally learn to communicate the important stuff in order to find their forever HEA.
The author wrote this story entirely from Ray's POV. I normally like to have a dual POV, but the reader could closely identify with Rays's feelings by not knowing the thoughts in Kip's head. I thought the plot was well executed and was strongly written. I would definitely read more books from this author. Nearlywed is for readers who enjoy M/M fiction and do not mind the lack of spice, and for those who want to read about a couple who are years beyond that initial meet-cute and work on real issues about what it means to be committed.
Thank you to NetGalley and Casablanca for an ARC of this book.

After reading a few duds lately, I was in the mood for a pick-me-up, and this book did the trick! Fans of Steven Rowley, Carly Fortune, Emily Henry, and other similar authors will definitely enjoy this heartwarming love story.

I loved this contemporary romance novel about a gay couple who take a pre-wedding summer vacation to an idyllic New England seaside resort. Of course, spending a full week together forces these workaholics, Ray (a writer) and Kip (a doctor), to confront many of the issues in their relationship they had swept under the rug. Ray is a hopeless romantic millennial, while Kip is a previously-closeted Gen-Xer. These differences, combined with a series of mishaps, lead Ray and Kip to question the age-old adage of whether love really can conquer all.

This book is a great choice if you're in the mood for:
*LGBTQ rep
*Second chance romance
*Witty banter
*Small (coastal) town
* Vacation/beach read

Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Sourcebooks Casablanca for this book in exchange for my review!

This book is for anyone who grew up daydreaming about their future wedding. Readers get to watch a wedding-lover dream, and plan, and stress about his big day. I loved the love story in this book, but the miscommunication was so well written that I was pulling out my hair. If you want to see some very real conversations and struggles in a relationship, this one is for you.

This book is definitely a perfect beach read! I absolutely loved the author’s writing style and the flow of this book. The characters were great and were really fun to read about. There were times I was stressed out reading this (in the best way because I was definitely involved enough to care and get stressed, lol) due to the character’s communication, but absolutely loved it! You need to read this one!

Oh how I adored this book, from the very first page I couldn’t stop reading it. I love the tone, the pacing, I love Kip’s voice, the lobsters.

I felt frustrated with both Ray & Kip at different times in the book, but only because I was rooting for them to be happy together so hard. It was my first book by this author and now I need to read everything in his backlist.

I was given an ARC copy of this book and my opinions are my own.

I like the premise here, but the fact that this book hinges on communication issues between people about to get married lost me. I know it’s realistic, but it wasn’t really what I was expecting.

You know when you start reading a book and you just know by the writing style that it’s going to be amazing? Well this book was exactly like that.
This was my first book of Nicolas DiDomizio that I have read however after reading this I will definitely check out some of their other books too!
Nearlywed follows Ray and Bruno, who are complete opposites. They are about to get married but decide to take an early honeymoon at the Earlymoon hotel, a place in which Ray has wanted to go to for years. However once they arrive, both realise that they might have to face their differences for this marriage to really work.
I loved this book. I thought that the characters were written incredibly well and were explored nicely. I love how the author explored two complete opposite views, for example, whilst Ray is completely content with his sexuality being shown to everyone else, Bruno instead doesn’t feel that the whole world should need to know.
The other side characters were also very enjoyable to read about and whilst a lot of the situations made me frustrated I still felt it was important to show different sides to couples and how no one relationship is the same.
Overall it was an interesting and fun read that had me full engaged throughout.

Thank you to both Sourcebook CASABLANCA and NetGalley for sending me this ARC, it was very enjoyable.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Nearlywed by Nicolas DiDomizio was truly the right book at the right moment.

Ray and Kip are about to get married. Ray is a Millennial writer who was used to sharing every single part of his life on the internet, while Kip is a GenX doctor who values his privacy above everything else. When Ray convinces Kip to take a romantic getaway before the wedding at the Earlymoon Hotel, the two will soon realize their marriage may be over even before it begins. And now the question is, will they manage to walk to the altar in two months?

I felt so connected with the character that at some point it was scary. I felt so much for Ray, and like him sometimes I couldn't understand Kip's choices.
But in the end, no one is perfect, and when we care enough about the other person the best thing that can be done is to improve together and communicate.

For the communication aspect, I was to spend a couple more thoughts with you. I read some reviews talking about the miscommunication trope, but here this statement it's so far off that I wonder if these people have actually read the book.
Ray and Kip had indeed a communication problem, but this wasn't due to the fact they weren't speaking to each other or omitting information, but because of internal fears that were clouding their judgments and didn't let them hear or see anything differently than what they had in mind.
It took a lot of work throughout the book, it took being faced by third-party characters and directly clashing with their fears to actually let them open their eyes.

So to round up why I liked this book I can say this:
1. Witty and entertaining writing
2. Relatable characters
3. Creative setting

Also here are some reasons why I sometimes felt like one of the characters in it:
1. I have a Xena tattoo
2. I am allergic to bees
3. I have a fairytale marriage vision due to my parents
4. I love rock music but also anything celeb gossip

Finally, thanks to Sourcebook CASABLANCA and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC, I loved it.

Nearlywed is out May 24th! Put it on your calendar because it is worth it 🥰

4.25

Setting: Connecticut
Rep: gay protagonist and gay love interest

I really enjoyed this take on a romance - where the characters are six years into a relationship but they're still learning a lot about themselves and each other. There were a lot of big conversations and introspection that needed to happen with these two, who at times I thought were doomed as a couple, but I enjoyed how this story played out and how both characters grew over the duration of their earlymoon.

The perfect summer read, Nearlywed is a thought provoking piece about two men who come from different lives, and different generations. With a 10 year age gap between them, Ray comes from millennials who love to share their lives online, and Kip from Gen X who are decidedly more private. They go on a vacation planned by Ray, a hopeless romantic who wants a big grand gay wedding, and there they discover that they might have too many differences between them to really work. I loved how you were forced to understand the nuances between both generations. As a queer man myself, I can understand where both of them are coming from. Kip wants his life to stay private, in that the whole world doesn't know he's gay. He doesn't think the whole world cares and therefore doesn't need to know. I get that. He's right. I do think it's okay to not want every single person on earth to know you're gay. But I also am a bit more reserved. Ray comes from a family that, to his knowledge, loved love. But he quickly learns that his parents love may not have been a true as he thought as a child. It doesn't stop him from wanting to be out and proud, something that there's also no fault in wanting to be. I do think I'd absolutely draw the line at making a New York Times post about it in the paper; A wedding is joyous but you don't see other couples putting their wedding in papers these days, unless they're famous, so why does this one random couple need the publicity? But at the same time, I see where Ray is coming from in thinking that Kip wants to hide Ray and their relationship. Kip does sort of act in a way as if he's ashamed of them at times, and at others, he's absolutely right in his keeping their relationship to himself, but there is a difference between keeping it private and erasing your relationship altogether, something I think Kip is guilty of a lot in this book. I will admit, I came this close to DNFing at around 20%, but I read some non-spoilery reviews to see if others agreed, and a lot of them agreed that while Kip and Ray were messy, that they really did belong together in the end, and so I pushed forward, and I think I found one of my favorite books so far this year as a result.

5/5

Started on 26/04/24
Finished 06/05/24

ARC provided by Netgalley.

Tobstart my review I really loved the writting, the flashback and everything let us see the growth in the character and I really appreciate it.
I am so thankful for the mid thirties and forties gay modern day representations !!!!!
I really like the fact that it's pretry much a normal love story with someone with high standards in terms of romance. You can identify to side of the spectrum and that's really interesting to see. I relate so much to Kip and at the same time I just the hopeless romantic that Ray is.
I had such a great time and it was a one time read in the end.

This was a different kind of rom com in the sense that the main couple was together from the start. That was refreshing in a way but also frustrating. I always find it annoying when a story focuses on miscommunication and occasionally makes me wonder if the couple should really be together.

That said, this was an enjoyable story. I liked all the characters and felt the happy ending was earned. The Lilith Fair references were a fun quirk. The ending left me smiling, even if the road to get there was rough at times.

I read an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All comments are my own.

At one point I thought I wasn’t going to finish this book. I found myself irritated with one of the main characters and then with *both* of them. But I’m really glad I did. The ending was well-worth the drama that happened. As in all relationships, there were misunderstandings and miscommunications. But in the end there was enough love to work through them, and all of the twists and turns at the Earlymoon Hotel.

LGBTQ+. Cute read for anyone who loves New England and is known to romanticize relationships. The main character works through better understanding himself and other relationships around him through some harsh truths, silly run ins, and introspection.

At first, I was pleasantly surprised at how thoughtful this book was, as I had judged from the title and cover that it might be a fairly shallow read. It looks deeply into insecurities related to coming out, co-dependency, relationship communication, trust and how we are shaped by our pasts. I found it well written and related to the main character in his insecurities with his relationship.

I thought the book would go in a completely different direction, though. I was looking for Ray to realize he had given up so much of himself to be in the relationship, to notice that Kip was emotionally closed off and struggling heavily with internalized homophobia, and that Kip was actually not very nice to him at all. I kept thinking he was going to notice that his fiance kind of sucked and that this relationship was no different from the first marriage he rushed into. I thought throughout the book he would find more complete happiness with someone else who accepted him for who he was. When BJ showed up I thought each of them would realize their second mistake and maybe forge out together - maybe not romantically but united.

I was truly disappointed when he ended up staying with the fiance - and I really thought the rest of the book was not leading to that ending. I'm curious if the author made that choice, or if it was an editorial choice to have a "happy" ending? To me it wasn't a happy ending because Kip clearly did not accept Ray and was not far enough along in his own coming out journey. Or - was it a bit of a meta decision? In that Ray hadn't come far enough in his own journey away from being codependent and reliant on a romance to give him meaning, so they are moving forward as a way to show that neither character really grew through this? It felt forced and rushed. I am usually not one to be mad there was a happy ending, but this ending fell flat.

Overall, I really enjoyed and will read more by this author.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Casablanca for the ARC via NetGalley of Nearlywed in exchange for an honest review. It was absolutely a delight to read this one.

Nicolas DiDomizio finds the perfect blend of summer entertainment, wit and whimsy, and affecting purpose in his third novel, Nearlywed. Nearlywed centers on engaged couple Ray and Kip, who are more different than they are alike–both are divorcees, but Ray is a messy millennial who frequently overshares in his work as a magazine writer, while Kip is a Gen X doctor who prefers to keep his private life private and is still adjusting to his gay identity. As their impending wedding approaches, Ray convinces Kip to take an “earlymoon” at the Earlymoon Hotel in his hometown of Seabrook, Connecticut. Ray is a hopeless romantic who has thought of little else but his perfect wedding since he was a child; Kip isn’t even sure he wants to do a first dance at their wedding with so many people staring at them. Not only does Nearlywed dive into the way different generations interact with their sexual orientation and the world at large, but it reminds us that coming out is never easy, regardless of the circumstances. Coming out is a trojan horse, built on the notion of acceptance from others, but often hindering on acceptance of self.

The Earlymoon Hotel is as idyllic as Ray hopes, yet at almost every turn, seems to put Ray and Kip in a situation where their conflicting ideologies and preferences land them at a stalemate. When one of Kip’s old school friends and his fiancé show up, also on their earlymoon, Kip falls back into old territory, pretending Ray is a golfing buddy and shirking away from putting his relationship on display. As tension builds, the question of whether Ray and Kip will even make it to the big day looms. The earlymoon is meant to signal what is to come–ideally, wedded bliss–yet Ray seems to be signing up for a lifetime of deception.

I’ll be honest. I have endless empathy for someone coming out, especially later in life, and the way they have to relearn and redefine themselves… yet, I found Kip’s behavior inexcusable (and dare I say it triggering) for most of the novel. The central mishap centers on the idea that both Ray and Kip are flawed: that Ray is asking too much of Kip when he shouldn’t need to shout their love from the rooftops to feel secure; that Kip can’t force Ray back into the closet, and ask him to be less himself so he can keep up appearances. While it’s certainly complicated, and laid out in a nuanced, well-handled approach, I was teetering on whether I as the reader wanted Ray and Kip to end up together. Marriage requires sacrifice and compromise, but asking your partner to sacrifice who they are for you isn’t the same ballgame. While it’s important that Ray’s fantasy loses a little of its sheen and that he learns that nothing is perfect, a relationship should make you feel good at the end of the day.

I came around of course. It’s hard not to fall in love with DiDomizio’s writing and characters. What’s perhaps most profound and touching is the reminder that Ray and Kip’s marriage isn’t something to take for granted. While embracing your true, authentic self is at times terrifying and uncertain, many generations before us have fought for what we have now… for the opportunity to love openly, for the right to get married, to celebrate, to even dance in front of other people and be stared at, as if to say us too. We’re here too.