This is a fun and funny read about family, found family, and getting a chance to hookup with your childhood crush later in life.

I loved Julia’s humor, inner monologues, and commitment to getting Kim to like her. The author does a great job of balancing a lighthearted tone with a more serious and tender one in several key moments in the story. Ben was such an endearing character that I was rooting for him and wondering if he would end up being the final love interest. An enjoyable read overall. 3.5 stars.

Thank you to Ballantine and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

BEST WOMAN, the debut novel by Rose Dommu, is beautiful and surprising. The rom com is back, baby!! Ok, well it never really left, but this romantic book with multiple nods to MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING was so hard to put down and kept leaving the biggest smile on my face.

Julia Rosenberg has been tasked with being her brother's best woman at his upcoming wedding. Julia, living her best life in NYC, has to travel back down to Florida and see her entire extending family for the first time since transitioning four years earlier. She is also coming face to face with her high school crush, the maid of honor Kim Cameron. A little white lie grows bigger and bigger as Julia tried to get closer to Kim, all while juggling her family dynamics and the feeling that anything could wrong at any minute.

This book was so fun and I absolutely loved Dommu's singular voice. My only complaint was the Florida bashing (despite the Publix sheet cake love). We're not so bad! But other than that, it's a perfect queer coming of age story for today and I think Dommu is a bright new voice in fiction that people are going to adore.

This was a good solid read. I enjoyed the writing style, it’s my first book from this author. the characters were well done and fleshed out which I loved. I wish the romance was a little more alive as it felt more like a family drama than romance. Overall a good read though.

Best Woman is follows Julia, a trans woman, and her band of queer friends as help prepare her for her brother’s upcoming wedding and her role as best groomsperson. Oh, and it just so happens that Julia’s high school crush, Kim, is the best woman. The best kind of messy, queer drama ensues as Julia gets caught up in a lie to impress Kim.

This book made me emotional!! I thought it was a realistic and beautiful take on trans and queer lives. I loved going on the self realization and acceptance journey with Julia. I loved her friends, especially Daytona - she is a gem. The humor was a little millennial coded, but I can take that at face value. Also, the ending was sweet but honestly I think it would have been more impactful to have them learn and grow, but not end up together.

Best Woman by Rose Dommu is a messy and fun rom com. Our heroine Julia is as charming as her rom com namesake Julia Roberts. Book Julia follows in tradition of wedding rom com leads by making morally questionable choices in the lead up to her brother's wedding to win the heart of her middle school crush, Kim. This book was funny and heartfelt with all of the characters and relationships felt very realistic. I enjoyed seeing Julia's dynamics with everyone in her family. I was deeply invested in Julia's journey throughout the book, highly recommend.

Usually books with a lie/some form of deception as a central plot point really make me anxious, but Best Woman was SO well done. Main character Julia isn't perfect, but I fell more and more in love with her as I followed her experience leading up to and during this significant weekend in her life. The author did an exceptional job at highlighting the complicated and messy dynamics with family and friends (especially during a wedding) and delivered a beautiful story that I loved reading.

This book was just beautiful. Julia was written to be just like anyone we could know. She felt so real and really fought to truly live her life the best way she could while trying to please everyone around her. Her lies for her comfort of trying to win back a love she never escaped, and truly just relevant to how we think something is right even when it’s not. Although it’s a romance, it did have some great comedy mixed in and really gave it a light-hearted feel. Her friends were the perfect blend in family and Kim really won my heart with making Julia see beyond her own shell and letting her see to live life the way she wants.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the e-ARC.

This book had me all over the place emotionally. I laughed, cheered, and got so angry that a slammed down my device. I Most of all, it tugged -I mean YANKED- at my heartstrings. I was on the brink of tears but fought them back ferociously! This was such an easy yet compelling read. My heart went out to Julia and I was rooting for her every step of the way (even when she didn’t deserve it). This book has a great plot and a few themes to live by. It reminds us that whether or not we agree with someone’s life’s decision, the decision is there’s to make. Moreover, regardless of one’s decision to live their life out loud, they are still human with feelings and in need of love. I really wanted to know about some of the characters and their backgrounds but the author gave me enough to still thoroughly enjoy the story. Thanks Random House and NetGalley for the e-ARC! This review will be posted on Goodreads, Fable and Instagram.

An absolutely incredible debut novel by the fab Rose Dommu. Main character Julia felt like a dear friend, one whose flaws endear them to you as much as their charm. I read a lot of queer romance, and this one was a true original. The writing was self aware but not forced. Julia’s queerness wasn’t bashed over the reader’s head, as it so often is in the genre. The story could’ve easily been one I heard on a multi-hour FaceTime with my insane bestie. Idk man, I was really very touched by this one. 10/10 would read again!!!

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC of Best Woman.

Rose Dommu’s debut, Best Woman, is messy. Like really, really messy. And I loved it.

What I didn’t love though is the Harry Potter references, so let’s discuss those first. In a world where you can choose almost any popular culture reference to get your point across, the fact that Dommu chooses to reference HP not once, not twice, but three times in this book is a choice that I can’t understand. The first time HP is mentioned is in reference to how big the Cheesecake Factory menu is – and, really, why? That reference doesn’t need to be there at all. Come up with something else. Please.

The second time this franchise is mentioned to express the smoldering happening between Julia and Kim. Sure, referencing a smoldering fan fic ship makes sense, but does it have to be from the HP world? Absolutely not.

The third time’s not the charm here when Aiden and Rachel talk about how they’re like Ron and Hermione. Nope. Nope. Nope. Really? WTF? There are so many other characters to mention here. I just don’t understand why a book about a trans woman would mention the franchise written by the TERF wizard lady. Just why?

Honestly, I really hope that these references are omitted in the published version of Best Woman because I can imagine quite a few readers DNFing this book because of those references. And that would be a shame because the book has so much else to offer.

To be honest, I found myself wondering, “Girl, what are you doing?” throughout this book. Like, Julia, honey, no. The lie she tells Kim is not a little white lie although she keeps trying to convince herself that it is. But Julia knows this is bad and it will likely end badly, but she just can’t quite keep herself from participating in that lie. And it is, in fact, really bad when the truth is revealed, and even though I was annoyed with her for telling that lie, I found her explanation as to why she did it was real and my empathetic self couldn’t help wanting to tell her everything would be okay and give her a big hug.

The overall writing style was compellingly witty. The supporting characters were intriguing and fully realized. The chapters set in the past also added context to the narrative in the present. Julia was as messy as someone can be, and I couldn’t get enough of her.

I had a lot of fun with this book, though I don't think it needed the happy ending, a bittersweet one would have been perfect. I think that's the only thing that kept it from five stars for me. I think that they could have met up, moved on, and grown from their experiences with one another. But otherwise, I freaking LOVED this book. I'd actually love to read this as a series starring Julia's other three friends. Especially Daytona, I grew to absolutely adore her.
The sense of humor in this book was continuing to make me giggle. It's a little millennial, which makes sense for this character and this author, but as someone who isn't a millennial, it of course didn't always hit for me. I also LOVED the representation. We are unfortunately very low on sapphic books with a trans main character, and I really loved that.
All of this to say that we need more messy, queer, millennial books in the world, and I'm so glad to have read this one. It was truly so fun and I read it in literally one sitting

I picked this one up specifically after reading a bioessentialist comment in a cis sapphic book after the UK Supreme Court ruling and I was greeted by a Harry Potter mention a few chapters in. I know they're millennials but is it necessary?

I was initially a bit disappointed that this was published as literary fiction and not genre romance but after reading the book it would have felt lacking as a romance as it is more centered around Julia and her family, the advertised romance is the guiding plot but the actual relationship is a small part of the book and not the most compelling.

Julia is a messy character but feels very real to trans people. She makes morally questionable choices but informed by fear and trauma and is relatively proven right (and wrong) by the narrative. Her relationship to her family is the main strength of the book as she attends her brother's wedding after her coming out. While her family has initially been supportive, she is afraid that some of it is pretending or blanket acceptance. It often feels like liberal cis people entertains you, they don't see you as your gender but they respect you enough to gender you properly.

I loved this!! It definitely have My Best Friend's Wedding vibes to me. I thought this was a very funny and entertaining read. I highly recommend!

I absolutely loved this book! It was laugh out loud funny, heart warming, and also heart breaking! I love Julia and all of her friends who have become her family. I also love how supportive most of the people in her life have been with her transition. The majority of this book deals with Julia feeling guilty over telling her decade old high school crush a lie to gain sympathy in hopes to like her. Julia gets caught up in this lie and isn't able to to really come clean and worries if she does it could ruin everything. I laughed out loud of every time Julia brought up her maybe-psychotic twin brothers. I loved her friends River, Daytona, and Kyle as well. I highly recommend this book if you like a millennial complicated queer love story. Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine for this ARC.

I really enjoyed this book! I rarely read books where the main character isn’t cis, and it’s always refreshing to get a new pov to learn more about this kind of stuff. This was a cute story, and I loved how much love there was in the book!

Very interesting (and funny!) journey through complicated dynamics. Julia is a realistic main character. I love when main characters get to be wrong, and Julia is wrong in both her actions and her interpretations of those around her. The dynamics between Julia and her family are real and raw, and it was lovely to watch her perceptions of those closest to her shift throughout the story. Great read!

I won’t lie, at first it was hard for me to get into this story. I loved the initial connection between Julia and Kim, but I couldn’t get over the lying for sympathy sex thing. It just felt like an illogical improbable series of half truths she decided to tell this girl to get her to sleep with her–that in the end were sort of true? Overall i loved the humor and thought it resolved nicely.

Really fun and sweet and a tribute to every romcom set at a wedding but specifically the best one MY BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING!!!! I’ve loved Rose’s humor and wit for a long time and it was so great to experience it in book form :)

This one was an interesting read. Had some mixed emotions but I quickly realized that was probably the intent! I love when authors can take a story/trope that we’re aware of but make it queer 🌈 as someone that’s queer, It makes me happy that despite the story is inspired or is similar to ‘my best friends wedding’ it highlights the parts that are hard or challenging of being queer

This was fun quick read that really highlighted the wonderful complexities of identity, family, wedding culture, and identity. This book does not shy away from the messiness of life and in doing so truly celebrates what makes life special. I found myself laughing more times than I could count because this book had the wry wit, humor and cultural references that takes me back to time spent with friends and family over the holidays, and please don't get me started about Wedding Dress Shopping at The Mall.

This was a great low spice romance that was as much about Julia finding and loving herself as it was about connecting to get her Second Chance with Kim. A powerful and compelling story that reads as a true work of humorous Women's Fiction.