I have really mixed feelings about this one. First I want to say that I'm really happy to read a romcom with a trans female character as I feel like I've rarely done so. I'm not trans myself and so I can't speak to the authenticity of the representation but I did feel that Julia was a very complex and interesting character. Her journey throughout this book was one that I really enjoyed and I loved her character. I also really loved how queer this book is, Julia's life in New York and her friends in New York just made me feel really seen. They were funny and sweet and just for lack of a better word really damn queer. Which I really appreciated. I also really enjoyed all the scenes with Julia's family and how complex her relationship with both of her parents were, I thought that both of those relationships were some of the most emotional and nuanced dynamics in the book. Her relationship with her brother was also really sweet and I loved all their scenes together.
What I didn't love has to do more with the romance, I don't feel like the love interest feels like a fully fleshed out complex character which is a shame because I do think that they had good chemistry, but the relationship just felt shallow. I also felt like the small lie that Julia tells at the beginning of the novel took up too much page time as I didn't think it was as serious as it was made to be in the third act. If we had gotten to know Kim some more then perhaps her emotions in the third act would have had a bigger impact on me. Overall I just felt meh about the whole thing.
Not a bad book at all and I'm grateful to have read it and will be looking forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Best Woman tells the story of a trans woman, Julia, who heads home to Florida to stand up in her brother’s wedding. It just so happens that the maid-of-honor is Julia’s high school crush. What starts as a small lie Julia tells the maid of honor to garner sympathy and attention spirals out of co trip as Julia comes to terms with her past and her relationships with her family members. Overall this was refreshing and very funny. Julia is not super likable and I loved that about her. There can be such pressure to make queer and trans characters good, positive representation and that can rob authors of writing them as full people. My main issue with this book were the repeated references to Harry Potter.

Did not finish book. Stopped at 35%.
I'm just not really connecting with the premise of this one. The whole situation being built on a small lie that's escalating is just dumb to me. I also don't care for the whole reason Julia is into Kim is to have "the most lesbian lesbian" choose her to validate her identity. I'm sure later in the book she ends up seeing Kim as a real person she actually likes but I'm just not feeling like continuing to get to that point.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The way I sat down and read this entire book from start to finish in just a few hours? I could not stop reading! I don’t think I’ve had a book in a long time where I laughed out loud as much as I did for this one. I was raised Jewish and a lot of the references were nostalgic for me. I related to Julia in this way, reflecting on childhood memories. The whole story was entertaining and I’m so glad I read it. I feel like there’s not a lot of books out there with a trans main character. Dommu did a very good job on showing the character development of Julia throughout the wedding and showing what makes us human.

This was a fun and quick read! I’m familiar with Rose from being on the internet most of my life, and her sense of humor translates well to this book. I appreciated the story here, which is more about trans joy and found family and returning back to where you came from (south Florida, you fickle beast) and the dissonance that can create in adult you. The stakes of the romance were a little goofy to me, but I had a good time with this and would definitely read her next book.

Huge thank you to Netgalley, Random House Publishing|Ballentine and author Rose Dommu, for providing me with the eARC of “Best Woman”, in exchange for my honest review!
Publication date: September 23rd, 2025
Reviewed on Goodreads: July 20th, 2025

A much-anticipated release for me, I found “Best Woman” to be a great story!
It was not exactly what I was expecting, but not in a bad way.

This story focuses on Julia, a trans woman who has been recruited to be the best woman at her younger brother’s wedding.
It turns out her teenage crush, Kim, is the maid of honor in the same wedding.
They haven’t seen each other in years, but Julia is still head over heels for her.
When they two start catching up, Julia tells a few lies about her families supportiveness.
Stretching the truth may help her get the girl, but when things come into the light, will she be able to keep her?

This was a fun read.
It has some humor, some romance, some self-discovery and some emotional bits.
I really loved the way that it discussed Julia’s gender in some pretty casual ways. It wasn’t super serious all the time.
Note: There are still some serious and intense moments in this story.
The scene with Julia’s mother at the wedding actually kind of broke me. I think I could feel Julia’s devastation and pain through the pages. (I won’t get too much into it here to avoid spoilers)

I felt like I bonded with Julia’s character almost instantly when I started reading.
She is so well developed, funny and realistic!
She was written quite perfectly in my opinion.

I do wish the romance between her and Kim got a bit more development.
It felt quite physical, and maybe that was the point.
I guess I am just a softie who loves love, and fluffy sweet romance scenes.

With that being said, I am also glad that this book focused primarily on Julia, her life, her feelings, and her story- because it was pretty great.
Honestly it could have had no romance at all and I would have still enjoyed reading it.

Overall, I think this is great. For the most part, it made me feel good, and left me happy.

I want to first thank Netgalley and Random House Publishing-Ballantine for giving me the opportunity to read Best Woman by Rose Dommu. This opinion is solely my own.

So, I had to sit on this one for a few days to truly figure out how I felt about the story. I LOVED the concept of the story, I actually had my brother in my wedding as a Bridesman. The story follows Julia as she prepares for her brother's biggest day of his life, his wedding. Julia is made the Best Woman for Aiden l, her brother. Growing up, Julia had always known there was something different about herself growing up. Finally, 4 years ago, Julia took the big step to own her life and started transitioning into the woman she is today. Julia finds out that the Maid of Honor is none other than her high school crush, Kim. Kim is a strong lesbian woman. She had been out since high school and hasn't looked back.

Kim and Julia run into each other, randomly, at the bridal shop, and their friendship sparks from there. Julia makes the mistake of making what she feels is a little white lie...more of an omission, and it spirals as the story goes on.

So, the biggest issue I had was that I just did not like Julia's character. I wanted to like her, but I felt that she was so focused on everything negative or things that could be, but weren't an issue for real, and was just a negative person. I won't pretend to know what it is like to be a trans person and the problems they face, but I just couldn't get over how negative she was.

I gave this book 3 stars. Like I said, I loved the concept of the story. If you can get over the negativity brought on by the main character, then I recommend giving this book a read. It was a decent story.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group, Ballantine Books and NetGalley for this E-Arc. All opinions are my own!

The best way I can describe this is as a heartwarming beach read. Yes, it's because I read it on vacation... on the beach... in Florida. But it is also quick, heartwarming, funny and surprisingly deep. We meet Julia a woman who has made her life with her found family of friends in NYC being called back for her little brother's wedding in her Florida Hometown. Suddenly there's a new maid of honor and it's no other than her high school crush! Due to a misunderstanding/lie that is absolutely Julia's fault, she's juggling that, her family, her job and just being the best woman.

The ensuing story is a good time while also examining what it's like to find yourself and be that person with the family that raised you. It's a story of growth where the MC was wrong and learns to grow from her mistake. But the commentary and comedy make this a truly unique read- I also agree about pub-sub greatness. There are uncomfortable moments, but that make the story all the more bittersweet and real in a human way. Overall a great read!

This was a really good, multi-layered book. The central romance was sweet and tender with believable and growing chemistry that kept me hooked. I really enjoyed the way the author explored family dynamics and queer identity, as well as the intersection of them. The writing style was quick-witted and easy to read, which made me fly through this book.

I really wanted to love this more. I think the story sounded interesting p, but I didn’t feel a connection to the protagonist. I have to really like the protagonist to continue reading. I pretty much skimmed the last third of this book. The concept is cool and funny, but the characters were a letdown.

Julia is the best woman in her brother's wedding. She enlists the help of her found family in New York to get ready for the big event, especially after finding out that her high school crush, Kim, is the maid of honor. Because of a small misunderstanding, Kim believes that Julia's family disapproves of her being trans. In what starts as a small lie, becomes all consuming as the wedding weekend plays out. This is a tender, yet laugh out loud, book about love, self acceptance, and families, both found and relative.

Rose Dommu knows the New York queer scene and what a blast it is to read about. I felt like I was at brunch with my friends reading this book. I'm already planning on passing it along to my friend group to read.

I started reading this book and I was about 1/4th of the way through and realized that I wasn't connecting with the characters. When that happens, I unfortunately do not care about the characters or what happens to them. While this did appear to be well-written, I did not finish.

Loved this book! I requested it because I've enjoyed the author's commentary on podcasts. Lots of sharp observations. I was pleased to see that same sensibility all over the pages of Best Woman. It's a funny, quick read that feels like a breath of fresh air. It's a modern update to the lighthearted "home for a family wedding" novel that squeezes every last bit of juice out of what it truly means to be thrust back in the company of people who remember an early version of you - and in the most gendered ritual on earth, no less. It's engaging and cleverly done with characters I loved getting to know. And the final pages before the epilogue made me tear up a bit. I'm very glad I read this. Thank you for this early access!

2.5 stars

Maybe I’m just not a big romcom fan, but “Best Woman” just didn’t really do it for me.

Positives: I’m not trans myself so I can’t speak to the accuracy of the trans representation, but this book is a celebration of trans joy and explores trans themes that I rarely see represented in other queer books I’ve enjoyed. I also felt that Julia was a well-written and rounded character with quirks and flaws that made her all the more interesting. I also liked that the chapters were interspersed with some flashbacks to give some more depth to Julia’s character.

Negatives: I didn’t feel like the stakes were ever that high in this book and the reaction to Julia’s lie was slightly exaggerated. While I definitely can understand why her family and Kim were hurt, I don’t know if I’d go so far as to call it emotional manipulation, especially since there are some very real moments that she does experience transphobia from family members. The excessive references to queer pop culture really took me out of the story at times (and are just generally a reason I don’t really love contemporary novels). Finally, the writing style came off as a bit preachy and over-explanatory. I don’t think every author needs to stick to the “show don’t tell” method, but I think this novel could’ve really benefitted from it.

Overall, my feelings were mixed about “Best Woman,” and while I feel there’s a lot of heart in this novel, it just wasn’t really for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for a copy of this arc, all opinions my own.

I enjoyed this book, thought it was a solid read overall. At times I wished for a bit more editing with the amount of characters and things going on. Took a bit to fully follow the story. I also wanted more from the romance, it just left me wanting. But overall a good read and I'd like to read more from Dommu.

Best Woman is a bold, riotous debut that delivers on chaos, charm, and complicated family dynamics, while also asking its readers to sit with discomfort—both the protagonist’s and their own.

At its heart is Julia Rosenberg, a trans woman returning to Florida to be the “best woman” in her brother’s wedding. That alone would be enough to prompt anxiety, but add in her lifelong high school crush as the maid of honor, a tangled web of half-truths, and a suitcase of “borrowed” couture, and you’ve got a recipe for both hilarity and heartbreak.

There’s a lot to love here. The pacing and plotting are strong, and Julia’s perspective as a trans woman navigating love, family, and identity feels fresh and deeply necessary. Her family’s layered dynamics—especially the relationship with her brother, Aiden—were engaging and full of nuance. I also appreciated the way the novel handled Julia’s return home post-transition; there’s tension, yes, but also genuine moments of tenderness and reflection that add depth to her journey.

That said, I came away with mixed feelings.

While the book is pitched as a rom-com, much of the romantic tension is built on a lie Julia tells early on—a plot device that, for me, undercut both the romance and the emotional stakes. I often felt more stressed than swoony, and I struggled to invest in the chemistry between Julia and Kim. What should have been a will-they-won’t-they felt more like a should-they-maybe-not?

Julia herself is a compelling protagonist but not always an easy one to root for. She’s prickly and sometimes outright mean—traits that are clearly grounded in self-preservation, but still made it difficult for me to fully connect with her. Her friendships, while lively and full of queer joy, sometimes felt exaggerated to the point of distraction. The dialogue with her friend group, though often hilarious, occasionally leaned too hard into shock-value humor during moments that were meant to be emotionally vulnerable, making the tone feel disjointed.

Despite these critiques, Best Woman remains a promising debut. Rose Dommu’s voice is sharp, funny, and undeniably fresh, and I’m excited to see what she writes next. While the book didn’t fully land for me as a romance, it shines as a story about messy transitions—geographic, emotional, and personal—and the complicated beauty of returning home when you’ve become someone new.

Thank you to Netgalley, Rose Dommu, and Ballantine Books for the ARC.

I enjoyed many parts of this book. I thought the pacing and plotting was wonderful. The main characters were engaging, and the layered family dynamic was something that was easy to invest in and get interest in.

While this does feel like the basis of an excellent rom-com, I think some of the over-the-topness of the book didn't work for me. While the characters, especially Julia, a trans woman being the best woman at her brother's wedding; Aiden, her younger, but supportive brother; Kim, the high school love interest and maid of honor; are all great, I think the supporting cast was Too Much™️ to the point of being distracting. Often those conversations between Julia and her friends were supposed to be emotionally vulnerable, I found the poppers and sphincters to be out of place-- not that I'm against having joy or laughter intermixed in vulnerable conversations-- just that they made me feel disjointed. I think the conflict was entirely fabricated. Yes, I know that rom-coms are all fabricated, but the stakes here were just not serious or even incredibly believable. Again, like many queer books, I think it suffers under the weight of what I'm testing out calling "the Gay Test" in which many cultural moments, pop culture music, people, moments, television, etc, and stereotypes are listed and used to establish the 'queer language.' Pop culture instantly ages a book.

All that being said, I thought this book was good and I'd be excited to read more from the author. While much of it didn't work for me, I did enjoy exploring a trans woman as a main character, and her lived experience in navigating this moment with her family.

Thanks for the ARC.

I wound up with really mixed feelings about this one! It was a pretty fun and interesting story
with a lot of different characters who brought a lot to the table and made it all feel very real and
lively. I liked that the characters were flawed and complex, however sometimes I felt like that
complexity read as inconsistency and I had a hard time following their personalities. There were
a few moments where a character would do or say something that seemed totally out of left field
to me, in terms of what I knew about that character’s personality, and that was a little jarring.
However, I did find the complicated family and social dynamics to be really nuanced and
genuine. It was very interesting to see how Julia navigated an already incredibly stressful family
event, on top of it being essentially a debut for her seeing so many relatives for the first time
after her transition. I thought these interactions and complexities were handled with a lot of care
and I loved being able to see this perspective.
Unfortunately I have to say, I had such a hard time with Julia as a character. I think that it’s so
important to have flawed narrators and protagonists, but she was just a little bit too mean for me
to root for her sometimes. I understood that a lot of the prickliness of her personality was
intentional and, to me, seemed like a wall she had built out of necessity and self-preservation,
but it still really bothered me at times. Through a lot of the book I couldn’t even tell if she liked
her own friends, and I just had a hard time connecting to her because of that. Also, essentially
the entire plot of the book hinges on lies that Julia weaves in the beginning. This certainly built
up a lot of tension that I’m sure was intentional, but that type of plot device just isn’t my cup of
tea and made me very stressed the whole time I was reading. I think largely because of that plot
device, I also found the romance itself to be really lackluster. I felt that the characters did not
have a lot of chemistry - or if they did we did not get enough scenes with the two of them to
really feel it. And whatever chemistry was between them was clouded by Julia’s lies.
I do think this was all pretty much the point of the book, and it is intended to be more of a
character fiction story than a romance. We do get to see a lot of development in Julia, and I
think her story is an important one to tell

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.