Book Description 

An engaged couple’s compatibility is put to the test during their ill-fated early honeymoon in this smart, dazzling, and provocative summer comedy perfect for fans of People We Meet on Vacation.

5 Signs You and Your Fiancé Might Be Secretly Incompatible…and #3 Will Shock You!

Ray Bruno and Kip Hayes are horrible on paper. Ray is a chaotic millennial ex-clickbait-writer who’s been oversharing his every thought online since he was a teenager, and Kip is a pragmatic Gen X doctor who values privacy above all else.

But somehow it all manages to work…until Ray convinces Kip to join him for an early honeymoon at a famous lux resort in Ray’s coastal New England hometown, eschewing the tradition of bachelor parties and hoping to recharge before their end-of-August wedding. When a surprising encounter with another couple at the resort leads to a series of escalating mishaps and miscommunications, Ray and Kip are forced to look at their many differences in a stark new light, turning the trip into less of a vacation and more of a test: will they be able to work through their issues in time for the big day? Or is this marriage over before it begins?

My Review 

I enjoyed reading DiDomizio’s Gay Best Friend last year, so I was looking forward to this new book. Protagonist Ray is from a blue collar lobstering family in Connecticut, and his idea of “happily ever after” is based on his parents’ Big 80s Wedding. He’s a journalist for a Buzzfeed style publication and he’s been out since he was 20. He is looking forward to finally getting a Big Wedding of his own with his fiancé Kip. 

Kip is an interesting foil for Ray. Not only is he 10 years older, but he’s a doctor. Kip is much more reserved than Ray, who detailed the juicy exploits of his single days in an online column. Ray has not written about the details of his relationship with Ray, but as their wedding approaches, he begins to contemplate the extent of Kip’s reservedness. 

The topic becomes unavoidable as Ray and Kip spend a week together at the Earlymoon Hotel, which promotes a unique concept of an “earlymoon”, in which couples spend bonding time together before the wedding. As you might expect, Ray and Kip’s week is not full of rest and relaxation due to all that simmering tension that I mentioned. 

The narrative is single perspective, which works well for several reasons. First of all, this is not a traditional romance novel. Ray and Kip are already in an established relationship; they’re not even estranged and in need of a second-chance trope. Second, Kip’s motives and inner thoughts are supposed to be as indecipherable to the reader as they are to Ray. If we knew what Kip was thinking, it would be more difficult for us to empathize with Ray’s frustrations.

On that note: I am much closer in age to Kip than to Ray. I am not a gay man, but I have several friends who didn’t come out until after college, so I do empathize with Kip’s trepidation. Even though Kip likely falls into the microgeneration between X and Millenial, life was very different back then and people weren’t as open. And having said that, I now feel a million years old. 

I would absolutely recommend Nearlywed. It was a lot more serious than I was expecting, but that’s part of what made this such a compelling read. Ray is a simply delightful protagonist with the perfect balance of earnest sincerity and snark. 

I received a digital ARC of this book from Sourcebooks/NetGalley.