The concept behind The Gay Best Friend is INCREDIBLE. As soon as I read the synopsis, I was fully on board. And I did enjoy the book, however, at times I felt like scenes and themes could have been a little more fleshed out. Nevertheless, I had a really great time reading it :)

This is a story about carving your own path.  Domenic Marino's been best friends since childhood with Patrick.  In fact, he had a crush on Patrick when they were growing up.  The two drifted apart when they went to college and Dom came out, but they reconnected after they graduated.  Soon after Patrick began dating Kate, she and Dom also became best friends.  But Dom is much different when he is with each half of the couple.  With Patrick, and especially when they are with his other friends, Dom feels he must act super masculine.  When he is with Kate, he feels like he is expected to act like one of the girls.

Now Patrick and Kate are engaged, and Dom is the one common denominator at their bachelor and bachelorette parties.  Kate wants Dom to act as her spy at the bachelor party, keeping the guys in line and reporting back on what is really going on.  But Patrick and his friends want a weekend where they can "let loose" and engage in many of the "classic" activities of a traditional bachelor party.  Dom feels caught in the middle, and he wonders whether he'll be able to get through the summer with both friendships intact.  To make matters even worse, Dom recently broke up with his own fiancé.  

When the other groomsmen arrive at Patrick family's beach house, clearly intent on a wild weekend, things quickly spiral far outside of Dom's control.  Adding another unsettling element, Patrick's former frat brother and current professional golf star Bucky Graham unexpectedly shows up for the weekend for mysterious reasons.  Bucky is nothing like Dom expected, even as the rest of the weekend matches his fears.  Coming back from the weekend, and getting ready for Kate's bachelorette party, Dom is full of secrets -- Patrick's, Bucky's, and his own -- that, if revealed, could put not just the wedding, but his friendship and Bucky's promising career at risk.  Under all this pressure, Dom does not know what to do -- but he feels increasingly unmoored in the face of what he perceives as everyone in his life's expectation that he will be the supporting character in their lives.  

I loved this book!  It is the perfect summer read, combining humor with a heartfelt and insightful story about feeling caught between two new worlds, neither of which were you are the main character.  The author does a terrific job of portraying the relationships between Dom and Patrick, on the one hand, and Dom and Kate, on the other -- the critical, but much different, roles that these friendships play in Dom's life and how much of Dom's self-perception is tied to how each of them view him.  The book also shows how deeply Dom gets caught up in his own narrative of his life -- that people always expect him to play the role of the supporting character and that he can never be his fully authentic self -- and the ways that warps even the most important relationships in his life. Like other parts of the novel, the Bucky journey is alternatively messy, engaging, and heartwarming.  And Dom is such a terrific character who you can't help but root for even as you see he is often the one getting in his own way.  

Very highly recommended!

This was a quick and enjoyable read, but I never fully fell in love with it. I did think that the plot about a gay man feeling torn between his straight best friends, Patrick & Kate, and the way he expresses himself around them to be interesting. Having the story be centered around Dom attending both their bachelor and bachelorette trips added a lot of messy intrigue to the story. There’s also a romance subplot within the book, but I found that to be a bit underdeveloped.

I feel like this could’ve been a stronger book if it was even more focused on Dom’s feelings towards his friends, the struggles of feeling caught between the two of them, the idea of him being the token gay friend, and his ambition to live a certain life based on the status of other people. I liked the idea of the romance, but I didn’t really feel the chemistry between Dom and Bucky. Also, where the romance ends up felt super rushed to me. It introduced plot points but then never fully explored their ramifications.

I have mixed feelings on this one.

Dominic is the childhood best friend of Patrick and has since become best friends in adulthood with Patrick’s fiancé, Kate.

Dominic is immediately put in the middle of Patrick and Kate’s trust and communication issues at the beginning of the story at Patrick’s bachelor party. Kate asks Dom to report back on anything and everything, especially if it’s nefarious and Patrick asks Dom to not report the nefarious ongoings back to Kate. All of this is happening after Dom and his finance have broken up and no one has really bothered to check in too much with him. The situations Dom is put in by the other characters are stressful, immature and essentially impossible to come out unscathed.

All the while Dom is grieving his prior relationship, hooking up with someone new who is on the down low and trying to find joy in his life, as his job is draining him. I felt a lot of empathy for Dom but then became frustrated when he (albeit both times accidentally) outed his closeted love interest.

Suffice it to say the characters in this book are MESSY and certainly need quite a bit of therapy.

I did enjoy the message of Dom finding himself and his own identity and an identity as just someone’s best friend and not specifically their gay best friend.

3 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An entertaining and perfect summer read, good escapism and a lot of fun.
Well plotted and well developed characters.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Thank you for the opportunity to review this new novel.

First of all, I love this colorful cover 🥰

I love this book because it's heartwarming, lovely and fun but at the same time I found the characters being terribly childish sometimes and on occasion even dumb 🙈

All together I really enjoyed it and I encourage you all to read it, It's a perfect beach read for the summer!

Solid beach read! Nothing I’ll remember forever but it felt like watching a fun rom com with friends and sometimes that’s exactly the kind of reading experience we need!

This is SO good. The blurb is absolutely accurate and I loved being with the main character Dom through all the ups and downs of his friends’ wedding pressure as well as him finding his own sense of self.

This is definitely one of those “you can’t trust the narrator” because as much as much as Dominic felt stereotypes place on him, he also made his own assumptions and missteps and that was very relatable. There are characters you read and you feel like “I would never do that, that is so dumb” well in this story it feels more like “that is so dumb but I would absolutely do that as well.” Each character truly is real in their imperfections.

The setting and pacing was perfect. I really felt such a sense of place in the house that was hosting both friends bachelor/bachelorette parties. It was very representative of how things look vs the secrets we keep for other people.

The romance in this is a little bit understated but not necessarily in a bad way. It’s technically open door but not graphic. CW for internalized homophobia, societal pressures.

Overall I would absolutely recommend this. Thank you to sourcebooks Casablanca and NetGalley for the ARC!

I really enjoyed this book! It follows the story of Dom, whose engagement was just called off. He’s the best friend of both Patrick and Kate, who are together. The couple is getting married and Dom is stuck in the middle as he’s attending both the bachelor’s party as the best man and the bachelorette party as Kate’s best friend. Kate wants him to spy on the bachelor party and Patrick wants him to keep his secrets. He doesn’t even know who knows the real Dom, other than maybe his ex-fiancé, as he finds himself acting more masculine around Patrick and more feminine around Kate. The secrets become too much and he finds his life imploding around him.

I thought Dom was a great main character. He was relatable—navigating life’s problems while trying to make everything seem okay (very relatable). It was full of chaotic relationships and funny moments. He did frustrate me at times, but most main characters do frustrating things so it didn’t take away from the story. Sometimes I just wanted to shake him and tell him to stand up for himself. He also outed someone and, even though he felt bad about it, that was frustrating. He did have a love interest, Bucky. Bucky, a pro golfer and Patrick’s other best friend, was not out yet so it did cause some more conflict. The book really focused on his friendship with Patrick and Kate as well as his internal struggles, such as his background, job, recent single status, etc. I enjoyed watching him grow as a character and figure everything out!

I received an eARC from NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca in exchange for my honest review.

The Gay Best Friend

I want to rip my hair OUT!! This is why I have to stop reading books about wedding parties. While I could see our protagonist’s faults and flaws, I couldn’t freaking handle the other people in this book!

Dom is the best friend to both the bride and groom, and he is CONSTANTLY stuck in the middle of their battles. He is supposed to support both of them, supposed to keep secrets like a good friend, confess all the dirt on the other… like a good friend. He is blamed for the faults in this relationship and I wanted to SCREAM!

Aside from that, Dom has a strange connection with someone who basically uses him and then pushes him away, making excuses and not factoring in Dom’s feelings at all.

I wanted to enjoy this one, and for the most part, I did… but the things that I couldn’t get past I REALLY could not get past. By the end, I no longer cared enough about any of the relationships because none of them seemed healthy.

This was a quick paced read that had me hooked from the start. The main character, Domenic is 100% convinced he is NOT the problem. Involved in drama? Dom? Never. He does, however, always seem to find himself in the middle of some interesting situations, such as a bachelor party gone wild, a love triangle, and a secret relationship.

DiDomizio did a great job flushing out the characters in this novel. As the novel progressed, I found myself understanding almost all of their perspectives when at the beginning they just seemed like hot messes. It was clever and witty, emotionally vulnerable and promoted positive mental health and self love. Fantastic novel and well worth the read upon release!

I had such high hopes for this book but it unfortunately did not live up to the hype. I did not find any of the characters likeable. I understand that they are human and meant to be flawed, but I just could not find anything to like about them nor did I want to root for them. There were so many things Dom could’ve done to actually help his situation rather than continually sulking and complaining about his friends. Him and the rest of the characters act incredibly immature at times and need to learn better communication skills. And while there is some growth and character development at the end it all feels superficial as a way to wrap the story up. Like I don’t believe they’ll continue to act better after the last page. This book is also felt very millennial to me, and as someone not really in that generation it felt a little cringe at times.

Overall, this was not a good read for me and don’t recommend, unless you really like quickly/easily resolved drama.

4,25/5

This book has surprised me a lot because I thought the plot would be the romance between two guys, but in reality the weight of the story lies in the conflicts that mature the characters. Because conflicts are not intended to add unnecessary drama, but to make the protagonists and the reader grow.
How envy and wanting to be like another person can make us feel resentment towards this, how sometimes we let ourselves be typecast because we think that’s what’s expected of us until others think we’re like that, how communication problems can affect a relationship or friendship, how it is better to cut something that hurts us to continue suffering because it is what society has imposed on us.
And the most important thing, it is a lesson about self-love and that we must impose ourselves when someone who loves us makes us feel inferior.
It is a totally recommendable book and that is not at all what it seems. I wish everyone would give this book a chance because it really has a precious and very necessary message.

Patrick and Kate are getting married! And Dom is in the middle. He's been BFFs with Patrick since forever and now he's also Kate's bestie so he's going to both bachelor and bachelorette parties even as he's trying to cope with the failure of his own engagement. And then Bucky turns up. Bucky's in the closet but.....This is a fun rom com with a bit of a serious side. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the ARC!

I really enjoyed reading about Domenic’s experience with code-switching between the hypermasculine and ultrafeminine worlds of his two soon-to-be-wed best friends. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the romance plot.

You’ll love this book if you’re into:
😬 reading posts on r/AmItheAsshole where ESH (everyone sucks here)
🚪 the main romantic conflict coming from one person being “out” and the other “in the closet”

You will not love this book if you:
📺 watched Happiest Season on Hulu and thought Abby and Harper had a toxic relationship and shouldn’t have ended up together

Content warnings: infidelity, homophobia, outing, toxic friendship, alcohol

"Gay Best Friend" by Nicholas Didmizio is a novel about Dom, a gay man who finds himself navigating the tricky waters of code-switching between his best friend's bachelor and bachelorette parties. While the premise of the book intrigued me, I found myself a little disappointed. The characters were all so awful to Dom that it was hard to like them or invest in their relationships. Even the supposed love interest treated him terribly, leaving me feeling unsatisfied with the romance subplot.

Despite these flaws, I did find myself identifying with Dom's people-pleasing nature, which was well-represented in the book. His struggle to balance his desire to fit in with his friends and be true to himself as a gay man was relatable and added depth to his character. In fact, Dom was the best thing about the novel, and I found myself rooting for him throughout.

Overall, "Gay Best Friend" had potential but fell a little short in its execution. While it was nice to see a character like Dom represented in literature, the negative treatment he received from the other characters made it more difficult to fully enjoy the book.

I wasn't too keen on any of the characters in this book, which made it a little hard to get through. There were some genuinely laugh out loud moments though, and as a light and easy read it works well!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

A gay man who was recently dumped before getting married himself gets caught in the middle as he helps his two best friends plan and celebrate their upcoming wedding. This book gave me tons of Best Men vibes with a slightly different twist in that the MC in this book falls for a closeted pro golfer.

Lots of funny moments, lots of bittersweet/heartbreaking moments and I wasn't a huge fan of the audiobook narration either. Just an okay read for me overall. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

At the core, the storyline is something we have already seen, weddings and bachelor/bachelorette parties with their shenanigans, drama, fights, stress, and making-up.

However, here what stands out for me are all the characters that the author crafted so beautifully flawed. In return that makes them relatable and lovable. Because there is nothing I don't love more in contemporary books than realistic characters.

Domenic was messy, made mistakes, and managed to get into a huge fight with both of his friends. Still, I was always rooting for him. I also understood his reasoning and choices.

Kate and Patrick were excellent side characters. The author managed to make them layered too and show growth within the group as well as all there of them individually. They were all in the end humans.

While this book is driven by the characters' journey there is a romance storyline as well. I think that the author dealt with the complexity of opening guy men falling in love with the closet-hiding sports dude well, and gave us enough hard-hitting heaviness without being preachy about it.

This is definitely a book that brings tears and laughs while reading it. I love how thought-provoking it was too. Top read of the year for sure.

Loved this book! Hilarious and heartwarming. Made me laugh and cry. A must-read for rom-com fans!

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an e-book ARC!