Nicolas DiDomizio’s Nearlywed is not so much a romance as it is a story about romance and what happens to a couple after they’ve found their HEA. The blurb’s description of an engaged couple’s compatibility [being] put to the test during their ill-fated early honeymoon did give rise to a teeny bit of apprehension, but those niggles were very quickly allayed as I became completely caught up in this refreshingly funny and insightful story of two people who are very much in love – but who have somehow managed to avoid talking about some really important issues.

Thirty-something Ray Bruno is a child of the internet age who, in his twenties, turned many personal experiences into clickbait articles as he forged a career as a writer for various blogs. Ten years later, he’s graduated to writing pieces for a more upmarket lifestyle magazine and curates his online life a little more carefully, but he’s essentially the same, bubbly, slightly over-dramatic oversharer he’s always been. He grew up in a small lobster fishing community in Seabrook, Connecticut, listening to his mother’s stories of romance and true love and dream weddings, and has wanted the same for himself for as long as he can remember.

Ray’s fiancé Kip Hayes is a respected doctor from a well-to-do family who, when they first met, had recently divorced from his wife of twelve years after realising he could no longer live a lie. Kip is ten years older than Ray and is quite content to keep his private life just that – private – and has never felt the need to plaster his every thought and deed across social media. At first sight, Ray and Kip are a terrible mis-match, but they just clicked from the moment they met, and now, almost six years later, they’re as deeply in love as ever and planning their wedding.

Their troubles begin when Ray suggests they go on an “earlymoon” – like a honeymoon, but before the wedding as a way to escape the stress of event planning and re-charge their batteries. The Earlymoon Hotel has long been a fixture in Ray’s home town, and his mother’s stories of her own, magical earlymoon there further stoked twelve-year-old Ray’s obsession with wedding culture. So with a couple of months to go before his own wedding, Ray books him and Kip in for five days of R&R with visions of moonlight walks along the beach, romantic meals-for-two and lots of vacation sex.

Unfortunately, however, from pretty much the minute Ray arrives, nothing goes as it should. The setting is as idyllic as he had hoped for, but the unexpected friction between him and Kit is not. The short break exposes cracks in their relationship that neither of them has wanted to address, or even thought needed addressing, bringing their conflicting expectations and preferences into sharp relief. When one of Kip’s old college buddies and his fiancée show up at the hotel – on an earlymoon of their own – it throws up even more questions as to Ray and Kip’s ultimate compatibility and makes both men realise that there are parts of their relationship that need serious examination before they walk down the aisle and into forever.

I’m not the biggest fan of books that centre around miscommunication, but Nearlywed is an exception because the central misunderstanding isn’t due to a lack of communication between Ray and Kip, it’s because they’ve both allowed fears and insecurities to colour their view of each oher and their life together to such an extent that it’s difficult for them to admit to the possibility of anything different. They’re both complex, flawed characters and the author does a spectacularly good job of articulating both their points of view so it’s easy to see where both of them are coming from, and I found my sympathies frequently shifting between them. There’s no question that Ray and Kip love each other dearly, but Ray has sublimated his own need to be obviously out, proud and coupled-up, pushing aside worries that Kip doesn’t want to be completely open about their relationship because he isn’t good enough, while Kip doesn’t understand Ray’s desire to shout about their relationship online, insisting that their lives are their own business and nobody else’s.

The story is told entirely from Ray’s perspective, and he’s a terrific narrator – quick witted, funny and sharply observant but with a very real vulnerability that will tug at the heartstrings. We don’t therefore have any first-hand accounts from Kip, but the author presents their differing viewpoints in an even-handed, nuanced way. There’s a lot of discussion about identity and image here, and the story highlights the way in which ordinary things done by a queer couple – such as having the first dance at their wedding – often feel much more momentous than when they’re done by a straight couple, and whether that’s reason to back away from them or jump into them, headlong. Ray wants to actively celebrate his queerness with the perfect gay wedding while Kip doesn’t want everything in his life to be about his sexual orientation and would prefer things to be much more low-key.

I liked both characters a lot, and as I’ve said, the author makes it easy to understand both their points of view, although I have to confess that I found it easier to relate to Kip to start with. Perhaps it’s because I’m closer to his age than I am to Ray’s, but Ray comes across as somewhat chaotic (and a bit of a drama queen) while Kip is more level-headed and seems to have his life sorted out. But as the story progresses and we start to learn more about him, we realise he’s got insecurities of his own, a lot of them tied to having come out later in life and his struggles with self-acceptance.

I really enjoyed Nearlywed and raced through it in a couple of sittings. In addition to the engaging main characters, there’s a small, but well-developed secondary cast – special mention goes to Ray’s no-nonsense sister, Stef, whose blend of sarcasm and sisterly concern is a delight – and the author’s portrayal of love as messy, complicated and wonderful is very satisfying. It’s a thought-provoking story, and while I liked that, there were a couple of times it became a little ‘teachy’, which is why, in the end, I’ve gone with a B+ rather than an A-. Even so, Nearlywed is definitely a book I’d recommend to anyone looking for a romance with a difference.