Best Woman is a novel written by Rose Dommu inspired by romantic comedies of the 1990s, especially My Best Friend’s Wedding. The story follows Julia Rosenberg, a trans bi woman who works in New York and returns to Florida to serve as maid of honor at her younger brother Aiden’s wedding. Among the main characters are Kim Cameron, the bride’s maid of honor and Julia’s former high school crush, and Ben Otsuka, her ex‑boyfriend, best friend, and openly pansexual man.
The plot unfolds during the week leading up to Aiden and Rachel’s wedding, an event that forces Julia to reconnect with her family and with people from her past. While trying to fulfill her role as maid of honor at the ceremony, she relives family conflicts related to her transition, faces her complicated relationship with her mother, and discovers that Kim — her first love during adolescence — will also be part of the wedding. As the story progresses, the two reconnect and begin a romantic relationship, but this is threatened when Kim discovers that Julia has hidden important aspects about how her family truly accepted her. At the same time, Julia must reconcile with her brother, face the consequences of her own decisions, and rethink the way she understands love, honesty, and belonging.
Julia’s bisexuality is present from the very first pages of the novel. Her main romantic storyline is with Kim, but at the same time she maintains an intimate and affectionate relationship with Ben, her ex‑boyfriend. Far from presenting this situation as evidence of confusion about her orientation, the narrative shows that both relationships correspond to different emotional moments in her life.
Julia even reflects on the stereotypes associated with bisexual people and demonstrates that she is fully aware of them. In this passage, she jokes about the idea that sleeping with two people of different genders on the same day might seem to confirm the stereotype of bisexuality as “promiscuity.” However, she uses it ironically to emphasize that her sex life cannot be reduced to that cliché. Julia states:
I like sex. I’m not ashamed of liking sex. Maybe fucking two partners of two different genders on the same day would make me a bit of a stereotypically wanton bisexual, but if the size-eleven shoe fits… It’s not that, though. Over the past few years, it’s gotten harder and harder for me to have random sex with people who don’t care if I live or die, and Ben knows me, not just my body but me. There is intimacy there, and Ben offers it easily without expecting anything more than what I can give. The difference is that I feel like I finally have something to give, and I’d like to give it to Kim.
This fragment is key because it shows how Julia acknowledges prejudices while at the same time dismantling them: her bisexuality is not defined by promiscuity, but by the search for intimacy and affection. The novel makes it clear that her relationships are motivated by emotional bonds, and not solely by sex, which provides a more nuanced and meaningful representation of bisexuality.
Taken as a whole, Best Woman offers a significant portrayal of bisexuality within contemporary romantic fiction. The novel presents her as a trans bisexual woman who can make mistakes, fall in love, lie, learn, and grow without any of those experiences invalidating her identity. Thanks to this, the work contributes to expanding the diversity of bi characters in contemporary literature and offers a representation that avoids both invisibility and idealization.