The Finest Thing is a short novella released as part of a series on same-sex marriage, and as such is very much romantic and uber-positive. Another point that probably the author wanted to highlight is that, hetero marriages or same-sex marriages doesn’t matter, the marriage itself is a romantic moment that is like a concentrate of love.

And so, as often happens, Aidan is coming back home to participate to his best friends’ marriage in Connecticut, a same-sex marriage. Aidan has recently lost his long-time partner Kyle, and he is not yet totally over with his mourning; plus it’s not that he left Connecticut in a friendly way, his relatives more or less disowning him when he came out in college. So sincerely, aside for the friendship, he has not really any reason to join a festive event like a marriage; he is in no mood to be sociable and happy.

But of course a marriage is also the right occasion for the grooms to play matchmakers with their unattached guest, and to Aidan they “assign” Paul, a handsome doctor recently moved back in town. This is a typical expedient of a romance, the happy grooms trying to make all their friends happy as they are, and this happens as much in het than same-sex marriages.

There are two sides of Aidan: there is the “lover” Aidan, who is mourning a lost partner but who is also ready to give another chance to happiness with Paul; this Aidan is for sure a little sad, but more or less he has a positive attitude towards love and with little encouragement he is ready to try again. Then there is the “son” Aidan, who is embittered by the situation and that is not so ready to forgive his relatives; sometime I found this Aidan to be a little too harsh with his own mother, but I think it’s understandable if you consider that he didn’t receive any support when he needed it more, i.e. when he was facing the long illness of his partner and also during the aftermath to Keith’s death. In any case lover and son will match into one single person when the pink glasses perspective will align all sides.

On a side note, the novella is set in Mystic, Connecticut, a small town I had the pleasure to visit and coincidence is that, when I was there, they were celebrating a marriage, so indeed I have the proof that is really a very romantic situation.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002CVTX94/?tag=elimyrevandra-20