This was a sweet, cute and sometimes funny Sapphic romance novel.

It was very interesting that the author chose to set this novel in the past in 2013. If you read her author's notes, she goes into why she made that choice. She thought it could really expose how people were feeling around the issue of gay marriage being legalized. I thought it made this book unique and really did help the reader to understand more around what it was like during that time period.

Amy is a queer baker who loves weddings. When she loses her job by being outed for being gay, she stumbles into a business idea of being a professional bridesmaid. While she is juggling the loss of her job, and starting a business, she meets Charley. They instantly have a connection and start to date.

Amy struggles to be her true self and own the fact that she is gay in her life. While she is the perfect friend to her bridesmaid clients, her close and personal relationships start to crumble. This all is happening while there is the fight for marriage equality going on in her state of Oklahoma.

There are a cast of characters that are part of Amy's crew that surround her in friendship. I think it would have been nice to go into more depth with some of the friendships, but it was cute to see them all love working and hanging out at their neighborhood bar Ruby's.

This book was more about Amy's journey and her ability to find her real self underneath all the pretending she had done for years to fit in. I think the romance with Charley was secondary to Amy figuring it out and getting her life in order.

There were some really funny scenes that I enjoyed like the peacock cake. That was hysterical. I appreciated what the author did to confront a time that is important in history.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for access to this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Although the cover denotes a lighthearted romcom, this book confronts homophobia and evolving personal views. I appreciated the themes of a found family and am so grateful we have a plethora of books with queer characters - normalizing what is inherently normal. This would be a good book discussion choice for a group that skirts real issues because it handles issues with a soft touch. This came across a little too YA or simple for me although appreciating the effort. Thanks to Dial Press for the advanced copy!

This is a #LGBTQ #romance set in 2013 Tulsa, OK. Amy a talented baker who is closeted in her conservative town so she can work in a successful bakery. But after they somehow find out they just fire her. Like because of religious freedom or something. Like wwJd, pretty sure it wasn't that. 

"Then they will reply, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and didn’t do anything to help you?' Then he will answer, 'I assure you that when you haven't done it for one of the least of these, you haven't done it for me.'"
MATTHEW 25:44 - 45

Just throwing a scripture in without context like everyone else seems to. I'm a Presbyterian all are welcome here Christian. So listening to this kind of hateful interpretation of religion and how it affects people's lives when really love is love and how does anyones love life affect others lives personally. 

I love the idea of hiring a bridesmaid to lean on for the tricky issues instead of a relative who might say nope. Amy falls into that job right when she needs a job. This was still when gay marriage wasn't legal and being gay was not accepted. Ok I guess in some places people are still bigots.

Amy really wants that fairytale after watching so many weddings and why can't everyone love the magic of uniting two souls for life. Her dating Charley felt so much like my 20's and her mistakes and heartache and seeing her out with someone else, I have felt all those shooting feelings of pain and joy. The highs and lows of new relationships are the best and worst. Her relationship with her friends Damian and Joel was perfect, perfect, perfect.

The epilogue of how her budding company evolved into 2023 and everyone's relationships was the icing on the cake.

Thank you randomhouse and netgalley for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

SUMMARY: When closeted Amy is outed then fired from the ultra-conservative bakery where she works, she begins moonlighting as a secret bridesmaid. But does working in league with the straight wedding industrial complex mean she’s betraying her community?

This was an interesting book. I thought it was going to be a classic romcom, but it was more of a novelized quarter-life crisis in which a queer woman in Tulsa, OK circa 2013 comes to terms with her floundering career and conflicts in her interpersonal relationships. Much of the action is focused on how Amy has to act differently (essentially hiding her true self) depending on who she’s with.

It reminded me of Written in the Stars—and not just because of the FF romance. It was also similar in tone, focused on career/friendships, and had a strong sense of place. This was the author’s debut, and she said she wrote the book she wanted to read. Maybe others will feel the same!

I will say that I found some of Amy’s behavior a bit immature—constantly bringing up her own lack of love life, even when her best friends have just gotten engaged—but maybe I just have zero patience for that.

Overall, it was interesting, and I think it could definitely resonate with people who are looking for this story to be told!

Thank you to @netgalley, @randomhouse and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Set in mid 2010’s, Amy grew up in Oklahoma as a southern baptist and is a lesbian. She has become the black sheep of her family and has to keep her sexual identity hidden from her job as a baker, at the Daily Bread that is owned by devout Christians. She works part time as a bartender at a popular gay bar, and also loves anything to do with weddings.

When she is outed by a mysterious person she loses her job at the bakery and becomes a bridesmaid for hire. She also meets Charley, an engineer that recently moved to Tulsa, and they share an instant attraction to each other.

At times this felt like a new adult novel as Amy tries to navigate her life, new love, friendships and doing the thing she loves even though her and are friends do not have the opportunity to have the same equality as others.

This is a very cute palette cleanser, considering I have read a lot of serious books lately. It does have all the typical cliches of a romantic comedy, so you won’t be surprised, but nonetheless I found myself enjoying this one a lot. Great for the beach as it does not take a lot of concentration to get through this one.

Thank you NetGalley and Dial Press for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

The premise was promising, but I didn’t love this story as much as I’d hoped I would. There was a mix of light and heavier elements to the plot, which was nice, and the tone was a blend of taking-on-relevant-issues and also a bit preachy at times. I didn’t love the protagonist; she annoyed and irritated me often, but she did grow as a character by the end of the novel. As much as I wanted to love the central romantic relationship, I just didn’t feel the chemistry there…it felt like the real spark was missing for me. All in all, it was pretty good, and I enjoyed it, but I do think it could’ve been made even stronger. Either way, I’m really glad I was able to read this advance copy of Queerly Beloved.

As a romance, this just didn't really work for me. I couldn't get into the characters, particularly as a couple. Maybe women's fic would be a better categorization for this book.

Perfectly queer. Such and entertaining book to read! Also made me when to bake sweets! It was interesting to read a book set pre-gay marriage laws. Thanks for netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was sooo hopeful for this queer bakery story but it just didn’t work for me. There was no chemistry between the love interests, all of the characters felt the same, and the writing didn’t flow naturally.

I think if this had been marketed as a queer women's fiction it might have been better. There was more about Amy's relationship with her two best friends, her finding herself, and being true to herself then there was with her love interest. Overall, it was underwhelming because I had thought it was a rom-com and was disappointed when I didn't get it. The other characters were almost one dimensional, Charley definitely was.

"Queerly Beloved" hooked me with it's name alone and I just knew I had to read it! Overall, this was a quick, engaging read about a woman coming to terms with her own sexuality and being comfortable in her identity. I felt that the romance was actually more background to the self discovery journey Amy was taking. I love that the author set this novel in 2013 - a time where acceptance of queer individuals was still up in the air. It made Amy's struggles more relatable while also reminding us how far we've come. The only things I didn't enjoy about the novel were that there was a bit less dialogue than I expected, especially between our two love birds, and the fact that a lot of the conflicts were resolved too easily, i.e. with Amy/Charlie, Amy/Joel...but otherwise, this was a fun read!

Queerly Beloved follows Amy, a semi-out lesbian bartender and baker in Oklahoma, when she gets fired from her job at a Christian bakery for being queer. It's also important to note that this takes place in the mid-2010s, before marriage equality in the US.

Amy felt like a contradiction. Everything she said about herself did not at all match how she acted. She talks about feeling like herself in front of Charley (the love interest), then proceeds to keep secrets and miscommunicate by omission to her. She says that she feels happy and free around her best friend and his boyfriend, then spends every waking moment around them complaining about her life. There are so many instances of this happening, and while I'd like to chalk it up to that "people-pleasing" attitude she claims, it honestly just felt inconsistent. And the other characters weren't much better, unfortunately. I sympathized with them more than I did with Amy, but I also felt like they were underdeveloped, only there to call her "babe" and be the stereotypical queer supporting characters. Amy's friends blended in with each other, despite the representation being good.

I noticed that a lot of the time, Amy's experiences and moments of revelation were really just outlets for the author to speak through. And, the thing is, I agree with all the messages. It just wasn't worked in well and came off preachy. In general, there was a lot of describing the moment, rather than showing it. The moments of chemistry didn't come across as such (the only reason I knew that's how it was supposed to come across was because it was explicitly stated), and the relationship frustrated me more than anything. Amy and Charley were both so hesitant to share with the other, which did not feel like the beginnings of a meaningful relationship.

Queerly Beloved is not about Amy and Charley falling in love. It's about Amy finding her place in Oklahoma as a queer person. There were definitely some moments that I truly enjoyed, parts I laughed at, or was pleasantly surprised by. I loved the connections to the beginning of the story, and Amy's journey is a fun one to go on — the characters and writing just didn't work for me.

I wanted to love this book so badly, but unfortunately it is a DNF for me. I love the premise, and from the 30% that I read I really enjoyed the conversations surrounding the homophobia that the main character was facing in the workplace. I also loved the found family element in here as that is one of my favourite tropes in any genre. There are so many things about this book that should have worked perfectly for me, but it just didn't. I found the main character to be insufferable with the people-pleasing, which I understand is the point of her character and something she would be overcoming throughout the book, but it was driving me up the wall. I wasn't a fan of the love interest either, and I didn't buy the chemistry between them at all.

I think this is one of those cases where the problem lies with me and not the book. I don't think Queerly Beloved is a bad book by any means, and I can definitely see why someone else might enjoy this one. It just wasn't the book for me!

A fun and fresh queer read that surprised me. I enjoyed reading about Amy's internal growth as she learns more about herself and how to live in relationship to those around her. It was a cute romance, but for me the real joy of this book was the thoughtful reflection on queer life in middle america.

This was a really cute sapphic book! I love that our main character Amy has a chosen family. That is always something that I enjoy in books. I feel like the romance could have been flushed out a bit more. But overall a good, quick read

"Queerly Beloved" was an enjoyable romcom that I would recommend to those interested. Charley is extremely underdeveloped and the novel feels overlong, and would have benefited from more editing and condensing. Despite this, this is a fine book that I can see others enjoying (even if I didn't enjoy it myself).

I did not connect to this book as much as I thought I would. I felt there was some stereotyping especially of Amy's gay friends. I felt there lacked some depth to Charley's character and I wish we found out more about her. I really wanted to like this book but I felt like nothing happened in the book.

This is a delightful queer story about finding yourself and the strength it takes to show yourself to the world. I enjoyed the nuanced discussions, the friendships, and the community of folks found it all aspects of this protagonist's life.

I liked this but didn’t love it. It didn’t feel as rom-com as I expected from the cover and blurb. More of a LGBTQ+ own voices, coming of age/coming into your own self story. Which was great, and as a cishet white woman offered a deeper perspective into what it’s like to come out, and how that’s not a one time thing, but an ongoing process.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC, in exchange for my honest review.

Amy, a baker and bartender who can’t help but also be a people pleaser, is a bridesmaid for hire. She wants to find her own happy ending in life and when she’s fired for being gay, having worked on a Christian bakery, she decides the wedding scene is the way to go. Bridesmaids for hire is a real job and she thinks she can find her true authentic self doing just that.

Yay for gay romance but I wasn’t a fan of the Christians turning her away aspect. I mean come on, not every religion is against it. I understand the book is set in 2010 era but for some reason that aspect rubbed me wrong. The story also lacked a romantic build up for me. What I did like is the own voices and finding yourself.. if only the main character wasn’t so whiplash in her personality