I liked this story, but don't feel as though it delivered on what the summary had me expecting. The love story was cute, and well developed, and I'm an absolute sucker for anything with a found family, like Amy has at the bar. But the description left me excited to read a bridesmaid-for-hire romance, and that part of the plotline seemed to fall a little flat. I'd have liked to see more stories about wedding misadventures, maybe even something invovling Charley, but as it is, I enjoyed what there was enough to read the whole thing.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House publishers for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Disclaimer: I read this novel in February 2023 and am getting around to the review now in June 2023. As you would understand from the rest of this review, I can't recall specifics of this novel.

I love the cover and had relatively high hopes for this novel but something about the couple I couldn't connect with. I used the E-ARC and a Libby loan audiobook to get through this novel. Neither format kept me engaged enough and by the time the third act rolled around, I found myself not rooting for the couple's happily ever after.

While I appreciate the timeline effort the author put into the novel, I found this novel not to be a memorable romcom for me and unfortunately not one I ever plan to reread.

Let me start off by saying the narrator for the audiobook is absolutely fantastic, and I highly recommend listening!

This book was a lot of fun, with unique quirky characters that I adore to no end, and fun new business idea that seems more trouble than it's worth. But definitely entertaining!

But this book also opened up a lot of serious topics. Mainly concerning marriage equality for LGBTQIA+ people and maintaining a professional work-life for queer people. I'm not sure how to describe the emotions it made me feel. I was happy and sad and all over the place every time pretty much anything happened that had Amy profess her queerness, which was nerve-wracking that it came up so many times. But that's not just the book, that's being queer. Coming out is never just a one time thing, and this book deeply gets into that.

All in all, I love it. It was brilliant. I will say that I cared more about the politics addressed and the friendships in the book than the actual relationship of the MC.

Such a great read! A showing of what it is like to be a queer woman in an area where queerness comes with judgement and ostracism.

I recommend this one as often as possible and it is one that has earned a place on my physical shelf for rereads in the future.

Queerly Beloved is set in 2013 Tulsa, Oklahoma and follows Amy, a semi-closeted lesbian baker. When Amy gets fired from a Christian bakery after the owner discovers her queerness, Amy starts a bridesmaid-for-hire business.

I would personally not categorize this book as a romance. While it does have all the classic romance elements, the relationship is not the prominent story in this book. I found it read more like a story of self discovery with a romance subplot. After reading a few other reviews, it looks like others agree with me on this.

Overall this book was meh— didn’t love or hate it.

This is a great book for those who want to read a book that's more romance - adjacent, than fully romance. It's more about the main character finding herself. I would still recommend this as I enjoyed it so much!

Queerly Beloved is a cute romantic tale of two women falling in love in Oklahoma. Dumond creates a charming roster of family and friends.

This was my first queer book to read, and I did enjoy it! While I think the plot could have been written a little more thoroughly, I understand that it being a YA book makes me not the intended audience for this. It was a cute, quick read that I am sure many others will enjoy.

I received this book for free from Netgalley for an honest review.

Romantic and sweet. Just what I needed in a lgbtq rom com

While I did enjoy this book, there were a number of issues that irked me. The story purportedly takes takes place in 2013, right around when a judge
ruled I favor of gay marriage. The politics of the time hit home in the story, but the rest of it doesn’t feel like 2013. Maybe it was just me, but it seemed much more like it took place in the present day.
Both Charley and Amy were charming at times, and pure eyeroll at others. I was never sure of their motivations from one moment to the next.
Amy’s coming to terms with and recognizing the importance of being out was interesting, and I really got a sense of her taking a journey to a better place.
The ending was a little far fetched, but I enjoyed it just the same.

Oof, this one hit a little too close to reality with the whole Christian bakery thing!

I feel like the cover is a bit misleading - it gives cute queer rom-com vibes, and then the actual content was more Women's Fic/Chick Lit, focused on Amy's growth and finding herself, with the romance plotline being more of a side story than the main focus. j

As a romance it's a 2 star read, and as Women's Fic it's a 3.5 star, so I give it a weighted average of 3 stars.

I expected this book to deliver more than it actually did. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good. Even though I enjoyed some parts, it wasn’t memorable.

This one sounded super cute and it did not disappoint. I really enjoyed this book. I am loving all the cute Rom-Coms recently.

I love a romance book that involves baking, so I was drawn to Queerly Beloved. Susie Dumond's book is a solid contribution to the queer canon in this space, and I'll look forward to more from this author.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

I was able to get through some of this. The general consensus as to why I stopped was because of the lack of romance in a story that is marketed as a rom-com.

There didn't seem to be a lot of chemistry between the two characters the romance is focused on. There was also a lot more telling than showing, and that is something that peeves me a bit when I'm reading a book. Therefore, while the story seemed interesting based on the blurb, I didn't think it was accurate to what was on its pages.

This had promise but the setting being before marriage equality just made the story seem dated to me. At times it seemed like the timeline for the book was a bit jumbled too.

The execution was so poorly done that I couldn't continue. I had high hopes for this given all the initial reviews but it fell really flat for me. DNF @ 60%

i am so upset i have to write this review but man this book was such a let down!!! susie dumond's debut romcom titled 'queerly beloved' follows amy, a semi-closeted baker & bartender working at a very christian bakery in tulsa, just trying to do her best to make others happy. when she is very suddenly fired from the bakery for her queer lifestyle, she turns a one-off gig subbing in for a friend of a friend's bridesmaid into a full on bridesmade-for-hire business, tasked with making sure nothing goes wrong on the bride's perfect day. between this new business and charley, the hot new engineer who moved to town, suddenly amy has found a life that makes her happy. amy's friends are happy that amy is being truly herself for once, but when her desire to please kicks into high gear, all of amy's relationships are put to the test. can amy find herself (and love) in all the chaos?

i wanted to love this SO MUCH but man oh man what a letdown. first off, the book was too long for what it was -- it easily could have been 100 pages shorter and benefited the story. so much of the book was describing amy on these bridemaid trips & events, but none of them gave us anything new about amy as a person, or advanced the story forward in any way. but my biggest issue was the lack of consistency in the characterization. amy claims to be a people pleaser, but often comes across as selfish & self-centered. charley had as much personality as a brick wall. joel & damien (two of amy's friends) were lumped together to have one very stereotypical personality, as were greg & max. it was just such a letdown, and i regret investing so much time into this story for little-to-no payoff.

Enjoyed the book, but felt that the romance fell a bit flat for me. I was hoping for more complex relationships In the book. Will still give the author another read!

The potential was there but the execution was lacking.

It was great to see the journey that Amy goes through with her identity and figuring out who she is in the world around her. Her amazing friendships were a great addition to the story.

For me, that where it ended. There was just a plug and play feel to the storyline; like the author was just checking things off a "must include" list.

There were definitely some funny parts to the story and I enjoyed the comic relief. The romance aspect was lacking for me between Amy and Charley. At most they just came across as awkward and friendly.