4.5 stars
Queerly Beloved is such a cute, yet thoughtful story. I absolutely loved the characters, premise, and romance, but by far the strongest moments were the discussions surrounding LGBTQIA rights. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a cute romance, but I would also recommend it to anyone looking for a book with well written discussions about queer identity.

I received this book from Net Galley in order to give a honest review.

This book was everything I want a LGTBQ+ book to be. There was humor, love, and acceptance. The book follows Amy and Charley in their whirlwind romance.

Thank you Netgally for the ARC of this book. I actually did not finish this one. I got about half way through and I just couldn't connect with the characters. I am all for a good romance book but this one just felt flat to me. I might give it another try one day. But I just wasn't feeling this one.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in return for an unbiased review.

This review is hard for me to write because I am trying my best to judge the book objectively, even when it is not a book I normally like for myself.

To preface, I am a queer adult (nonbinary bisexual) so I relate to these characters.

However, I think a large problem is, this book is marked as a Rom Com and it is not. The romance is honestly kinda only like a 1/3 of the book if even. I felt a lot of the time, it took a backseat and I think it just kinda hurt the overall feeling.

The plot mostly focuses on Amy, a lesbian in Tulsa in 2013 (before marriage equality) After losing her job for being outed as queer she end ups starting her own business. During that time she meets Charley, whom she starts a relationship, and goes through a lot of soul search and such.

A large portion is devoted to Amy reflecting on what it means to be queer in a conservative society and the effects of having to stay constantly hidden and inauthentic vs being able to be who you are. This is seen a lot in the dichotomy of her being a Bridesmaid for hire during a time where she legally couldn’t have a wedding of her own.

While that is an important story to write, I think overall it does it a bit of a disservice to label it as a Rom Com, as again, most of the book focuses on Amy’s growth and self reflection, with her relationship with Charley just being one small facet.

Now, again, stories of questioning queer identity and dealing with homophobia etc, those are important. However sometimes I do get frustrated because sometimes you just want to read a fun love story. Queer rep is great but also gets a bit annoying when the only Queer rep you get is when it is just showing the ‘suffering’ instead of just having a basic Rom Com plot but with Queer people. (hopefully that makes sense)

So to conclude, the book itself is not bad, just not what I prefer to read or was expecting.

Queerly Beloved was a casual and easy-going read that housed a lot of elements of a romance YA that we have all come to enjoy. The relationships between found family and the romantic one felt well constructed and realistic. Amy as an individual who deals with identity in a close-minded area while trying to navigate heartache and expression was interesting to read and really gave a depth to her character that was overall enjoyable.
Overall having queer relationships that are sweet and strong is amazing to see and getting the opportunity to read about dynamics constructed this way is always so much fun.

While I enjoyed the representation, I really couldn’t connect with any of them at all. I think it was really hard for me to basically read through 28 chapters Amy’s poor me. Yes, she was facing a lot of issues, and yea, these are real issues people face, but also a drag to read nothing but woe is me. I had a hard time connecting with Charley as well because she kept popping in and out of the story. And, while I think I like her mom, her “uncles”, and her besties, there wasn’t enough of them for me to connect with. The whole feeling I got from this was, unfortunately, uncomfortable depression. Basically, I was expecting some fun and this just left me sad and uncomfortable. And not wanting to come back to this. But, I’m not a book quitter.

Amy cares for others with buttercream. She has two jobs she really loves, a great friend group, and a supportive mom. It's a great setup! But one of her jobs tanks when she's outed and fired, because in Oklahoma circa 2013, that's just how it goes. But a hot newcomer to town might help soothe Amy. Her relationship with Charley, who's an engineer and very busy, seems promising but also fraught with issues (Charley's not great at communicating in general). Amy works to launch her own new venture, leaning hard into her problem-solving abilities and love of weddings, but that has it's own problems built in. And her second job isn't going as swimmingly as she'd like either. Can Amy find her happily-ever-after? Strengths: found family, excellent lesbian bar, lots of descriptions of baked goods. Challenges: Amy takes care of everyone except Amy; lots of trauma around being inadvertently outed; Charley's tendency to ignore texts borders on ghosting. Repeatedly. As in, this is marketed as a romance, but it's way less about the Amy/Charley dynamic and more about Amy building her own life. That is not a drawback, especially considering how unreliable Charley seems throughout most of the book. It's just a marketing note. Overall, this is well-written, and Amy's friendships are delightful. Heat level: medium.

Thanks to netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review. This was a great romantic read with LGBTQ characters and their chosen families, and some other family too; set in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I don’t want to spoil the read but if you like romance you won’t be disappointed!

Queerly Beloved was such an enjoyable read! Yay for queer love stories!! Taking place in 2013 Tulsa, Amy is a queer baker living in a conservative state. After being fired from her bakery for being gay, Amy stumbles into a genius new career - professional bridesmaid! Throughout the book Amy struggles with heartache, friend drama and being true to herself.

Amy’s friends are the best kind of found family and I loved all of the characters in this book. The love story between Amy and Charley was really sweet. It was so easy to feel for these characters and root for their success. All of the secondary characters felt fully developed and contributed nicely to the story. I was so glad to read the epilogue and see how far the characters were all able to go in the years that passed.

(Also, thank you to the author for including the the strawberry champagne cake recipe after the epilogue! After reading about it for a few chapters I was determined to find one.)

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the advanced copy of this book.

What a cute book!!! Had me smiling all throughout! My first book to read by this author but not my last! Highly recommend!

This book is truly delightful. It’s setting inOklahoma in 2013/2014 feels surprisingly dated (but that’s on purpose). Hard to believe how far marriage rights have come in such a short time!
Amy and her crew of friends are funny, warm, and real. The fears she has about coming out in a conservative place feel true and palpable.
My only criticism is that this was pitched as a romance and it felt like her romance with Charley was not central to the plot. I hoped for more of them but the book is fun and delightful overall. Just know going in that this book focuses much more on Amy and her life/growth than on her relationship with Charley.

In this queer romance set in Oklahoma in 2013, baker Amy meets a hottie customer (new-to-Tulsa Charley) and makes a bold move to ask Charley out alongside her blueberry muffin. At her next shift, Amy is unceremoniously fired from her job when the homophobic owner discovers "Amelia" is lesbian (and obviously a threat to her daughter and family values).

Amy's bartending gig is not quite enough to pay the bills or maintain her vehicle, so Amy begins moonlighting as a paid bridesmaid - not quite a wedding planner, but someone who can do emergency repairs on cakes, dresses and even relationships on what is both the most important and possibly more stressful day of one's life.

Dramatic tension is built by Amy's love for weddings (and for love) and her understanding that she lives in a red state where the governor is vocally anti-marriage and prevents legislation offering equal rights, let alone protection for the LGBTQIA+ community. Charley seems allergic to weddings, but Amy has grown up with HIV+ uncles in a LTR and knows the kind of loving commitment to aspire to when you choose to walk a path with someone. Amy and Charley's dating is slotted around Charley's crazy work and travel schedule and Amy's bridesmaid gigs. They manage a real connection and a very sweet romance between someone not all the way out who leans to the femme side, and someone rather out more to the masc side, both a little shy and scared and funny and awkward.

The wonderful details about baking, and life in a primarily Christian flyover state is balanced with strongly drawn, non-stereotypical queer characters, a supportive mom turned activist, and realistic tension with less accepting family members. The wedding details range from over the top to hilarious, and tun spur of the moment events at the Wizard of Oz themed gay bar come to life with descriptions about food, decorations, fashion and music. A Thanksgiving cooking competition among family members was a fun detail.

Following a solid and realistic progression of events, this novel is also an examination of how far we have come, even in the last 10 years or so, of accepting people for who they are and who they love, our understanding of gender identifies, and a novel where there are no assumptions and introductions just include pronouns is wonderfully refreshing.

AND a conflict between Amy and her best friend is well-resolved, with a believable amount of anger, meanness, stewing, and a strong apology scene.

Overall, Queerly Beloved is a great, solid read with a satisfying ending (and a bonus strawberry champagne cupcakes recipe!)

I received a digital arc of #QueerlyBeloved from #NetGalley

*Digital ARC given for free in exchange for an honest review*

This book was an amazing read. A girl named Amy lives in Oklahoma and works at a bakery. Despite her loving the job, she feels she can't be her true queer self in a conservative and religious state. This book is set in 2013, before same sex marriage was legalized. It deals with the issues queer folks had to deal with during this time, without making this the main point in the story. Ultimately it is about a girl discovering who she is.

The epiloue mad me squad with joy. Queerly Beloved is one of the best books I have read in a long time.

I was able to receive this book from Netgalley and I was very excited to read it since it sounded so cute, and I wasn’t disappointed!

Amy, the main character, was equal parts relatable and had me stressed when making decisions which made her all the more realistic to me. Her love of baking was balanced so well that you could tell it was an important part of her life but wasn’t mentioned so much that it became an annoyance. There were definitely a mix of lovable side characters that I enjoyed as well.

However if you are looking for a cute, purely escapism romance novel this is not it. Queerly Beloved had a lot of introspective parts and frequent discussions about gender and sexual orientation discrimination.

3.5 stars! sweet and gay, exactly how i love a book!

Definitely for you if you enjoy:
- Gay love! wooooo!
- Supportive chosen family
- Reflective gay journey

Set in 2013, Amy is a wedding lover and closeted lesbian working at a conservative bakery in Tulsa, Oklahoma when she meets Charly, a new in town engineer. When Amy is outed and fired, she’s torn on what else to do besides continue working at her other part time bartending job at the local gay bar.

Her love for baking, event coordinating and weddings comes in use when she’s asked to be a stand-in bridesmaid at a strangers wedding where they’ll pay her for it. Her one-time bridesmaid gig turns into a full service and soon all the offers roll in but between that, her friends getting engaged and her love life spirling, Amy has to chose what’s worth fighting for and how she can be who she is openly and proudly.

📚

This one was cute but wasn’t as romance novel-y as I hoped. I would say it’s more fiction than romance but all the romance bits that were in there did make me warm in fuzzy inside. The side characters were so sweet and Amy’s chosen family really were so supportive and fun to read about.

It was also interesting (and understandable) the time it was set in and though many books nowadays are just placed in the present with so many smart phone/social media moments and viral things, it was nice to step back a little in time and include that political topic of gay marriage too.

I did like this one, it just didn’t spark anything very brightly in me but I can think of a few people in my life who will really enjoy it and I can’t wait to gift them this one!

This is a light hearted queer love story . It is cute and definitely needed in the world . Not enough queer love stories out there .
Twenty somethings come to terms with who they are !

Thanks net galley for the the opportunity

So much yesssss! Queerly Beloved is about Amy who is a semi-closeted queer woman who gets fired from her job for being gay and becomes a bridesmaid for hire in this absolutely fun, open, honest, and cute romance story. Amy meets Charley, the cute newbie I’m town and things heat up in a cute, fun way. This book was easy to read, quick, and so dang cute! I loved the characters, how the author portrayed Amy’s shift in her sense of self and growth and how open and contemporary this was!

LOVED this book- I stayed up late reading it! Amy struggles with figuring out who she is and how she should represent herself to others after being fired from her bakery job for being gay. She falls into being a professional bridesmaid, and though she loves helping with weddings and seeing them uniquely represent the couples, she is struggling with the fact that she herself can’t legally get married ( the book is set in 2013 just as the marriage equity law is being debated). A wonderfully look at the queer community in flyover country and some thoughtful discussion between characters, combined with an adorable lesbian romance front and center and a fantastically queer supporting cast!

Well written story of twenty somethings coming to terms with being gay in a conservative political state before LGBTQ marriage equality.

You come out more than once - each time you start a new job, you meet a new friend.

Amy is a people pleaser - who mistakenly places her energy in self sabotaging relationships and situations. Quietly Beloved follows her growth to self awareness.

Queerly Beloved by Susie Dumond is hands down one of the best books I've read.
And 2022 can't come quick enough.
Because I'm buying this gorgeous cover for my shelf!

Oh this was such a well-crafted story!
This book is an excellent romance novel, but it’s more than that.
It's about family, friendship, and realizing who you are and to be who are, finding the courage you need and finding your self-worth as well.
The story is wonderful, the side characters were also great and added so much more to the story. And the love throughout the book is simply awesome!
Amy and Charley's relationship really is something special.
And at times I feel for Amy.... Not being able to be who she truly is around around her family!
It was super well written and had me feeling all the feels!
A wonderful, amazing, fun read! And I can't wait for this to be out in the world!

Random House|Dial Press Trade,
Thank you for this brilliant, amazing, cute eARC!
I will post and tag to my platforms closer to pub date!