This book really didn’t work for me. I really wanted this to be a lot cozier than it was, but it’s set in 2013 at a Christian bakery and also the love interest has literally no personality (and it’s single POV so she doesn’t get better). It was not a romcom, even though I feel like the cover implied that it was going to be, and I didn’t really enjoy any of the characters. Two and a half stars, rounded up for NetGalley.

Amy, a semi-closeted queer baker and bartender in mid-2010s Oklahoma, has spent a lifetime putting other people’s needs before her own. Until, that is, she’s fired from her job at a Christian bakery and turns her a one-off gig subbing in for a bridesmaid into a full-time business—thanks to her baking talents, crafting skills, and years watching rom-coms and Say Yes to the Dress. Between her new gig and meeting Charley, the attractive engineer who’s just moved to Tulsa, suddenly Amy’s found something— and someone—she actually wants.

Her tight-knit group of chosen family is thrilled that Amy is becoming her authentic self. But when her deep desire to please kicks into overdrive, Amy’s precarious balancing act strains her relationships to the breaking point, and she must decide what it looks like to be true to herself—and if she has the courage to try.

I wanted to like this book so much more. I really enjoyed the found family aspect, the relationships Amy had with her mother, Max, and Greg, and the discussions about gay marriage. I appreciated the personal growth Amy experienced throughout the book, but ultimately, I think this could have done with some more editing. The pacing of this story made the first 70 percent very slow, and while the last 30 percent was redeeming and enjoyable, I wish some of the earlier content had been edited out.

I think the genre Queerly Beloved is categorized under is confusing too. While billed as a romcom, I think it's more accurately contemporary or queer fiction. I struggled to feel any chemistry between Amy and Charley after their insta-love meeting, and with Charley's hot and cold nature and the romance being largely discarded for big chunks of the book, I often forgot about Charley until Amy mentioned her again. I also felt like we got very little character development for Charley, which I think might have helped me connect with her more.

While I loved the bridesmaid-for-hire plotline, enjoyed the connection Amy made with Regi, and loved how Amy grew and learned more about herself as the book went on, I wish there hade been more of that spread throughout the book instead of crammed into the last 30 percent.

I would definitely read more by this author because I think she has a lot of promise, and I'm glad I tried this one out, but overall, this one was just okay for me.

Thank you so much to @netgalley @thedialpress and @prhaudio for my gifted galley and complimentary audiobook copy of Queerly Beloved.

#PrideReads #QueerlyBeloved #TheDialPress #LoveIsLove #LGBTQRomance #LoverOfBooks #GottaRead #ABookADay #ILiveToRead #CantStopWontStopReading #NoseInABook #Pride #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #readingmama #momswhoread #bookish #bibliophile #bookworm #wearebookish #pridemonth #bookreadinggirls #bookstabuddies #debutauthor #readersofinstagram #readers #readersofinsta #readersgonnaread

I went into this book with pretty much no expectations other than I wanted to love it. I did not. But I didn’t absolutely hate it.

Some moments between the two mains were just awkward to read but I’m a pretty awkward person myself so I didn’t mind those bits. My biggest issue with this book was a lack of character development over time.

I live near Tulsa and thought it was a great setting which is part of why I wanted to love this one. It’s always cool when a nearby area is featured in a book you’re reading. Alas, this one was not a hit for me but it may be a hit with the right person!

Amy is a semi-closeted queer baker living in a small conservative town in mid-2010s Oklahoma. After she’s fired from her job at a Christian bakery for her “lifestyle”, she is desperate for money and starts a business as a bridesmaid for hire. She’s keeping herself busy between her bridesmaid adventures and her new romance with Charley who is new in town. But can she manage to keep balancing all of these new additions to her life along with her pre-existing friendships?

Since this book is set in 2013, it was really interesting to see how the court decisions around marriage equality were addressed in this book. I loved seeing how the different characters were feeling and it really brought up some interesting points and made me think about how things have (or in some cases have not) changed in the last decade. I appreciated that in this regard, this book ended up being really informative.

Amy started out feeling really immature and pretty unlikeable in the beginning of the story, but by the end her growth and her experiences made me root for her. I love a good baking romance so I loved that she was a baker and the bridesmaid for hire plotline was so much fun. I didn’t love how Amy and Charley handled their relationship - the lack of communication felt a bit immature at times. However, despite not loving the main characters I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was a good balance of fun and informative.

Thank you to Dial Press for the advance copy.

I thought Amy’s whining was selfish and annoying at times. I totally can see where she came from because I think it’s unfair that marriage isn’t legal for everyone but the way she was so def absorbed was awful.

And at one point I thought I’d rather see her find love unexpectedly with McKenzie and would have preferred that over Charlie because of her quick and sort of needy obsession with her.

Loved the Uncles And her supportive Mom. Listening to the audio with so many side characters made it a little confusing and hard to keep track of who was who at points.

Thank you for Queerly Beloved in exchange for my honest review.

Based on the synopsis and the cover, I had high hopes for this book. Who doesn’t love a good LGBTQ story where the main character finds herself? Also, the setting (Oklahoma) was a perfect statement that people can do what they want anywhere in the United States, no matter how close minded the majority of the state may be. All of these were things I thoroughly enjoyed.
However, the writing style was a little boring for me and I felt at times that I was unable to connect with the main character.

Queerly Beloved takes place in Oklahoma sometime in the early 2010s. I’m guessing the year is in the early 2010s since same-sex marriage was legalized in 2014 in Oklahoma. At the time that the book is set, same-sex marriage is not recognized in any way.

Amy is a baker at The Daily Bread, a Christian Baker. Amy is in the closet at work but out of the closet everywhere else. Her boss, Donna, at the bakery, is a homophobe. When Donna finds out that Amy is a lesbian, she fires Amy. Donna fires her and gives her a lecture about how being gay is a sin. Donna is the worst. Since 2020, it is illegal to fire someone based on their sexual orientation.

Closeted Amy is much different than Proud Amy. However, we don’t really see Proud Amy very often until the end of the book. Closeted Amy is holding on to old habits of hiding her true self. Amy begins a new service to help bridesmaids but she is still hiding her LGBT+ status. Of course, she doesn’t have to tell anyone but it doesn’t seem healthy to keep a big secret from everyone.

Amy meets Charley. They fall in love. They fall out. They almost make amends. Charley is alright but I’m not her biggest fan. Amy is so sweet and kind but Charley spends most of her time being a distant weirdo. Why are you such a weirdo Charley? Eventually, the reader will find out why Charley is so distant.

If you like books about food and trying to figure out how to be really, really out of the closet. It takes a brave soul to be all of the way out.

If you are suffering or making others suffer from homophobia like Donna, then you won’t appreciate this book. Please seek help for your phobia.

Cute, quirky, and queer!

I love a good queer romance, and think there is large gap for it in the romance market. This was a fun and sweet read that I think will appeal to a large audience!

Honestly I was super excited by the premise of Queerly Beloved but I'm torn now that I've read it.

I love the idea of the book but I'm not sure that I ended up rooting for the romance as much as I wanted to. Amy and Charley didn't quite feel as compelling as I wanted but the conversations around queerness and identity were wonderful!

Id recommend more as a fiction with romance rather than a romance heavy book.

Thank you for the opportunity to read

I received this book complimentary from NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

I just couldn’t get into this at all. It’s set in Tulsa OK (a red state) in 2013 and just seemed very anachronistic and I couldn’t get into it. I wouldn’t have minded the characters but maybe in another setting? I don’t know. It seemed like gay was Amy’s only personality trait. This was also a very tell instead of show style of writing which is not my preference.

5 ⭐️
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Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the e-ARC of this book! I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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Oh wow did I LOVE this book. And it was such a great read during Pride month!

Susie Dumond's debut focuses on Amy, a goody-two-shoes baker at a conservative bakery by day and lesbian bartender at local gay bar Ruby Red's by night in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Taking place in 2013, it's not illegal when someone outs Amy to her boss and she's subsequently fired for her "sinful lifestyle". After saving the day at a family wedding with a cake gone wrong, Amy stumbles into a job as a paid bridesmaid at a few weddings to make some quick cash. But what starts as a favor turns into an entire business for people-pleasing Amy and she has to decide if playing bridesmaid to make ends meet is worth continuing to hide her identity in the heteronormative wedding industry and a community that isn't as queer friendly as she wants it to be. Meanwhile, Amy also meets and falls hard for the cute new queer engineer girl in town, Charley. With a new relationship on top of everything else, something always has to go wrong.

This was SUCH a sweet book. There were a lot of moments that hit close to home knowing that gay marriage was on the precipice of being legalized, but wasn't QUITE there yet during the events of this book. I loved all of the characters in her community who fell across the LGBTQ+ spectrum and the different personalities of the brides she worked with during her jobs. I was also enamored with the specificity of Tulsa that made it feel so real. (I'd LOVE to visit Ruby Red's in all its Wizard of Oz glory!) The romance between Amy and Charley felt tentative, yet on the precipice of something really great - I just wish we understood a little more about Charley's background and why she acted the way she did. Amy's dynamic with her mom and Uncles (her chosen family friends) seemed very natural and it was great to see how her friendships with best friends Joel and Damian were put to the test and came out stronger for it in the end. It was such a unique little world and I was sad to see it go when I finished.

While there were frustrating moments watching them happen from the outside (why did she wait SO LONG to apologize to her friends?!), the resolution and epilogue made it totally worth waiting to get there. If only we could taste some of Amy's delicious creations for ourselves! All in all, I'd devour another one of Dumond's books in a heartbeat.

I’m always on the lookout for more contemporary sapphic romances, especially set in the southern United States, so I was VERY excited to get my hands on an arc of Queerly Beloved. And that’s where the excitement ended. This book had great story concepts, but needed some serious editing - there were so many different storylines. Is it about someone hiding their queer identity at work? Or a professional bridesmaid? Or a sapphic romance? Or a coming of age story? It was trying to do too much and ended up succeeding at none of it. The side characters were all severely underdeveloped and seemed to rely on queer stereotypes. Also this should not be marketed as a romance, it’s barely a part of the storyline and has the most forced HEA of all time.

So many content warnings for homophobia.

Last thing - while I love the frequent use of pronouns in the book, that would not have been normal in 2013.

Amy is a queer baker in a Christian bakery in Tulsa. She knows it would not be ok for her boss to know so she sensors how she is and instead goes by Amelia. When the bakery owner finds out that she is gay she fires her. Amy is heartbroken as identifies baking as part of her. When she gets the offer to be a paid bridesmaid at someone’s wedding she ends up enjoying it and making a business out of it but she finds herself struggling to be her true self in her business, which strains her relationships around her.

I loved this book from the beginning! I loved the characters. I enjoyed that this was not your typical rom-com and the issues that Amy faced were very relatable. I would enjoy reading another book by Susie Dumond.

I was really back and forth on this book the whole time. Half the time I thought, what a cute story. The other half I felt like it was offensive to the community. Some comments and lines were off putting and made me cringe.

I couldn’t get on board to like Amy. She was needy and a very “why me” kind of character. She seemed very one note and flat.

With the lack of wlw contemporary romances out there, I wanted to love this book but I just didn't. While the plotline of a closest woman in Oklahoma is an entirely realistic scenario, the way it was executed within this book made it difficult for me to even enjoy the romance.

I was so excited to read this, but I felt really disappointed after reading the entire book. Marketed as a romance, this is definitely more a contemporary, general fiction novel, with romance. Amy is a very selfish, self absorbed character. All of the other characters were very much stereotypes. It was difficult to tell that this book was set in 2013- I didn't know until it was said explicitly 75% into the book! Characters introduce themselves with their pronouns in a very clunky, inorganic way. It's very 2022. There are so many rants and speeches in this book.

I wish Dumond had stuck to either baking or weddings instead of trying to mash them together as one theme.

This was cute! QUEERLY BELOVED is a contemporary novel about a lesbian baker/bartender turned bridesmaid-for-hire in Oklahoma. The story takes place in 2013/2014, just before gay marriage was legalized in all US states. The main character had to balance what it meant for her to be working in the wedding industry, while her and her community were not legally able to get married themselves. This inner conflict was explored in a poignant and heartfelt way. I loved this novel’s emphasis on the queer community and how it’s really important for individuals who live in unaccepting regions (like the US South).

I wanted to love the set-up of the actual romance, but the romance took a backseat to Amy’s self discovery story. Which is fine, but surely not reflected within how this book is pitched and shelved. I also didn’t really love Charley, the love interest, as a character. I thought she was really flat and I (surprisingly) enjoyed the scenes outside of the romance a lot more. This story was stronger as a love letter to the queer community.

A sweet (pun intended) story about becoming your true self and figuring out what you want out of life. Coming out can be hard, particularly if someone accidently outs you before you're ready.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Queerly Beloved was honestly a really cute book to dive into. In this, you will meet Amelia - aka Amy. Her and I have something in common. She loves to bake, likes weddings, and adores flowers. Whereas I just like to bake (lol). She's also surrounded by this huge queen found family and I really adored that too. I definitely saw myself in her mom, who is completely supportive of her, because that's how I am with my own family and friends.

Even though I liked Amy, it did honesty take me a while to feel that way. She definitely had some ups and downs with me. Though, if I'm being truly honest, the only character that I really didn't like was Donna. She was a real piece of work and I hope she realizes what she did was completely horrible.

Other than that, I sort of liked the romance. That too also had its ups and downs. At first, they were really cute, and I couldn't help myself from shipping them. Then it started to seem like they were moving at different paces. So, I totally saw some of the drama coming before it did.

In the end, I'm glad that everything worked out between everyone. The epilogue was so freaking cute and put a smile on my face. I'm honestly really happy that I got the chance to jump into this book and can't wait for everyone else to do so.

Queerly Beloved by Susie Dumond is the queer 27 dresses you never knew you needed. It’s 2013 in Tulsa Oklahoma, and Amy is living her life as a closeted baker at the religiously conservative but annoyingly delicious bakery by day, and an out bartender at the queer bar by night. She is very good at blending in and putting other people’s needs before her own. But one day, Charley walks into the bakery as she closes up and a whole new world of romantic possibilities opens up to her. Charley just got an engineering job in the oil industry in town and Amy cannot wait to be her tour guide. Her chosen family is thrilled she is dating Charley and living authentically. But when the opportunity to work in the wedding industry as a bridesmaid for hire arises, Amy is willing to go stealth once more to get the gig. She is excellent at wedding crafts, baking, and problem-solving, she loves the wedding industry, and she needs the jobs. Amy just has to decide how much of herself she is willing to give up to make others more comfortable.
If it’s not clear yet, I absolutely adored this book set in the lead-up to the supreme court case that legalized gay marriage in the US. In the book club guide, Dumond notes, “not many queer stories were being published in 2013. The ones that were being published were often mainstream voices, so I think there’s a dearth in queer history from this period of time in those ‘flyover’ states.” Her thoughts get at what I think makes this book feel so different from other queer wedding romances or romances from the 2010s. Being so 2013 is one of the things I loved about the novel. This will date me, but I was in high school in 2013 and when I say the references hit hard, I am not exaggerating in any way. I still remember when it was odd, even in New England, to be out in school, or to see queer media with any frequency. So, I love what this book does to fill in the gaps and speak to a period that is almost a decade behind us now.
That is not to say the whole book is a political treatise on marriage equality in the 2010s. It is also an excellent queer romance novel. Amy’s found family is wonderfully flawed and supportive. They inhabit the space a breathe life into Amy’s Tulsa, where she has family members who supported her when she came out as a lesbian and those who shunned her. She has a job at a wonderfully queer space, Ruby Red’s. (It took me an embarrassingly long time, i.e. until page 348, to realize they kept mentioning the Wizard of Oz doormat because the bar is called Ruby Red’s after Dorothy’s red slippers.) She also has a job in conservative, and homophobic spaces. Having her friends and family react to Amy’s life helps the reader fully understand her daily life. Finally, her love interest, Charley, is a masc of center lesbian whose job as an engineer takes her out of town more often than not. They are wonderfully supportive of one another and although the trouble they have keeps them apart, when they come back together they can be radically honest with one another. I adored the epilogue and their relationship in general.
You can have your queer wedding cake and eat it too with this slice of the 2010s. Queerly Beloved by Susie Dumond is the southern sapphic romance that speaks to a queer community that loves love and weddings even if the wedding industry does not always love them back.
I would like to thank Dial Press from Penguin Random House for providing my reviewers copy of Queerly Beloved by Susie Dumond in exchange for my honest review.