Let me just say…Queerly Beloved by Susie Dumond is my new favorite comfort book. If you are looking for a book as diverse as the queer community, this one is for you!

Amy, a semicloseted queer baker and bartender in mid-2010s Oklahoma, has spent a lifetime putting other people’s needs before her own. Until, that is, she hits it off with Charley, a brilliant, attractive engineer who’s just moved to Tulsa. Suddenly, Amy’s found something—someone—she actually wants. Her tight-knit group of chosen family is thrilled she’s finally moving on from her ex. Mostly, though, they want Amy to find a way to show up for love—and life—as her authentic self.

But when a one-off gig subbing in for a bridesmaid turns into a full-time business—thanks to Amy’s baking talents, crafting skills, and years watching rom-coms and Say Yes to the Dress—her deep desire to please kicks into overdrive, at her own expense. It’s not until Amy’s precarious balancing act strains her relationships to the breaking point that she must decide what it looks like to be true to herself—and if she has the courage to try.

Susie take the time to develop her characters in a way that is slicing into each layer of a freshly baked cake. My heart swooned, it broke, and it cheered with each turn of events! Honestly, this is one that I will read over and over again!! Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC of this amazing story!!

~Thanks to Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Queerly Beloved in exchange for an honest review. ~

Being promised romance and finding out the book is actually Women’s Fiction will become my villain origin story.

I, unfortunately, ended up not finishing this book after 45% in because I went in expecting a romance story, where the majority of the book would be dedicated to the development of a relationship between our main characters’ Amy and Charley. Instead, this book is mostly focused on Amy trying to secure her life with a new job and find happiness, which happens to include dating the new hot girl in town.

I have no problem with that kind of a story, but it wasn’t what I wanted and wasn’t what I went in expecting, so of course, I was disappointed. I should have picked up on it when I noticed that we received so much information and background about Amy, but her love interest, Charley, gets quick summarizations, making it hard to connect with her. Because of this, I wasn’t invested in the relationship between the two. The writing around them as a couple just wasn’t convincing. At one point the author tells you there is sexual tension, but I couldn’t feel it in the writing, so I didn’t believe it. Very tell not show writing style throughout. Basically, this isn’t a romance book, it just has an (unconvincing) romance side-plot.

As I said, there’s SO much information about Amy and you have to sift through all of it to figure out what is actually important to the story. This made the pacing of the story really slow, even if it’s an easy read. Also was pretty disappointed that the two gay men in this are stereotypical gay best friend types with little depth, I’d expect more from a book with a lesbian romance in it.

A big plus I will give this is that the author actually acknowledged period sex! Not something I’ve ever come across in a traditional romance book, so props to normalizing menstruation.

All in all, a disappointment due to poor labeling and marketing, once again.

Queerly Beloved is a beautifully written story of love and friendship and identity. Amy is a part-time bartender and a people-pleasing baker who gets fired from from the bakery she works at after being outed, and after she’s fired, she becomes a bridesmaid-for-hire. She is so endearing, and my heart broke for her over her persistent struggle of finding her place as a queer woman in the wedding industry and her struggles with being open with that. I loved her honesty and journey, and her friends at the bar she works at her were amazing. Everyone needs a Joel and Damien in her life. I also loved her relationship with her mother and uncles—she has such a wonderful support system, and I just adored their help in Amy’s journey to find her voice. I didn’t love the love interest, Charley. While their dates and banter was endearing and sweet, I feel like it took them too long to communicate well and honestly with each other. But every other element of the book really worked. The writing is captivating and witty. The community built in these pages is beautiful and the characters were just fantastic.

Queerly Beloved was cute. Definitely more of a womens fiction/coming of age than a romance. I enjoyed it and loved all the Queer representation and loved that Charley was an engineer. The multitudes of speeches and grand gestures made it feel a little unrealistic. I feel like I don’t know anything about Charley other than she’s “one of the good ones” that works in the oil & gas industry as an engineer. A lot of the descriptions of the book feel like i’m just being told what to imagine instead of actually experiencing it. All of the baking/food descriptions did make me hungry.

Look at that cover, y’all. Doesn’t it just scream “I am a light buttercream confection?”

Well, just like The GUNCLE, this more than a little misleading.

So, Amy is a queer baker working in a Christian bakery. Her boss is deeply homophobic, so Amy remains well-secured in the closet. One day as she is closing up, Charley walks in looking for a cupcake. She finds Amy, and they hit it off immediately.

And then they don’t. After a perfect date, they don’t go out again for…a couple weeks. And then they have a pretty perfect second date…and they don’t go out again for weeks. And then they have a pretty perfect third date…and you see where this is going.

This was a relationship that had zero momentum. They seemed to start from scratch every couple of weeks. After the second date, I just didn’t care if they got together, and I didn’t believe it when they did. This was a couple with a casual connection at best, so their HEA rang seriously false for me.

Which brings me to the central problem with this book. It was joyless.

Now, that does not mean that it was a bad book. If you are looking for a light novel that ruminates on the consequences of deeply-ingrained queer-phobia in the deep south in the early 21st Century, this might be your book. If you want to read about toxic patriarchy in the wedding industry, well, ditto.

But if you are looking for the gorgeous confection advertised by that cover, well, this ain’t it. And if you want a love story that feels inevitable, if you want to fall in love with these characters as they fall in love with each other, well…this ain’t that, either.

Two stars because it’s well-written, and the author has a clear point of view. But this is not a Romantic Comedy. Buyer beware.

*I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

This was a great book, but what took it to the next level for me was the character growth. The characters' apologies were sincere, thorough, and in no way felt half-assed (by the character or by the author!) The discussions around queerness and being queer in an area that often means you can't be safe and are unseen were deep and made me as the reader think (I'm Canadian and didn't grow up in an environment like this, so it showed me a whole different perspective.) I've read a lot of books with queer characters in metropolitan areas, but this delivered a completely different perspective and the author really nailed it.

I also like that the author set the book in 2013 rather than present day, and her explanation why in the Book Club Guide section was super interesting. It added another layer to the story that I hadn't considered (again, as a non-American reader).

I definitely recommend this book, I think a lot of readers will find it highly enjoyable but also thought-provoking and intensely real.

While the description of Queerly Beloved sounds so promising, the concept was poorly executed. A lesbian baker-turned-bridesmaid falls in love with a cool, kitschy engineer. However, most of this book isn’t about the romance between Amy and Charlie, and the two women barely have any chemistry when they do interact. The plot mostly focused on Amy and who she is, her figuring out how to start up a new professional bridesmaid business. With about 150 pages of extraneous information that didn’t need to be there, this book is long and very slow, and hardly qualifies as a rom-com.

This book is marketed as a romance comedy, but it's really a coming of age. The main character, Amy, is a social chameleon and consummate people-pleaser - skills that have served her well as a gay woman who works at a Christian-owned business. When she is fired after being outed to her intolerant boss, she stumbles into work as a professional bridesmaid. She loves weddings and is good at her new job, but she feels uncomfortable participating in an institution that rejects homosexuality (the novel is set in 2013 Tulsa, pre-marriage-equality). Soon the contradictions between Amy's identity and her career threaten her friendships and force her to re-evaluate who she really wants to be.

So... where's the romance? There is, in fact, a romantic plotline, but it's underdeveloped, implausible, and feels like an afterthought. Maybe it was added to help define this story's genre: it's about a young woman, and it has a happy ending... it must be a romance!

But the worst thing about the romance part of this story is that it actually gets in the way. The love interest, Charley, is poorly characterized, and her scenes with Amy are draggy and awkward. The rest of the story is funny and readable, but whenever Charley shows up the pace slows and the dialogue becomes stilted. These scenes eat up space that could be spent deepening Amy's friendships and her relationships with family members, and they bloat the first third of the book unnecessarily.

But Charley's appearances are intermittent once her importance to Amy is established - fortunately for the reader, if not for the main character. There are enough wedding- and cupcake-related shenanigans to fulfill the usual rom-com requirements, some serious discussion of marriage equality, a plausible and satisfying character arc. Although I found the first half of Queerly Beloved difficult to read, I loved the second half.

This was such a fun, touching book that also dealt with important, real-life issues that I really fell in love with.

Amy is a baker, but the problem is she is a lesbian baking at a Christian bakery. By night she bartends at a fun, queer bar full of found family. When Amy is outed and fired she has to figure out something to do and somehow gets hired to be a bridesmaid in multiple weddings. This all happens as she starts to fall for the new girl in town.

I really loved Amy as a characters and found myself relating to her a lot. Not only do I think being a professional bridesmaid would be a very fun job (I love solving problems on the fly and I love weddings), I felt like we had very similar feelings on a lot of issues. I really liked the conversations that she had with her mom involving religion, though they might be slightly triggering for those who have had hard experiences with the church, especially regarding sexuality.

I loved the cast of characters in this book and really loved watching Amy find her way and herself throughout this book, with love thrown in there as well.

Thank you NetGallery and the publisher for this ARC!

3⭐️ book for me. I really loved the first few chapters and was looking forward to learning more about the side characters as the book went on. Sadly that didn’t really happen—besides Amy the characters don’t really have much dimension.

I did love Amy as our narrator, she was relatable and seemed like a real person we are all probably friends with. Some of the language in the book was kinda awkward at points—I know it was 2013 but some things didn’t make sense for the times.

I actually did enjoy the romance part of the book, but it wasn’t nearly enough!!! I thought this was gonna be a complete romance novel and felt more like fiction or even a coming of age.

All in all I liked it and will look out for the authors next work!

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book! I will be posting my review on social media, to include Instagram, Amazon, Goodreads, and Instagram!

DNF’ed at 18%. Felt too stereotypical, between the gay besties, the hot intelligent new to town love interest, and the fast friends at the wedding. The dialogue seemed clunky and what I read was way too wordy with too little action.

I really enjoyed this book. I found it to be really unique within the genre of contemporary romance and that's not easy to do in such a crowded genre!

I found myself sometimes wanting to pick up the lead Amy by her shirt tails and tell her to believe in her self a bit more - but she found her way to where/how she needed to be and in the end it's good that she did it on her own. We follow Amy through some real highs and lows and it's not always easy to stick with an MC through that, but it was worth it!

There was a huge cast of supporting characters and although I liked most of them, it was a bit confusing at times due to their sheer number.

Dumond also does a really great job of situating the issues faced by the queer community and shows us that it's not a one size fits all which I think it soooo important.

Well done!

There is no better word to describe this book as fun. I enjoyed reading this book so much I genuinely groaned when I had to put it down. Long needed representation, a glorious arc with LGBTQ+ activism, and a complimentary cupcake recipe at the end - heaven in a novel.

Going into this read, I was expecting this to fall into the standard romance novel layout, but this was actually not so much about the romance, and more about Amy's development as a Queer woman and how she fit into her own life, job, and friend group, as well as how she dealt with her romantic relationship. Part of me really enjoyed this aspect of the book in that Amy's character was fully developed and you got great insight into her thoughts and emotions.

However, on the flip side, we barely got to know Charley, so it left me feeling less invested in what happened to them as a couple.

This story was very enjoyable and had some lovely characters, but there were certain sections that dragged a little and featured too much of Amy's back and forth internal dialogue. I loved that this was set in 2013 and you got to experience the historic significance for Queer culture in Tulsa at that time. I thought that was very interesting.

Definitely great for a fun, charming, queer read. Also love any book that comes with a recipe!

Many thanks for NetGalley and Random House Publishing for providing me with this ARC in exchanged for my honest review!!

I don't usually read romance novels (I stick to sci-fi), but as a lesbian who is getting married soon and has worked in the wedding industry I couldn't pass this up when I saw the arc available on NetGalley. This book is full of love and so intensely relatable as a lesbian in a redder than I would like state. The chapters that described baking left me hungry and I could see myself in every wedding scene and during the big conflict. I absolutely recommend this cozy, sweet romance.

An adorable romantic tale, Queerly Beloved is the perfect queer romcom that we have all been waiting for.

I'm glad that I skimmed a few reviews before going into this - Queerly Beloved is much more contemporary fiction than romance, which I wouldn't have known without doing so. This way, I was able to really appreciate it for what it was. Amy's story is fun, heartwarming, and compelling. Both amusing wedding shenanigans and serious discussions are handled wonderfully. It's not quite a coming-of-age, since Amy's decidedly crossed into adulthood from the beginning, but it's a coming-into-yourself. Definitely recommended.

CW: homophobia (including homophobia rooted in Christianity), outing of a queer character, past parental illness (cancer), past infidelity, discussion of alcoholism, referenced past conversion therapy

When Amy gets fired from her job as a baker at a conservative Christian bakery after she is outed as a lesbian, she inadvertently becomes a "professional bridesmaid". She starts dating Charley, an engineer newly arrived in town.

I wanted to love this book and the premise is so promising but ultimately the storyline and characters were a bit....lacking. A majority of the characters are really underdeveloped, honestly even including the main protagonist, Amy. I'm all for a flawed character but Amy truly wasn't very likeable at all. The relationship between her and Charley was not convincing to me at all and I really didn't see the chemistry. It was also a bit odd to me that this book is just coming out and is set in 2013 (pre marriage equality) - I wonder if that was particularly necessary and if a similar outcome/lesson could be achieved without it.

I did love the diversity and the queerness in the book, of course. It did feel pretty realistic in a lot of ways, including the queer spaces within a conservative environment. In the beginning, I was a bit worried that the religious stuff would dominate the book but thankfully it didn't. Some of the conversations that the characters had about identity etc were so lovely, I wish that care was taken with more of the story.

3.5 stars rounded down to 3. Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

First things first… I think this one wins best first kiss award. It was the most adorable one I’ve ever read! This is a great coming of age story featuring Amy, who is figuring out how to be authentically herself in an area that doesn’t always accept her authentic self.

This book really struck with me. As an Oklahoman and a proud ally, it was hard to read at times. I’m glad this book was set in the time frame it was (2013-14), in order to shed a light on how much change the state has seen in terms of being queer friendly, and still how much there still can be done.

I enjoyed watching Amy grow as a person and in all of the relationships in her life! This book is a must read for you if you love coming of age stories, Oklahoma (woo hoo!),cupcakes, and the LGBTQAI+ community! 5 stars