I enjoyed this book! It wasn’t the light romance I was expecting but I wasn’t disappointed. It was more fiction and about the main character finding herself. The romance part I could’ve done without honestly. It felt a bit like insta love and the romance didn’t seem fully fleshed out. I would easily read more books from this author!

I was intrigued by the synopsis of this book, and was hoping to read about a character that comes into her own, and finds love and happiness as a result. This is, of course, what happens, but it happens in a preachy, clunky, poorly edited, awkwardly paced way. There is a lot of focus on the LGBTQ community, but it all so overly underdeveloped. Charley, the love interest, is described in stereo typical lesbian ways: Short hair, charming, sexy, engineer. That's all we know, and we know this because the author tells it to us, but doesn't show us otherwise, in fact, none of the characters besides Amy are developed. They are all just one dimensional diversity checkboxes. There are a lot of conversations about important topics that just fizzle. Speeches are made often, as a way to drill in the point trying to be made, but then the next character comes along and refutes that point entirely. This book doesn't seem to know what it wants to be known as. As another reviewer said, super interesting premise but a poor execution.

I was very excited about this book but found it lacked depth on multiple levels and left me disappointed.

Essentially, Amy is a closeted (at times) queer woman living in conservative Oklahoma circa 2013 who falls into the paid bridesmaid game (it’s a thing?) after being outed and fired from her bakery job. If you can tell from that run-on sentence, there’s a lot going on in this book. And unfortunately I feel the width doesn’t leave much for depth.

After reading the whole book, I could only give you 2-3 words to describe any character - even the main crew. The love story didn’t offer much in the way of spice or chemistry. The family drama is set up in the beginning of the book but rarely if ever addressed again.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciated the wide range of representation in queer characters and allies. I also found it nice that we jumped into the future slightly (2023) to see how everyone’s stories have turned out.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was completely fabulous. I truly adored it. The characters are delightful, I just wish we'd gotten to see a bit more of Charley. To be honest, I kept waiting for Amy to find out she was secretly married or something, because she seemed so secretive. Something felt off about her. But I liked Amy a lot, her friends were great, and I really loved watching her grow her business.

I personally found it a little disorienting to read a book set before marriage equality came to pass. But I understand why the author chose to set the book in the very very recent past. Overall, a great read.

Review based on ARC.

I enjoyed Queerly Beloved! I personally think that Amy is a really interesting character and seeing her develop was nice. So this book is set in 2013 which was the pre legalized gay marriage era so you’ll see a lot of closeted and homophobia but it’s just to understand the story better. Amy’s relationship that she has with Charley was enjoyable and the interview along the end of the book gives you insight on why the author wrote some parts the way she did.

Set in 2013, Amy is a semicloseted lesbian working at a conservative bakery in Tulsa, Oklahoma. There she meets Charley, a brilliant, attractive engineer. After being outed as queer and fired from her job, she begins a new business as a people-pleasing bridesmaid-for-hire. 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.

I would classify this book as women's fiction or LGBTQ+ rather than romance as most of the story is about the protagonist's personal journey rather than a courtship. The reader does not get to see enough of Amy and Charley's relationship to feel chemistry leaping off the page. Unfortunately, most of the supporting characters lacked depth too, coming across as stereotypical tropes instead. Representation is important, but almost everyone was too underdeveloped.

One of the things I had trouble buying into was Amy's business model. I find it so hard to believe people would want a stand-in-bridesmaid instead of using a wedding planner. While I'm not in the business, I did work events for one summer and acted as the bride's personal assistant on those days and didn't need to insert myself into their bridal party/photos.

I did appreciate the author attempting to tackle important conversations surrounding being gay while living in a red state, institutionalized homophobia in religion (Christianity), inequality and the institution of marriage.

***I received an ARC from Netgalley and the Publisher in exchange for my honest review.***

Enjoyable debut from an author that is sure to grow in her following due to her ease of wordage on paper and connection with the LGBTQ community. This is exactly what I look for in a beach read - an easy to follow story with some plugs to keep me engaged. Although this book struggled to hook me in right off the bat, the overall plot was relatable and kept my interest!

Some things I loved about this book:
-Relatable characters
-Delectable desserts (and now I’m hungry again 🎂)
-Unique job description (Amy’s 2nd job…read to find out! So creative!)
-The Bridezillas (Think “Say Yes to the Dress?”)
-Finally seeing the main character grow and be comfortable in her own skin (warm fuzzies).
-Amy’s mom ♥️. Clearly an amazing woman who supports her daughter with a fierceness.

Some things I could have gone without:
-Donna - I think introducing as more of an avid Church-goer, etc., and giving more background about her from the start might have helped with the overall flow and SHOCK of the conversation between employee and boss; in other words, it was sudden but didn’t flow in the way that it should have.
-Charley - she is definitely not good enough for Amy with her constant flakiness; she was very in and out of the picture which I found exhausting and hard to root for.
-The length of the fight between Amy and Joel-for as close as they were I expected them to make up and support each other sooner….especially as Amy was trying to pave her own way; she could have used that friend as she tried to figure things out. It also seemed very out of character for Joel to call Amy selfish.

Overall, a quick read with some coming-of-age feels and some politics sprinkled throughout.

First off, love the cover! It made me want a big slice of cake (and so I got one!).

This novel starts out with the main character, Amy, a lesbian woman in a red state (in the Bible Belt) working both at a bar and a bakery. The owners of the bakery are very religious and Amy is unceremoniously let go when they find out her sexuality, despite Amy being one of if not their most talented baker.

At the very end of her shift at the bakery before being let go, Amy meets a woman named Charley who is new in town and based on visual cues (a pronouns pin on her bag) asks her on a date (and she says yes). The relationship evolves from there.

I would definitely classify this novel more as either LGBTQ fiction or Women’s fiction than a romance, as there’s a lot going on here with Amy and her independence than just the relationship with Charley. However, I really liked that this novel dealt with so many different kinds of relationships and the work and communication that go into keeping those relationships strong. That sometimes friends fight, sometimes we just need to communicate better and sometimes people will like us just for who we are.

Amy clearly deals with a lot of self doubt and anxiety (both in general and when it comes to the judgment from those around her regarding queer identity) and I felt that was portrayed in a really clear manner without directly stating it.

After bonding with a couple at her cousin’s wedding Amy starts a business adventure as a bridesmaid for hire who also helps with a lot of things in a pinch. I’m not gonna touch on this more but suffice it to say it grows and evolves and it’s a fun adventure to see Amy grow on.

I loved Amy’s relationship with her mom and her two best friends Damian and Joel and especially her moms closest friends, Max and Greg (they were absolute gems).

I really loved the conversation between Charley and Amy talking about how Amy, as a queer woman is allowed to like feminine/girly things and that what you like and enjoy comes down just to who you are as an individual. I really enjoyed a queer woman unapologetically loving “girly” things.

I loved truffle. Cats are the best. All books should have a cat.

I think my biggest issue is I wish we could’ve gotten to know Charley better. I know she’s this successful and poised engineer working in oil and gas and has a close relationship with her family but beyond those things and her relationship with Amy I wanted to dig deeper into getting to know her.

The epilogue of this made me smile SO BIG. I love an ending where all the queer characters get to be happy and thriving.

There’s also a cupcake recipe! Which I think is a fun touch.🧁

4 stars!

Thank You to NetGalley, Dial Press and Random House for this ARC!

What a fun, queer romance!
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An OWN Voices book, about a midwesterner queer baker who is closeted due to small town homophobia. This novel has many various queer representations
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This novel taking place in 2013 adds an interesting twist because it is before gay marriage was legalized.
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This definitely wasn’t my favorite story. It was missing that special something that leaves you wanting more b

There was no way I would have been able to look at the title of this book and not pick it up.

This book follows Amy, who has to pretend to be straight in order to work at the most popular bakery in her town. She even has a straight persona–Amelia–who know one truly knows. But she walks into work one day and is immediately pulled into a meeting with her boss, who fires her after learning that she’s a lesbian.

As Amy drowns in the sea that is unemployment, she meets a couple at her cousin’s disaster of a wedding who offer to pay her in exchange for making sure that their wedding goes well. Amy soon finds that she’s really good at this job. But more importantly: she loves it.

I really enjoyed seeing Amy dive into the world of being a paid bridesmaid and helping out with so many different weddings simply because Amy enjoyed it. With every challenge that popped up and DIY project to complete, it was really obvious to tell just how much Amy was thriving in this sort of environment.

I also really liked some of the deeper topics in this book, such as religion (particularly Christianity) vs the LGBT community and the legalization of same sex marriages. This book takes place in 2013, before same sex marriage was legal, and does a really good job at highlighting the way members of the LGBT community felt about not being able to get married and enjoy the same privileges straight couples got to experience.

To be honest, some parts of this book felt unrealistic, especially in regards to dialogue as characters talked about LGBT issues. These sections felt a little more like an essay put in quotation marks, but I didn’t hate it. Even if the characters spoke a little better than real people probably should, I still liked seeing their viewpoints and reactions to some of the events of this book.

I will also say that I wasn’t a big fan of the romance of this book. There wasn’t necessarily anything wrong with the relationship between Amy and Charley, but I couldn’t find myself really caring for their feelings on one another. I liked that they communicated really well and that the conflict of this book focused more on each of them “needing time” to sort out their feelings, but I also wouldn’t have been upset if there was no romance in this book at all.

I teared up a lot during the ending, but nothing made me cry more than the epilogue of this book. I’m so happy for these characters and their journey together, and I loved seeing Queerly Beloved evolve into something so big. I’ll definitely be picking this book up in a physical format for myself once it gets published!

2.5 rounded up.

As a lesbian from Oklahoma, I had really high hopes for this book. I liked it, but it's not a romance. It's more of fiction about the MC finding herself. However, character development is not very consistent and despite being set in early 2000s, there's very out of place language. An editor needs to go through for consistency as well as some grammar.

I wanted to love this because the idea of a closeted queer woman working for a Christian company was equal parts intriguing and hilarious, but this was not at all what I expected it to be.

The cover and synopsis had me thinking I would be going into a funny and cute romcom, but instead got hit with an extremely fast paced insta-love romance where the characters have zero romantic buildup, and was more about Amy finding and accepting herself with a sprinkle of romance.

Outside of that I felt it was overly long and drawn out, and wasn’t overly connected with Amy or her story.

Womp

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Pub for giving me the opportunity to read this!

I'll definitely admit the cover alone had me very intrigued about the book. I thought this book was interesting but not quite what I expected it to be. With that being said I did still enjoy it. The main thing that caught me off guard was that it is definitely more of a contemporary fic than a romcom.
The story focused a lot more on Amy and her journey finding herself and her passion in life after she got fired from the bakery she had been working at. It's written in the early 2010's in Oklahoma, so before gay marriage was legalized which made for a really interesting concept. I liked that the book took on the topic of legalizing gay marriage as well as showing the real thoughts and feelings the queer characters had at that time. I really enjoyed the found family aspect of the story not only with Amy and her close friends but at the bar than many of them worked at as well. I did also enjoy the bridesmaid for hire concept and seeing that grow from a one time thing for Amy to a full-on business.
The romance did definitely take a back seat to Amy's storyline. From what I got of Charlie I enjoyed her as a character but would've loved to see more of her throughout the book. She felt more like a side character than the mc's love interest.
I thought the story as a whole was a great concept, there was a lot of potential I just would've loved to have more depth to a lot the moments and situations that went on. I wouldn't recommend this book as a romance, but as a contemporary that covers some important content for the LGBTQ+ community while still staying fairly lighthearted I think it would be a good read for some people. The only thing I'd say if reading it is there is quite a bit of talk about religion as well as some homophobia so just keep that in mind as a content warning.
My overall rating is between 3.5-3.75 ⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC.

I have mixed feelings about this book. My rating is between 2.5 and 3. First, despite the cover and the synopsis, this doesn't really feel like a romance. It's much more about the main character, Amy, and her personal story. Part of her journey involves a new romance, but I wouldn't say it's the main focus of the book. I wanted to know more about the love interest, but her character was a lot less developed. Luckily, I was aware that this book wasn't a rom-com before I started reading it, and I think it helped somewhat save the experience for me.
This book takes place in the early 2010s, prior to the legalization of gay marriage in the US. The main character is gay and she works at a very conservative bakery. She's out to many people in her life, but not to her employer. This portion of the book was fine but kind of depressing to read about, I'd be careful if you like to avoid books about religious trauma related to queerness.
A little bit into the story, Amy starts a side business working as a bridesmaid for hire. Throughout the book, she goes to different people's weddings and helps out as a fake friend. This was kind of fun, but there were some uncomfortable moments and hurtful comments that I didn't like. There's a lot of discussion about marriage equality and heteronormativity.
In between these weddings and work events, you get to see glimpses of Amy's friend group and some scenes with her family. These had so much potential to be the best part of the book but they only partially worked for me. Some of the side characters and dialogue came across a little forced and not how people actually talk or act.
Of course, there is also the romance plotline in the background. I got really annoyed at this part of the book because they kept hiding information from each other and I just wanted them to be more open. There was also so much time between all of their interactions, so miscommunications would go unresolved for an uncomfortably long time sometimes. There were some very frustrating decisions made by both characters. There were also some moments where I was cheering for them, so it wasn't all bad.
Overall, I think this is a decently good book about the experiences of one queer woman and her challenges in a conservative environment if that's what you're looking for. I probably wouldn't recommend this one too much since it kind of bummed me out and didn't have enough of a romance to make up for the bleak parts.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This book definitely wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. It wasn’t technically typical of a romance book and not just because it was a story about being Queer and in love, and obstacles, etc. there was a pivotal part in this book where there is a fight. There was some lack of communication BUT it’s one of the only romance books I’ve read where they end up having a complete conversation about it and resolving it and talking through their faults.

This book did do a good job on making me feel. I myself was getting very frustrated with the main character and her lack of ability to be herself. Always hiding, “lying”, etc. However, when she has a conversation with Gracie that was amazing. She said everything to her that she needed to realize and do herself.

There were some extremely corny bits as a right of passage, but I was very delighted for a refreshing slightly different type of novel. I do think maybe a thesaurus or something for the next book or a different way of wording things is needed sometimes. I understand it’s “Queerly Beloved” but I just think the word was used too many times. I believe the audience can understand the love identity plot with the title. I don’t think “Queer” even tho that’s what Amy is needed to be thrown in multiple times on most pages. I totally got it and that part was a little over kill.

All in all it was a quick, delightful read that I am happy to have been chosen to read.

More romances for the LGBTQIA+ community, please! Amy is a closeted ( at work) gay baker working at a Christian bakery when she meets Charley, an out engineer in the oil industry. The attraction is immediate between the two and with no one else in the bakery, Amy takes the chance and asks Charley on a date. This story is told through Amy’s POV and includes her entire support system, from her mom to her best friends and to her friends at the gay bar where she also works. Amy struggles with who it’s safe to come out to and when. Overall I enjoyed this story but there were times when I felt it moved rather slowly including weeks between dates and a 6 month period where Amy and Charley don’t speak! Otherwise it would have been a Five star review.

A delightful book full of adventure, action, and thrills. Fun to read, engrossing world building, and very descriptive imagery made it feel like it was cinematic. It's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. Would recommend.

2.5/5

Queerly Beloved is marketed as a romance, and I struggle to call it that. There is romance in it, but I would say it is more woman's fiction, with some romance thrown in. I also felt the romance that did happen lacked any real chemistry. Amy and Charley were so awkward and it just didn't seem like they had anything in common.

Character development was strange for me in this book too. We barely find out anything about Charley, but we know that she is an engineer in the oil and gas industry. In fact, we are told this several times in the book, even when it doesn't seem necessary. Side characters, like Damien and Joel seem to be written at the "gay bff's" that are so often portrayed in media. They are there to help Amy pick out outfits and lack any real dimension or personality. The main character, Amy, seems all over the place too. She is very unfocussed and just seemed unrealistic to me.

This book is set in the not so distant past, 2013-2014 and there are some discussions about marriage and the queer community, but even that seemed scattered. The book seemed to be stuck in figuring out the year it took place. Some things, like using pronouns in introductions seems more 2020. Other things, like marriage not being accessible to all, seemed more 2013.

The book also has a discussion on the heteronormative nature of marriage and how even if "gay marriage" became legal, it would not encompass all relationships, but I don't think it went far enough. It, a lot of times, mentions the issues of marriage, but never goes fully into the issues themselves.

This book just did not work for me, particularly the romance. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy. All opinions are 100% mine.

This book unfortunately fell a bit short for me. It was an engaging read but felt trope-y and I didn't really connect with the characters that much. Bummer!

Thank you to Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Super sweet and socially conscious romance! I love how well this book balanced romance with self discovery and early midlife crisis of the main character. Amy’s struggles of being queer in the South, wanting to be authentic, and wanting to succeed in life was really nuanced and well thought out. I appreciated the discussions of politics and social impact of laws being passed and industry influences on minorities. Loved the found family aspects as well!!