Representation: Lesbian MC, almost all-queer supporting cast

Amy works for The Daily Bread, a Christian bakery who has a fairly conservative owner, and at nights, she bartends at the local queer bar in Tulsa. Amy keeps these two aspects of her life VERY separate, for obvious reasons. While working at the bakery, she gets by with her “straight” persona, Amelia. One day, a new person comes into the bakery and she immediately clocks Charley as a new queer in town. Amy has to keep her cool in the bakery, but they eventually connect and start going out together. Amy also gets asked to step in last minute for a bridesmaid who backed out, and she discovers that it’s something that she actually enjoys. She already LOVES weddings, and being a bridesmaid that’s paid to help take care of any crises that may come up on the wedding day is something she lives for. She somehow gets outed at the bakery, and is immediately fired. Amy gets very down for a while, until she thinks about bridesmaiding for hire and decides to try her hand at doing it as a full-time business. Between Charley’s busy schedule with her new job, and Amy’s suddenly booming business, they struggle to find time to connect. Amy starts being in a very precarious place, balancing her business with her friends, budding relationships, and dealing with her people pleasing tendencies. She realizes she has to figure out what it’s like being true to herself, and if she’s brave enough to try.

Rating: 4/5 Overall, I did really enjoy this book despite my issues with it. I’ll go over some of my issues then end with what I loved. This book is set in the 2010s, before gay marriage got legalized, so that’s one source of tension throughout the book. I personally felt like a lot of this book is firmly in 2019 or so, because of how people speak, the language chosen. I did appreciate that people doing introductions also used pronouns, but that’s a more recent thing, it wasn’t very common in the 2010s. Let’s talk about the gay couple, Damian and Joel. They had barely any individuality because the author basically bundled them together, and they didn’t have much chance to shine separately. It felt a lot like their only purpose there was to support the main character. I wish we had more dimensionality to them. I could say the same about Charley, she was barely there. Yes, she quickly became a big part of Amy’s life because of their mutual interest in each other. However, what we did learn about Charley felt very surface-level. And that’s what we’re expected to believe Amy is attracted to? I don’t know. I certainly wouldn’t call this a romance because it’s much more focused on Amy, her life and business. The romance subplot is just that, a subplot.

What I did love about this book is Amy’s growth. She really learned a lot about herself, work wise and in her relationships with people. She starts out as a fairly self-centered person, but after some hits, she really starts to take a good look at herself and figure out things. I really enjoyed the whole bridesmaid-for-hire concept, and how Amy eventually evolved her business into something more. I also loved the chosen family aspect of this, her friends and the patrons of the queer bar she works at. I liked her friends at the bar, and I feel like they had somewhat more development than even Charley, which is kind of odd because I’d expect the reverse in a romance. Again, I did really enjoy this read! Light and fluffy, very fun if you want something that doesn’t require too much thinking and analysis.

I enjoyed this story a lot more than I thought I was going to! I thought Amy, our main character, had a really nice character arc. I enjoyed watching her grow and change throughout the story. The book felt honest to the experience of LGBTQ+ folks, especially of those in Oklahoma in a time when gay marriage was not yet legal. Overall, I would recommend this to those interested in an LGBTQ+ story with a taste of romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

This is a strange review for me because I somehow don’t know how I feel about this book. At times I really enjoyed it and at other times it felt like it fell short or flat compared to my expectations. The premise got me to pick it up but I don’t think it lived up to what I was hoping for.

Amy was an okay protagonist and I liked her more at the beginning of the book than later on which isn’t ideal considering the development a character goes through. Her journey is a bit stop and start so I didn’t stay as connected to her as I felt like her decisions were a bit all over the place. The secondary characters seem to exist as plot devices around Amy rather than being built up as unique to themselves and (most disappointing of all) I disliked the romance with Charley. It lacked chemistry and tension in my opinion.

I think too that the book was too long for the story it wanted to tell, the last third being a bit of a push to get through. I really wanted to like this book and am so joyful at seeing queer characters (and authors!) being put in the center spotlight but this one just didn’t work for me. I hope it finds its audience as it seems other reviewers enjoyed it more than I did.

Note: I received a free electronic edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for the honest review above. I would like to thank them, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to do so.

Queerly Beloved is definitely one of my favorite romances of this year. It might be because I found it highly relatable (I’m also a former professional baker who struggled for a long time to figure out what to do with my life). Or because the romance was a real slow burn, which allowed us to get to know Amy and join on her journey of self discovery.

As someone that usually reads duel perspective romances, I did miss getting to know Charley more, but I still enjoyed seeing everything through Amy’s eyes. My only other complaint is that this was a pretty long book, especially for a romance. But this did allow the story time to grow at a more natural pace, which made it feel more realistic overall.

If you’re looking for a sweet lesbian romance that really takes its time, definitely pick this book up.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy!

Cute and sweet queer romance set in Oklahoma in 2013. Many themes explored here, including being closeted at work, found family, the importance of gay bars, and the shifting landscape of queer politics in red states. Managed to stay light and enjoyable on top of the inevitable heaviness that the setting requires. The sex scenes were fade-to-black, which I enjoyed quite a bit. It was refreshing to have the focus be on the characters' emotional relationship rather than purely physical. Great read!

A charming and cute but still relatable and realistic queer love story.
All of the characters grew throughout the story, making connecting to the characters even better as the book went on. I was rooting for everyone in the book to win which is quite hard to do when you've got less than stellar characters even though no one is truly a villain.

I DNF this one about 70% through. I tried very hard to get into this book. I love seeing inclusive queer books in the romance section and always add them into my TBR but this one fell really flat for me. I may be comparing it too closely to other LGBTQIA+ romances I have read but this one just wasn’t for me..

The MC was annoying. The love interest had little personality outside of being the typical hot, masc lesbian with cropped hair. The concept of starting a business being a “professional bridesmaid” after being a bridesmaid ONE TIME bothered me. And the most difficult thing for me to get over were all of the blatant stereotypes in this book. I almost pushed myself to finish the book but my TBR is too long to force myself into something that annoyed me so much.

I very much appreciate the ARC in exchange for an honest review though!

I'm a simple romance reader, you give me a cute relationship and baking and I'll have the time of my life. This book did just that! There were so many things I loved about this book, the plot was super unique, and it dealt with a lot of important issues regarding lgbtqia+ people in red states. Marriage equality is something that is very important to me, especially with the current political environment in America.I loved seeing Amy's personal journey of recovery. It was rewarding seeing her navigate a really horrible circumstance, and find out how to do the thing she loved while also staying true to herself. While I did generally love the main relationship, I felt that it wasn't complete. There was an amazing meet cute and fun dates, but we didn't get to see their relationship grow that much. There was a really strong beginning and ending, but I would have loved to seen more of the middle. (it's my favourite part of any fictional relationship) I also wish I could have gotten to know Charley's character a bit more, I could tell there was definitely a lot of thought put into her character, with her interactions with her boss, and some minor details. However, at the end of the book I still didn't feel like I got to know that much about her. All of the characters seemed so fun and interesting, I just wanted a little bit more time with them. Overall, I had a great time reading this, it was the perfect choice for my flight home, and I'm really looking forward to any of Susie Dumond's future novels. (they'll go straight to my never ending tbr list)

(huge thanks to netgalley for the ARC!)

Chef's kiss perfection literally, figuratively, emotionally!

I flat out loved this so much I needed a physical copy and that doesn't happen much!!

This book falls into the category of being marketed as romance but then the romance feels like a side plot.

This was definitely more of a story of Amy discovering herself and figuring out how she wanted to live her life and be herself. I appreciated that aspect of the book.

When it came to the romance between Amy and Charley, it felt like it was lacking something. I don’t feel like we got enough of Charley for me to truly root for this relationship.

Also, the first almost 70% of this book takes place over the course of about 2 months but then the last handful of chapters keeps jumping forward weeks and months at a time. It didn’t really help the flow of the book for me.

Overall I thought this was a cute story about a queer baker trying to find herself, but I wish this wasn’t marketed as a romance since I found that aspect disappointing.

Super cute lgbt romance! I really enjoyed it and I loved the characters and character development. I highly recommend if you are going through something and need something a little uplifting

I'm from Oklahoma, so I was so excited to read a story set in a city I know so well. It was so refreshing to see an LGBTQIA character making space for herself in her world. While Amy was threatened to be overcome by her people-pleasing tendencies, it was refreshing to see people rally around her to help her claim what, and who, she wanted.

I ended up dnfing this at 45%. I kept putting it down, it couldn’t keep me interested for any length of time. I didn’t care about the romance in this. It was very slow and just didn’t enjoy it. It made me really sleepy.

Rating & Review
Honestly, I was hoping for some 27 dresses-esqe theme for this book. What I got instead was a bunch of queer people hating on weddings and a self-centered white woman try to make everyone love them. I’m all here for the hustle Amy has to do to pay her bills. I also wish that I could like Amy more as a character. For most of the book, she’s a doormat, just letting everyone walk over her (in her relationships and her career). The rest of the book she spends all the time trying to figure out why no one loves weddings as much as she does. This book was marketed as a romance and honestly it shouldn’t have been. We spend much more time focusing on the “growth” of Amy than we do no any romance. I think my expectations were just too high and I was left disappointed. Thank you @netgalley for giving me this opportunity to read and review this book. It took me a very long time to finish and after finishing, I wish I didn’t.

While I did enjoy this book, there was something missing for me. The romance just fell a little flat and the messaging was too on point.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this free ePub in exchange for my honest feedback!

I was so excited to read Queerly Beloved by Susie Dumond because I love the representation she gives to all people groups, and out of the insane amount of romcoms I read, there is rarely a gay couple featured. It makes my heart happy to think of people coming across queer-friendly books like these while struggling with their sexuality to make them feel a little more at home in the world.

In our story, we have Amy, who works at a faith-based bakery in Tulsa. She has been passionate about baking her entire life, so she hides her queer side to fit in and get as much experience as she can from the best bakery in town. She isn't exactly unhappy because she's doing what she loves, but she can't really say she is thriving because she isn't being her true authentic self.

One day at the bakery she meets Charley, a spunky engineer that's new to town, and all of Amy's carefully laid plans are thrown out the window. Amy opens herself up to love and unfortunately gets fired from the bakery when her boss finds out that she's gay. She ends up in a desperate financial situation and ends up helping brides around town as a for-hire bridesmaid, where she still feels like she has to act straight because of the bigotry in her town. This gig pays the bills and keeps her afloat, but now Amy is doing yet another job that's forcing her to cover up who she really is.

Throughout the story, Amy is at a crossroads in her life where she has to decide between comfort and keeping the status quo or following her passions and being vulnerable about who she really is.

Final thoughts:
After finishing this one, I was honestly just really confused. Queerly Beloved was categorized as a rom-com, but there wasn't really any romance or comedy included. The story was really focused on Amy's personal development, mixed in with like four dates that were honestly so awkward and painful to read. My biggest problem was with the love interest, Charley. She treated Amy so badly throughout the book going weeks without reaching out to her, being on her phone all the time with work during their dates, standing her up at one point, sending so many mixed signals, and leading her along. Near the end, Amy tells her she loves her (after months of dating and talking about the future) and Charley leaves the bar that night without telling anyone and then texts her the next morning saying she needs space. Honestly, if Amy was one of my friends telling me about this new girl she was dating, I would tell her to RUN! All of that to say, I just really didn't enjoy their relationship, and that's obviously the core of a romcom, so I can't say I would recommend this one.

Thank you again to NetGalley and Random House for sharing this with me!

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel. The title of this novel and the cover threw me off for a moment in what this was actually about but I enjoyed it. It actually felt different than most of the other romance novels I have read because the main character made a lot of mistakes with a lot of different people rather than just the romantic interest. As a former bridesmaid, it was fun to remember some of that madness and with the difference in bridal styles in each wedding, it helped the story proceed.

Having the novel set in 2023 was also delightful because it felt like educational entertainment because I was getting a real-time view into how LGBTQ+ persons were reacting before marriage equality was established by the Supreme Court. I also agree that there is no end to the fight (because the world occasionally sucks) and that was addressed by the characters and felt authentic.

Amy did get on my nerves at times but by the end, I was more on her side. Not the fastest read but worth your time. 3 stars.

It took me a long time to get through this one. I just felt like Amy spent the whole book living two very different lives. One where she took control and one where she was a doormat. I was expecting a romance, but didn't really feel like that's what I got. I just wish she would have stood up for herself a little more in the first half of the book.

really wanted to like this book more than I did. I'm pretty late to writing this review but I even a few weeks after finishing I still can't find ~that~ much to say about it, it's just kind of middle of the road. I don't think I'll think about it again.

I liked the parts where Amy and Charley were together, but it actually wasn’t very often and the rest of the plot got heavy. It made this a bit of a slog.