Queerly Beloved- A Novel by Susie Dumond
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Web ID: 18023671Not a true romance
4.5/5 Stars 2/5 Steam Rating 3rd Person POV, Sapphic Romance, with many LBGTQ representation At first I questioned why this book was based in 2013, until I really got into the meat of this story. The main conflict of this story is Amy’s emotional struggle being a bridesmaids-for-hire, when she and her queer friends cannot marry in their conservative state of Oklahoma. These character’s struggles really hit home with the unknown ramifications of Roe v Wade now being overturned recently. It brought to light some interesting views on weddings as well. I do want to mention that I went into this book thinking it would have more of a romance element to it, but I was pleasantly surprised that it highlighted a lot of equality issues, especially within the Bible Belt. Overall, this book had a good balance of romance and societal issues, with an amazing group of found family. The story was engaging, entertaining, and moved at a great pace. I want to take a moment to remind everyone to look at the triggers of this book before reading it. Although Amy has a great group of friends and a supportive mother, the environment that this book takes place in is quite homophobic. *I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion*
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Delightful contemporary
In "Queerly Beloved", readers are introduced to Amy, who undergoes personal trials and tribulations throughout this story. The first begins as the story begins, with Amy working for a Christian bakery and hiding the truth about herself. As the story continues, the reader is taken on Amy's journey as she figures out what is her truth and how to love her truth. I enjoyed the friendships in this story and the realness to them. While there is some romance in "Queerly Beloved", I found the main focus to be on Amy and her personal growth. I enjoyed every moment of this story but I would suggest not reading it on an empty stomach with the various dessert and food descriptions! Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for an advanced copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Queerly Beloved
Trigger Warnings: Religion, Southern Baptist, homophobia, alcohol, past break-up/cheating, firing, s*x toys, s*x, racism, alcoholism, past drunk driving/car crash, HIV+, vomit, accidental outing, conversion camp, smoking, cursing Representation: Lesbian, Black, They/them pronouns, various LGBT+ minor characters, HIV positive characters, Drag Queerly Beloved is a contemporary romance about Amy, the Christian baker by day and lesbian bartender by night. This balance is the key to Amy’s success at making rent and training to become a great baker. When Amy is fired after she is outed, she turns her accidental bridesmaid gig into a flourishing business. Her success is then halted short when she is broken up with and loses her best friends in one foul swoop. Aww I loved this book!! I loved Amy and all of her chosen family. I loved the diversity in community that she had, as well as her “rebellious” mother. Mom getting a happy ending was just great too! I really wish not every book needed to have a main character break up with their friends but this one wasn’t as annoying as other stories with similar plots. I thought the author did a good job touching on various parts of queerness. When you’re queer, you don’t get to just announce it one time then never come out again. We have to constantly come out. I think Amy’s struggle with this is so real and raw. Its unfortunate that we live in such a heteronormative society where everyone is straight until proven otherwise. Amy also struggled with working in multiple industries that do not support queer people. I love how she was able to take back some of that power in the epilogue and the inclusion of how much growth we still have to do.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Clever!
This was just the break I needed after many dark (albeit delightful) and twist reads that probably raised my blood pressure a little! Amy meets Charley and is immediately drawn to her. Things seem to be going well until Amy loses her job as a baker and Charley backs off and seems immune to her charms. Amy starts a new business as a "Bridesmaid for Hire" as she's a good problem-solver and can obviously handle the baked goods situation. But does any relationship go smoothly all the time? So Amy must reconsider her choices and rethink her methods. This is one of those laugh-out-loud and shed-a-little-tear novels that has you cheering at the end! It's a nice respite from tragedy! Enjoy! Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Adorable romcom!
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.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Lots of emotions!
Amy was working in a Christian based bakery called The Daily Bread in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was working as Amelia because she thought it seemed like a good straight name. She couldn’t be honest at work because the company didn’t want anything to do with gays. She was really great at baking and knew that she would love to own her own bakery someday. Then one day in walks Charley who Amy struck up a conversation with and they clicked. Then just out of the blue Donna Young the owner fired her because someone had ratted her out. So Amy is struggling trying to figure out what to do next because she is also helping with some of her Mom’s recent medical bills, her car breaks down in front of the bakery saved day she got fired. Amy calls her best friends Joel and Damien and they rally around her trying to cheer her up while also bouncing ideas off of each other on jobs! Amy decides she is going to rent herself out as a bridesmaid to basically keep things under control at weddings so the bride can be carefree. I love how Amy could come to the rescue for lots of people she didn’t even know but yet Amy struggled with the emotions of not be truthful, not coming out to certain people for the fear of their reactions and the way Charley ghosted her. If Charley, Joel and Amy would have been truthful to each other things would have been so different. This was a good story but the emotions were so hard to read because people need to be more understanding and this world might be a better place! I received this ARC from Netgalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com