Quick Synopsis

A people-pleasing baker tries to find her place as a bridesmaid-for-hire. Will she finally find her happily ever after—and her own voice?

Publisher’s Synopsis

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’s fired from her job at a Christian bakery and turns her 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.

Book Review

Queerly Beloved is a sapphic romance about a queer baker who works at a Christian bakery by day and bartender at the local queer bar by night. When new-to-the-city Charley comes into the bakery, Amy offers to show her all the best parts of Tulsa. At a quarter of the way through this book, I was no further than that in the plot. The story moved slowly and was very simplistically written. 

Two main things led me to abandon Queerly Beloved. First, this novel is written in third-person, an odd choice for a romance. For me, telling the story from this perspective made actions and events feel cringey and uncomfortable at times. Second, it was clear from the progress I made that there was going to be a lot of telling, rather than showing. I think this is partially a reflection of choosing a third-person point of view and partially inexperience by the author. 

I am sure many will enjoy Queerly Beloved, but I could tell that it was not going to be one I enjoyed.