QUEERLY BELOVED

A lesbian bridesmaid-for-hire navigates work, friendship, and romantic crises in pre–Obergefell v. Hodges Tulsa.

Twenty-five-year-old Amy’s life is a little precarious. Her car is always in danger of stalling, she’s working exhausting back-to-back shifts as a bartender at a beloved queer dive bar and a baker at a notoriously conservative Christian bakery, and her love life has been nonexistent since the end of a rocky two-year relationship. But new opportunities soon appear on both the romantic and employment fronts: A sharply dressed woman named Charley flirts with Amy while buying coffee and a croissant, and two strangers Amy befriends at her cousin’s wedding offer to pay her $250 to step in as a bridesmaid for their upcoming nuptials since one of their original bridesmaids is moving to Dubai. With very little ramp-up or to-do, Amy and Charley begin dating seriously; the much longer slow-burn is between Amy and her new bridesmaiding job, which puts her in the middle of the wedding industry at a time when neither she nor any of her friends can legally get married. Dumond’s deep affection for the queer communities that spring up in red states—and especially for the multigenerational mentorship that makes survival and joy possible—is evident, but uneven pacing and a tendency to tell rather than show keep the reader at arm’s length from the action.

A sweet but slightly underbaked debut that explores its protagonist’s personal growth more satisfyingly than its romance.