#Love at First Set

[lgbtqreads]

Fave Five: Queer Adult Wedding-Related Fiction

Love at First Set by Jennifer Dugan Best Men by Sidney Karger All are Welcome by Liz Parker Big Gay Wedding by Byron Lane D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding by Chencia C. Higgins All links are Bookshop (or, where out of stock there, Amazon) affiliate. Using them to purchase a book earns a small percentage of income for the site (and, if Bookshop, for indie bookstores).

[the-hard-feelings-of-love]

from @favromancequote on twitter

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 1/5

Book Blurb: This irresistible adult debut from beloved YA author Jennifer Dugan is a queer romcom for fans of Delilah Green Doesn’t Care and Written in the Stars, in which a woman gives a drunken bathroom pep talk to a hot stranger, only to find out it’s the bride-to-be she has convinced to leave her fiancé the night before the wedding. The gym is Lizzie’s life—it’s her passion, her job, and the only place that’s ever felt like home. Unfortunately, her bosses consider her a glorified check-in girl at best, and the gym punching bag at worst. When their son, Lizzie’s best friend James, begs her to be his plus one at his perfect sister Cara’s wedding, things go wrong immediately, culminating in Lizzie giving a drunken pep talk to a hot stranger in the women’s bathroom—except that stranger is actually the bride-to-be, and Lizzie has accidentally convinced her to ditch her groom. Now, newly directionless Cara is on a quest to find herself, and Lizzie—desperate to make sure her bosses never find out her role in this disaster—gets strong-armed by James into “entertaining” her. Cara doesn’t have to know it’s a setup; it’ll just be a quick fling before she sobers up and goes back to her real life. After all, how could someone like Cara fall for someone like Lizzie, with no career and no future? But the more Lizzie gets to know Cara, the more she likes her, and the more is on the line if any of her rapidly multiplying secrets get out. Because now it’s not just Lizzie’s job and entire future on the line, but also the girl of her dreams.

Review:

When you accidentally convince the bride to leave the alter... and then fall for said runaway bride, you know life’s going to be complicated. Lizzie dreams about opening up her own gym but for now she is working at a gym and wants the promotion that could help her get a start on her dreams. She works with her best friend James, the son of the gym’s owners who got her the job. When James begs her to go with him to his sister’s wedding she can’t help but cave despite how much she doesn’t want to. At said wedding she meets a cute girl in the restroom who is crying and asking for relationship advice, so Lizzie gives it to her: don’t be in a relationship if you are not in love and just break it off.... and what does said girl do? Well she does break it off, right at the alter, and now Lizzie know’s she’s screwed. Whats Lizzie didn’t realize that said girl was the bride and she just ruined her bosses’s kid’s wedding and she knows if her bosses ever found out she would be fired. What she didn’t expect was to keep running into the runaway bride, Cara, and that Cara would want to spend more time with her. What starts off as just friendly run in soon turns into dates and something more, but with so many secrets and Lizzie having to deal with Cara’s family, can she continue to let herself be stepped over or will she finally stand up for herself and what she deserves. I want to start off by saying this started off really cute and I was so excited but by the end of the book I was just irritated and honestly, none of these people deserve Lizzie, I wanted so much more for her. Lizzie is a great friend and is so sweet, but James and Cara, as well as Cara’s parents and Lizzie’s parents, were just bad for her, James is a terrible friend and Cara was just spoiled and honestly they were all kind of toxic for her. In Lizzie’s words: they are all the worst people she’s ever met and I just wanted the book to end off with her going after her dreams and finding someone else to love her and finding other friends cuz this aint it babe. Honestly the way that Lizzie lets herself be stepped on and used is just sad to read and I was so happy for her when she finally voiced her opinions and spoke up for herself. But in the end, I guess Cara is who Lizzie wants and that’s it. Overall it’s a cute romance. sort of, and if you like stories about a rich girl and a poor girl falling for each other than this might be for you.

*Thanks Avon and Harper Voyager for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review*

[amaclucky13]

Love at First Set - Book Review

A new Jennifer Dugan book drops this month! I'm so excited!

Jennifer Dugan’s latest book comes out May 23, later this month! And if you haven’t pre-ordered it or bothered your local bookstore to find out the very moment it comes in, get to it! Jennifer Dugan is one of my favorite authors who writes queer books, usually for teens. Either way, she is a rockstar, and I was fortunate enough to be able to read this book earlier! While I can’t spoil it,…

[robintheredhood]

Starting a sapphic romance whose cover looks like supercorp fanart except the blonde gym girl is names LIZZIE and the brunette rich girl is named CARA (and has a brother named James but that's a whole other thing). How many times am I gonna accidentally get confused over who's who while reading? Only time will tell

[wahlpaper]

Love at First Set

CW: Heavy Drinking, Alcoholism, Addiction, Gaslighting and Gaslighting Attempts, Manipulative Parents, Child Abuse, Mentioned Physical Abuse, Mentioned Toxic Relationship and Love Bombing, Money Problems, Classism, Queerphobia, Cheating, Breach of Trust, Sexual Content, Swearing

4.5/5

I don't think I read the description for Jennifer Dugan's Love at First Set until it was my turn with it on Libby. I saw the author and the cover and decided to check it out. What was written for the blurb wasn't wrong, exactly, but the tone was misleading, making it seem toxic. I wouldn't describe the romance as toxic, even if the characters and scenes get messy. I'm glad I read the book in spite of my worries. It was entertaining, handled some heavy topics with grace, and made me care a lot for the three main characters. 

Lizzie has been dreaming of running her own gym since she was a little girl. In the meantime, she's been working as a front desk manager at the gym her best friend's, James, parents own. When James' sister, Cara, is getting married, he convinces Lizzie to come along. He sees it as a chance for her to schmooze and get a promotion. Unfortunately, Lizzie ends up drunkenly pepping up a hot girl in the bathroom, telling her to leave her unhappy relationship. She didn't know this was Cara. Familial chaos ensues. Over the next few months, Lizzie and Cara get to know each other. They may even be catching feelings. 

Love at First Set was a surprisingly easy book to get through. Both Cara and Lizzie have awful parents, which is an important part of the story. They also had a really hard time opening up to each other, not just assuming the worst about one another, but themselves too. There were also a number of described sex scenes, which are almost never my thing. However, I was captivated the whole way through. Lizzie is incredibly self-aware and has an active inner voice. Anything that could have been taken too far was balanced out by Lizzie's reactions. There were times I would get fed up with any of the main trio, but I could trust that they'd work it out in a healthy way.

As with any Dugan novel, Love at First Set has plenty of queer rep in it. James is gay and Lizzie and Cara are bi. There are a few queer supporting characters and even more background ones. I can tell the characters aren't genre-aware, or else the classic Sapphic movie, Imagine Me & You, would absolutely have been brought up. However, the characters, especially Cara, are cliche-aware. At one point she mentions Uhal Lesbians. The main trio is also aware that it's weird that their abusive parents aren't queerphobic. Overall, this book could easily be just another queer book, and it may not be a contender for my favorite book this year, but it found ways to stand out.

If you're into books about queer sports, I recommend broadening your horizons out of the competitive ones. A majority of this book takes place in a gym, something I've never seen in a queer sports story. If you're into the best-friend's-sibling trope, Love at First Set by Jennifer Dugan is absolutely for you. If you're done lifting weights, lift this book. Don't worry, Lizzie will spot you!

[egophiliac]

everyone out of the way, this is the only thing I'm going to be thinking about from now on.

(okay, there is one more thing)

[milktrician]

(what the. who threw a wife plot device in the middle of a peak lord meeting)

i thought about this bit at the end of the airplane extras the other day. bro why are you looking at your coworkers like that rn

[ruporas]

kiss of the divine

[doveinizialostraordinario]

another day another sapphic romcom bc i need it

[sirenetica]

Save me Ivory , Whitepine. Whitepine Ivory save me.

(Character and Whitepine by @ivory-frill / ivoryTV on yt)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

At your side [End of Season 2]

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[wearecrowley]

good omens crack 2 of ∞

[ejsuperstar]

Imagine you live in pelican town. The new farmer has been here a couple weeks now and seems to be settling in, except... He's picking the weirdest friend choices. Like sure it's not weird to befriend the local fisherman, especially when he has an interest in fishing himself, but you're pretty sure you've seen him rooting through the Saloon's garbage with the local homeless man. As well, he keeps harassing the poor guy who works at Joja even though you KNOW he doesn't want to be friends with him.

And since you're on the topic of weirdness, isn't it odd he seemingly runs everywhere at a full sprint? Or just... Eats entire raw fish while fishing for "energy reasons"...

...

Despite all that, it's too early to call him off putting or anything... He has been engaging in town traditions, and he's started helping out with the old community centre. He's probably like the rest of you. Someone with a few quirks, that will fit in with the valley great!

Surely he can't get any weirder... Right?

[ilovemesomevincentprice]

It's almost Halloween, so I thought I'd bring this back...

No one could do "sensation, horror, and shock" like Vincent Price!

House of Wax (1953) dir. Andre De Toth

[thatone-highlighter]

I love you albums. I love you songs connected by similar themes. I love you listening to songs in a specific order picked by the artist. I love you reoccurring motifs throughout the same album. I love you album covers. I love you albums with extended editions. I love you songs that reference each other.