#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

[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)

[honestlyitsjustsam]

favourite moments of bg3 -> (5/?)

[lizzybeeee]

When you spend 20 years attempting to bring down the child slavery, murdering, human trafficking exploitation ring that stole your childhood, murdered your friends, and killed countless innocents only to have them rebrand as 'Noble Freedom Fighters™' off-screen.

[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

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Just your average male living space.

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[ginpotts]

DOCTOR WHO 1.06 ✧ dalek

billie piper as rose tyler 🥰

[sirenetica]

Save me Ivory , Whitepine. Whitepine Ivory save me.

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

[xxplastic-cubexx]

graph

bonus:

[wearecrowley]

good omens crack 2 of ∞