The Fiancée Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur
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4/5
I fell in love with Alexandria Bellefleur's writing while reading Written in the Stars. My phone can predict that I'm talking about her just from "Alex". There was no question that I would read The Fiancée Farce. I just had to be patient as I waited for it on Libby. While I admit that I loved the Written in the Stars books more, Bellefleur sets a high bar. This novel was well worth the wait. It was such a sweet romance to read!
In The Fiancée Farce, Tansy Adams is a lonely bookseller with a pushy step-family. Their two biggest issues with her are her lack of love life and getting her to join family functions with her step-cousin's partner, Tucker van Dalen. The van Dalens are a high society family with many toxic members, such as Tucker, Tansy's high school bully. To get out of seeing him, she lies to everyone about being in a relationship with a model. That model? Gemma van Dalen, Tucker's cousin. Gemma hates being associated with her family, but when her grandfather's will names her the heir to the family's newspaper, she's willing to meet his condition and take on the role. That condition? Fall in love and be married by the annual board meeting. When she finds out about Tansy's lie, she embraces it and declares that they're actually engaged. Will they be able to pull it off? What happens when real feelings get involved?
If you're looking for bisexual representation, The Fiancée Farce is a great option! Both Tansy and Gemma are bi. I also got the impression that Gemma's uncle, Brooks, is bi. Although I believe that writing Gemma as a rich model and Tansy as a book lady is probably some form of wish fulfillment, it was endearing to me just how thirsty Gemma was for Tansy. While she needed to get engaged to get the family's company, Gemma was immediately attracted to Tansy. It's clear that lust played a part in the farce from the start. Despite the sexist, classist, pearl-clutching villains, I don't recall there being any queerphobia for Tansy, Gemma, or the other queer characters. Bellefleur understands that if she's writing the world, it can be what she wants. I absolutely applaud her for that.
I mentioned that this wasn't my favorite Bellefleur novel, and I have a few reasons why. The first one has to do with the audiobook. As much as I enjoy Lauren Sweet's voice, I wish that either there was a second reader or that Sweet had put more effort into making Gemma and Tansy distinct from one another. There were times when I couldn't tell which lady was speaking. The second is the odd word choices sprinkled throughout. All of a sudden there'd be an obscure word that had a more common equivalent. If this had only been in Gemma's speech, I'd have accepted it as a character quirk, but it sometimes made it into the narration and Tansy's speech. It felt out of place and unnecessary. Finally, the most important reason, Gemma is clearly struggling with being an alcoholic, but it's never addressed or treated. Due to this, it comes off as glorifying and romanticizing binge drinking. In fact, Tansy had to explain why she didn't drink much (her anxiety meds) and not the other way around. Addiction is a serious matter.
Of course, I still thought the book was great. While I had a few problems with it, I had stuff I loved and enjoyed. The story took place over a few months and did a good job of keeping things on pace. I also loved most of the characters, both pro- and an- tagonists. Some of my favorite side characters included Tansy's stepmother (Katherine) and Gemma's uncle. Katherine was far from perfect, but still cared a lot about Tansy. She felt so real. Brooks was a lot of fun, embracing his eccentric role in the family. He also gets his own epic love story! It's very sweet to see middle-aged love when I'm so used to reading YA/New Adult. Other fun things include an epic prank on Tucker, a cameo from a character in Bellefleur's Count Your Lucky Stars, and clever pop-culture references.
Alexandria Bellefleur's The Fiancée Farce is a good Sapphic fake-relationship romance that ups the ante by making it a farcical engagement. Gemma and Tansy have a tough time in the novel, but shipping them is easy. If anything mentioned above appeals to you, I highly recommend reading this book. Gemma and Tansy have invited you to their wedding, after all!
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