The Fiancée Farce
A Novel
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- ¥1,500
発行者による作品情報
Lambda Literary award winner and national bestselling author Alexandria Bellefleur returns with a steamy sapphic rom-com about a quiet bookseller and a romance novel cover model who agree to a modern-day marriage of convenience...
Tansy Adams’ greatest love is her family’s bookstore, passed down from her late father. But when it comes to actual romance... Tansy can’t get past the first chapter. Tired of her stepfamily’s questions about her love life, Tansy invents Gemma, a fake girlfriend inspired by the stunning cover model on a bestselling book. They’ll never actually meet, so what’s the harm in a little fib? Yet when real-life Gemma crosses Tansy’s path, her white lie nearly implodes.
Gemma van Dalen is a wild child, the outcast of her wealthy family, and now the latest heir to Van Dalen Publishing. But the title comes with one tiny condition: she must be married in order to inherit. When Gemma discovers a beautiful stranger has been pretending to date her for months, she decides to take the charade one step further—and announces their engagement.
Gemma needs a wife to meet the terms of her grandfather’s will and Tansy needs money to save her struggling bookstore. A marriage could be mutually beneficial, if they can fool everyone into thinking it’s a love match. Unexpected sparks fly under forced proximity as Tansy and Gemma play the role of affectionate fiancées, and suddenly the line between convenient arrangement and real feelings begins to blur. But the scheming Van Dalen family won’t give up the company without a fight, and Gemma and Tansy’s newfound happiness might get caught in the fallout...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This zippy Sapphic rom-com from Bellefleur (Count Your Lucky Stars) features slow-burn romance, a steamy marriage-of-convenience, and a profusion of Taylor Swift references. Shy bookseller Tansy Adams has been lying to friends and family about having a girlfriend using photos of Gemma van Dalen, a stunning romance novel cover model, to keep their nosiness about her nonexistent love life at bay. When Gemma shows up at Tansy's family's bookstore, live and in the flesh, Tansy worries the lie will blow up in her face, but instead Gemma doubles down, announcing that they're engaged. Gemma's absurdly rich family requires her to marry to inherit the family publishing company, making the arrangement mutually beneficial. Attraction soon grows between the women, threatening to turn their carefully constructed fauxmance into real love. Meanwhile, they must outwit Gemma's ruthless family to protect their livelihoods—and each other's hearts—from the van Dalens' machinations. Bellefleur's snappy prose is perfect for the banter between Tansy and Gemma, and it's delightful to watch the tension build between them. The plot occasionally leans on convenience to move things along, but the payoff is deeply satisfying and more than worth it. Fans of Casey McQuiston should check this out.
