It's a Fabulous Life
A Novel
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3.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Perfect for fans of Alison Cochrun and Ashley Herring Blake, this sapphic retelling of It’s a Wonderful Life will make the yuletide gay.
After years of putting aside her dreams of travel and adventure, Bailey George is ready to leave Lanford Falls and her responsibilities behind on a long-awaited vacation to New York City. But when the volunteer who took over her leadership position for the town's Winter Wonderfest has a medical emergency, Bailey finds herself stuck in Lanford Falls. She gets roped into reassuming her old role, not wanting to let the town or her friends and family down.
Staying home seems slightly less terrible when Bailey runs into her high school crush, Maria Hatcher. A kiss they shared years ago in the town's mistletoe grove was a life-defining moment for them both. Maria quickly offers to pitch in and help with Winter Wonderfest. Her sunny disposition and holiday cheer perk up Bailey's grinchy feelings about everything.
However, one disaster after another snowball on the day of the festival. Bailey’s frustration boils over, and she ends up on the town's old wooden bridge. There, she meets fabulous drag queen Clara Angel. Bailey declares that she wishes she hadn’t been born in this Christmas-obsessed, suffocating small town. With a little of the magic Clara possesses, she shows Bailey how wrong she is about Lanford Falls and her place in it. And that with a little hope and some true holiday spirit, there is a way to attain all her dreams.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Farmer (Out on the Ice) pays tribute toIt's a Wonderful Life with this satisfying if predictable queer contemporary retelling, complete with a sapphic romance and a drag queen guardian angel. Bailey George longs to leave her hometown, Lanford Falls, for an adventure, but obligations to the community and memories of her late father keep her tied down. Things aren't all bad, however: her teenage crush, Maria Hatcher, has just moved back to town and the two are steadily growing closer. Over the course of the week leading up to the town's annual Winter Wonderfest, Bailey grows more and more frustrated with small-town life, until consecutive disasters on the day of the festival lead her to believe the town would be better off if she'd never been born—a wish that magical drag queen Clara happily grants, thereby revealing all the ways in which Lanford Falls and Bailey need each other. It's a goodie bag of romance tropes: edenic small town, childhood sweethearts reunited, and Christmas magic, to name just a few. The result is easy reading rounded out by a sweet but chaste love story. It might not stick long in readers' minds, but it's a solid festive option for fans of the original.
