The Fiancée Farce
A Novel
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4.6 • 103 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
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 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.
Customer Reviews
Charming characters!
Magical from the beginning all the way through to the end! Loved all the characters and enjoyed reading about
them! I couldn’t wait to read more and
couldn’t put it down! J a New Fan.
Loved it
This book brought me to tears but also had me grinning and laughing till I couldn’t breathe. Even though it was a cliche trope(which I absolutely adore), it had so many elements that you could thoroughly relate to in the real world. I loved that this was kind of a mix between a normal romance and young adult fiction. There is just the right amount of spice intertwined with just an amazing plot line. If you’re someone like me who is always looking for a good woman love woman story, then I definitely recommend this one. Can’t wait to read more from this author!!
This book was Fantastic!
Alexandria Bellefleur is a one-click author for me. I fell in love with her writing in the WITS series and she holds true to the elements I love in this new novel! Her writing is witty, heartwarming, and full of swoon. I finished this book so fast and was absolutely elated with it. I love a good fake dating rom-com - even more so a sapphic one! Tansy and Gemma both have their issues and their reasons for why they're fake engaged. Bellefleur does a great job of uncovering those in a relatable manner as the story progresses. I love the dynamic between all the characters in this story -even the evolution of a character I disliked right off the bat.
The secondary characters added a wonderful layer of humor and levity to the story. The T-Swift references were ridiculously on point and I ATE THEM UP! I cannot wait to add this to my shelf when it releases!