The Fiancée Farce: A Novel

After the disaster that the latest “Bruno” turned out to be, “The Fiancée Farce” was exactly the palate cleanser I needed: warm, funny, queer, and far more wholehearted than its knowingly ridiculous premise might suggest.

On paper, a marriage of convenience is one of the oldest romance contraptions in the book. In practice, Alexandria Bellefleur makes it feel fresh because the romance is built not on trope, but on trust. What charmed me most was not simply that Gemma and Tansy want each other. It was that they begin, almost instinctively, to tell each other the truth.

»these days, she was nothing if not brutally honest with herself«

That matters. A lot of contemporary romances, including very good ones, still run on people show more withholding the one thing that would make the relationship real. “The Fiancée Farce” takes the more generous route. Tansy begins from a lie, yes, but the emotional shape of the novel comes from the relief of not having to keep lying to the person who matters. Even early on, Bellefleur frames motive with a lovely sharpness that keeps the book from feeling mechanically trope-driven.

»Provoking my cousin is a perk, but otherwise incidental. I don’t do anything because of Tucker.«

Compared with other queer rom-coms and marriage-of-convenience stories, the chemistry here is unusually persuasive because it grows through conversation. Gemma and Tansy are not merely hot together, though they absolutely are. They are lovely together. Their rhythm is cheeky, lively, teasing, and always kind, which is harder to pull off than it looks.

Bellefleur understands that flirtation lands better when both people sound as if they enjoy each other’s minds as much as each other’s bodies. That gives the book a softness beneath the sparkle, and it kept making me smile.

I also had a great deal of affection for the supporting cast, especially Gemma’s gloriously queer circle of friends, who make the novel feel even warmer and more lived-in. Teddy in particular is a joy: funny, loyal, and exactly the sort of friend whose presence brightens every scene without ever feeling contrived. Brooks, meanwhile, works beautifully as one of the story’s decent allies, whose steadiness and goodwill deepen the book’s warmth. Taken together, they give the book an extra layer of comfort and community that I found immensely appealing.

»As long as this wedding planner of Katherine’s can get us hitched before the holidays, it’s fine.«

The novel also earns points for how thoroughly it wants to be nice without becoming bland. Tansy’s bookstore world, Gemma’s poisonous family money, and the gulf in wealth between them give the story enough friction to avoid feeling weightless.

Compared with plenty of heterosexual romantic comedy and even some sapphic contemporaries that lean too hard on vibes alone, this one has a sturdier emotional spine. I also loved the way tenderness and playfulness keep folding into each other.

»No take backs«

My reservations are real, but minor. The short last-act breakup is annoying in the way these breakups so often are: less devastating than obligatory. I forgave it quickly. More distracting is the occasional point of view wobble. Every now and then, a pronoun or sentence focus seems to slip, and for a moment I had to reorient myself to whose perception I was meant to be in. It never ruins the scene, but it does briefly blur the precision the relationship otherwise has.

This was my first Bellefleur, so I cannot compare it with another of her books yet. What I can say is that “The Fiancée Farce” makes an excellent argument for reading more. It is lovely, heartfelt, properly romantic, and much more than the sum of its tropes.

Four stars out of five.

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Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam show less

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
🌶🌶 /4
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This book has everything. A bookstore owner and a publishing heiress end up in an accidental fake marriage agreement. Both are trying to save their family legacies, all while fighting against the patriarchy (aka awful misogynist family members). It’s a delight watching Tansy & Gemma learn to love each other after a truly crazy beginning.
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Fake dating leading to real feelings. A nerdy bookstore owner and a model heiress. Beautiful queer love. Amazing found family best friends pulling great shenanigans. And getting revenge on people who tried to make both Tansy & Gemma’s pasts hell. Chefs kiss all around.

Also… the way Gemma gets FERAL for show more Tansy is 🤌🤌🤌
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🏳️‍🌈🧡🤍🩷 + 🩷💜💙🏳️‍🌈
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Overall really loved this one, definitely need to read more by this author!!!
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Bonus: a perfect last entry for my pride month reading! show less

I loved this one as much as I’ve loved the other two sapphic books I’ve read by this author. I think she’s become a must read, for me. One thing I appreciate is that we often get to see a lot more of the MCs TOGETHER rather than longing/pining the whole novel only to get together for a tiny bit in the end, which is fairly common. I am always a sucker for the fake relationship trope, and it’s on lovely full display, here. This isn’t a narrator I seek out, but I think I’ve come to enjoy her more than I had initially thought, and I rlly liked her voice for Gemma (goddddd esp with some of the dirty talk she said to Tansy I was blushing in my office at work lol). I liked both MCs, I liked the pace of their relationship, the show more conflicts all made sense with the plot and their characterization (at least, for me). And overall I had a rlly good time. It made my recent romance slump feel ( show less

This was a solid enough book, with a perennially popular trope—fake dating!—but what actually wound up pushing my assessment from “solid” to “lovely” were the supporting characters. Gemma, the black sheep heiress with the wild streak, was fun enough on her own, but it was the gaggle of friends around her that allowed other facets of her personality to shine through. Without the (less seen but still important) friendship between Tansy and her best friend in Arizona, she might have tipped over the edge into the realm of soggy.

And Brooks, the uncle? Loved him!

So sure, the romance was sweet, and I appreciated that secrets and miscommunications between the pair were minor and short-lived (always annoyed by a plot “conflict” show more that could be solved over a cup of coffee in a ten-minute chat), but the book offered more than that, making it well worth the read. show less

Tansy is tired of her social-climbing step-family asking her when she’s going to get a partner, especially in the middle of her step-cousin’s wedding to Tansy’s high school boyfriend Tucker, so she makes one up. She’s been Instagram-stalking a cover model she sees on the romance novels she sells at her family bookstore so she tells everyone that the model, Gemma, is her girlfriend. Unfortunately, Gemma shows up to the wedding because she’s Tucker’s cousin. Fortunately, Gemma needs a fake fiancee because her grandfather’s will requires her to get married in order to inherit the family’s enormous media company. So the two hatch a plan to pretend they’ve been dating for awhile and quickly get married, so Gemma can inherit show more the company and buy Tansy’s family bookstore, which her stepmother is threatening to sell. Of course they immediately fall in love, but since their relationship is very “convenient” Gemma’s family remains suspicious. If they can’t make it work, Gemma’s grandfather’s media empire will instead go to … Tucker.

Not bad at all. There’s a bit of angst when they’re each falling in love but think that the other is only in it for the money, but not too much. Their families are complicated, almost confusingly so, but the main characters are sympathetic and they each bring something to the relationship - Gemma’s strong friend group and Tansy’s grounded love of her bookstore. It wasn’t anything special but I wouldn’t say no to reading more by this author. show less

New drinking game: take a shot everytime you hear/read vetiver.....

For real though, it took three books for me to finally find a book I like from Bellefleur... that being said this was still an okay read. I appreciate the fact that Gemma and Tansy decided to date for real much sooner than most others of the fake date/marrige tropes might but it still could use some work. A lot of the characters and their backgrounds feel like her other books so it all felt a little stale in the end. Not to mention I might have some ptsd about hearing vetiver. lol

this was kind of fun in the way she mashed up a handful of tropes all together, and did it in a believable way. (i mean, as believable as a marriage being a condition of inheritance can be, although she really did make me believe that wasn't such an anachronism for this family, so well done there.)

i like the way she wrote these characters, and their banter was fun. their declarations of sappiness were over the top and harder for me, especially as they were sprinkled in everywhere. it was nice how quickly these two fell for each other, and how they weren't hiding it from each other, each assuming the other was still pretending. that was nice to see, and well handled.

this is only my second of her books and i didn't love this, but i show more really do like how it seems like she writes really strong characters who don't compromise on who they are. show less