The Fiancée Farce, by Alexandria Bellefleur

The Fiancée Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


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 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.



Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam




View all my reviews

https://turing.mailstation.de/the-fiancee-farce-by-alexandria-bellefleur/?fsp_sid=2516