Alexandria Bellefleur's books always leave me with a smile of my face. Gemma and Tansy both have their reasons for faking an engagement and even though I knew it was inevitable they would fall for each other, I couldn't help but to be swept up in their journey. Alexandria Bellefleur has written another wonderful sapphic romance that will make you laugh out loud.

An ARC was received from Avon via NetGalley for an honest review.

I suck at reading ebooks and have been reading slower lately but I really enjoyed this book. Alexandria Bellefleur always has swoonworthy romances. I don't think this is a series but I would read a book about her friends and their love stories. Tansy is such a lovely character and Gemma is such a badass. Marriage of convenience, queer, and fake dating? Yeah. Wow. Read it.

Let me just start by saying how much I love anything that Alexandria Bellefleur writes! I read the entirety of the Written in the Stars world trilogy and loved it so much, and The Fiancée Farce is a new story that I enjoyed reading through and through.

I LOVED TANSY AND GEMMA! Tansy makes up Gemma to get her family off her back about her relationship status and when Gemma meets Tansy and discovers the relationship they have apparently been having, she decides to continue the charade as she is a need of a wife to satisfy her grandfather’s will and become president of the family company. And this is a perfect opportunity for Tansy because Gemma agrees to help Tansy save her family’s bookstore.

Tansy and Gemma have issues explored as they get to know each other, and there was tension. It was on fire as soon as the sh*t hit the fan, and I lived for it. Although, as Tansy and Gemma started to fall in love and decided to have a real relationship, I started to see how much potential they had to be happy and their moments together made me swoon, but this was also that’s when the villains came out to play!

Reading this book was a fantastic experience, with lots of flirty banter, palpable chemistry, and swoon-worthy declarations of love, and sooo much more!

Stunning, romantic, steamy, and emotional. Put this right up there with Bright Falls as one of the top sapphic romance novels of the year. And I love the cover.

* I rated 3.5 stars

I loved the other books that I read by Bellefleur so I was OVER THE MOON excited to receive this arc! I’m always looking to diversify my reading and love a good sapphic romance. ❤️

I’d like to just give a little reminder— a three star book isn’t bad. ❤️ there were parts of this book that I really enjoyed! Tropes and themes include:

💍marriage of convenience
💍lgbt rep
💍found family
💍difficult family relationships
💍mild spice

This was a very light and comical read, but I wish we had gotten a little more depth from the characters. There were also some repetitive phrases that I struggled with that felt overused. While I enjoyed reading this books, I never felt like I needed to rush back and pick it up.

I would recommend this book under the right circumstances, but I would recommend her other books first! Count Your Lucky Stars is my favorite by this author. ❤️

Overall, The Fiancée Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur is a charming and enjoyable read that is perfect for fans of romantic comedies. Whether you're looking for a lighthearted escape from reality or just in the mood for a good laugh, this book is sure to deliver. Highly recommended!

RATING: 3/5 STARS

This was a cute read. Not my favorite by Bellefleur but enjoyable nonetheless. Fake dating with steam is one of my favorite tropes. I didn't feel the sizzling tension or investment in the characters though. Probably a me-not-you thing. Recommend for fans of marriage of convenience, fake dating, sapphic stories.

I think Alexandria Bellefleur is quickly becoming a favorite author of mine. Her writing is so engaging, and she does a great job crafting her cast of characters. This book had a bunch of my favorite tropes, and while some parts were predictable, I found that I didn’t care because I genuinely liked Tansy and Gemma and was rooting for them. If you liked Alexandia Bellefleur's previous books I think you'd enjoy this one as well.

I’ve read every one of Bellefleur’s romances and I can say without a doubt that The Fiancée Farce is her best yet. I absolutely loved the characters, the family drama, the friends. And there was so much rich character development which isn’t always found in this genre. Tansy and Gemma had great chemistry and their story was a sweet and fresh new take on a favored trope. I’m writing this review at 2:30 AM and I have to be up in 4 hours, if that’s any indication of how much I loved this book.

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!

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon, and Harper Voyager for an ARC Copy for an honest review

This was unfortunately quite a letdown. I loved Alexandria Bellefleur’s previous books and was really excited for The Fiancée Farce but I didn’t end up enjoying it as much as I thought I would.

The concept sounded amazing but I just don’t think it was executed very well. I usually love the marriage of convenience trope but their romance was so rushed in this one. I think it would’ve worked better if they had known each other already before they got fake-engaged. They’re complete strangers when they meet and - while the story of Tansy picking Gemma’s name because of her modeling for romance books was a cute idea - it was just too unrealistic that they’d start dating and having feelings so fast when they knew they’d also have to get married soon. Miscommunication can be frustrating in romance but in this case they communicated their feelings so well that a fun and original concept ended up being kind of boring. I was enjoying the beginning but by the halfway point, I was skipping and skimming passages because I wasn’t really invested in their love story anymore and the ending was too predictable.

There were some cute moments and I did like the characters so I’ll definitely give Alexandria Bellefleur’s next books another chance but this one unfortunately didn’t meet my expectations.

This one was a little cheesy but I still enjoyed it. I really like Tansy. I do wish the bookstore had featured more prominently.

The Fiancee Farce offers a slight twist on the fake engagement trope by introducing us to Tansy, a woman who has been faking a girlfriend (drawn from the cover of romance novels) for ages. When she actually meets Gemma (an heiress who did a bit of modeling for fun) they are sucked into a whirlwind of deception. While I've enjoyed Alexandria Bellefleur's work in the past, this title fell flat for me. Flat is the opportune descriptor here, the characters, both heroic and villainous felt flat, the story dragged, the ending was an uninspired twist. Perhaps worth a read by Bellefleur fans, but not a good introduction to her work. 2.5 stars.

This book is SO GOOD. My favorite by Alexandria Bellefluer to date. The Fiancée Farce is the queer romantic comedy of my dreams - fully developed characters pulled me in, the sweet/spicy relationship between Tansy and Gemma kept me engaged (pun intended) and wanting more. My only regret is that I read it too fast!

Holding my review in solidarity with HarperCollins Union employees on strike. Review will be posted when they have a fair deal.

A classic romance trope meets a queer love story in this fast-paced read for fans of Ashley Herring Blake.

Tansy is more comfortable with her books than with people—and inventing a girlfriend based on a romance novel cover didn't seem too risky. For better or for worse, though, that romance novel cover model is a real person...with a very good reason to want a fake girlfriend, and a real fiancée, of her own. Shenanigans (need I say it?) ensue.

Now—I read this 90% for the cover, 5% for the fact that one heroine works in a bookstore and the other works in publishing, and 5% for it being a contemporary queer romance novel. And take heart, readers: the cover is ripped directly from the contents of the book. (I'm less thrilled by the fact that the cover artist has removed Tansy's curves, but the dresses are well and truly in there.)

What intrigued me so much upon reading this, though, was just how much of a classic trope this is—engagement/marriage of convenience based on a little white lie—but updated for the present day. The conflict with Tansy's stepfamily is reminiscent of "Delilah Green Doesn't Care," sure, but fake-engagement-turned-real setup is straight out of "Turbulent Covenant," published in 1980. "Turbulent Covenant" remains the worst romance novel that I've ever read, but not because of the trope; it's so terrible because the hero is a would-be rapist who chokes the terrified heroine, leaves bruises, etc., and gets away with it all because love...and because of their marriage of convenience. "The Fiancée Farce," thank sweet mercy, takes one look at that sort of predecessor, says "fuck no," and proceeds to get on with the heroines both being complicated, imperfect human beings who—and I cannot overstate the importance of this—genuinely care about consent and long-term emotional impact and so on. Could one heroine probably use a long chat with her therapist somewhere between chapter 25 and the epilogue? Definitely. Would the other heroine benefit from trying dry January? Most likely. But they're not compounding each other's stresses.

The other thing I love about this book: Tansy and Gemma talk to each other. Again, I cannot overemphasize this: there are so many moments when there's a misunderstanding, or room for a misunderstanding, and the classic thing to do is to spin it out into a she-said-she-said (hah) drama for twenty or fifty or two hundred pages (the old "you mean she's your *sister*?" thing). Instead, Tansy and Gemma make a point to seek each other out, to say, "Hey, I heard this thing, but I want to hear your side of it. Can you elaborate?" It makes their budding relationship so much healthier and more functional, and it means that very little of the overarching conflict is the sort of thing that could have been solved with an honest conversation anywhere in the past hundred and fifty pages. It warms the cockles of my cold little heart.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 because there are bookstore cats called Mills and Boon.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a free review copy through NetGalley.

3.5 stars

A common issue that comes up a lot in romance is that the conflict feels contrived and unnecessary. The issue with The Fiancée Farce is the exact inverse: it doesn't have enough conflict. As always, I love Alexandria Bellefleur's writing; it's extremely readable, flows well, and I've never had any major gripes with it. And I did like the characters here, too, especially the way Gemma and Tansy's personalities complemented each other. But in terms of story, I just feel like The Fiancée Farce was a bit too straightforward and simplistic. More than anything, the romance lacked tension; the characters get together pretty quickly, and then they're dating and happy and nothing is really an obstacle until a minor setback in the very last part of the book, which gets resolved quickly enough. And listen, I love that there's no contrived drama here, but I also need there to be some drama to keep the story engaging.

TL;DR I enjoyed this, but it was pretty forgettable.

This is my benchmark for how wonderful Sapphic Romances can be and should be promoted, a definite purchase

Loved this one! This book wastes no time jumping into the story and I adored that.

The writing was funny, heartwarming, and swoony. The use of text conversations were perfect. The friends were great. The family was the perfect amount of awful.

Overall, really loved this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon, and Harper Voyager!
Sapphic romance? Sign me up! I am always excited to see more sapphic romance, and this was a fantastic addition. I adore this book's premise with fake dating and meet by chance; it has everything that I love and romance books. I absolutely flew through this book and was probably one of my favorite topic romances that I have read in a while.