I really enjoyed this one! It took a little for me to be fully invested in the story but once I was this was great. This book has the alluring writing that I have come to expect from Bellefleur. The chemistry between the two MCs is definitely apparent and will have you rooting for them. This is also full of fun little Taylor Swift references so if you are a Swiftie you’ll likely enjoy finding those.

Love is not a strong enough word for how I feel about this book. The characters? Obsessed. The engagement of convenience? Perfectly done. The tension? Off the charts.

I am obsessed with this book. As soon as I finished, I immediately wanted to read it again. Alexandria Bellefleur is a genius and I will be taking no questions about it at this time.

Tansy is our wallflower Cinderella, just trying to keep her dad's bookshop (the only thing she has left from his side of the family) in business, while also trying to avoid situations where she'll run into her crappy ex-bf. Gemma is the Serena van der Woodson of the newspaper publishing world who was unfathomably been left the controlling stake in the business when her grandfather passes away, but on the condition that she be legitimately married. Cue the engagement.

I just overall thought that this storyline was so well done. Both MCs had distinct voices and storylines and both experienced character growth throughout. The side characters were also interesting and mostly multi-dimensional (except for the aforementioned ex-bf who deserves nothing and should be left naked and alone on an island). The pacing was excellent and I was super invested the whole way through. I really can't say enough good things.

Thanks to Netgalley and Avon & Harper Voyager for the ARC of this!

I am absolutely obsessed with Alexandria Bellefleur and this one was no exception! On top of being adorably queer, the tropes were all my favorites: fake dating/marriage of convenience and book related jobs. This was an absolute joy to read.

It's no secret that I'm a fan of queer romance, and I am long overdue in checking out Alexandria Bellefleur's work. I was so excited to receive an ARC for The Fiancée Farce, and it fulfilled every (high!) expectation I had for it.

Tansy, exhausted by her family’s relentless inquiries as to why she’s too busy for family dinners, invents a relationship - using romance cover model Gemma West as her fake girlfriend. When Gemma shows up at a family wedding six months later, Tansy’s secrets are about to come to light - except it turns out that a relationship is exactly what Gemma needs in order to meet the conditions laid forth in her grandfather’s will, to take ownership of the family publishing empire.

Fake dating with extra high stakes, there are some really fun scenes as they get to know each other and plot their romance. Gemma and Tansy have chemistry that sparks off the page and I loved getting to know them, and I also really loved every scene with Gemma’s found family, who embrace Tansy with their whole hearts. It wouldn’t be a romance novel without some conflict along the way, including an obnoxious rich straight white dude who gets what’s coming to him courtesy of a well-placed glitter bomb, but the HEA makes it all worth it. The spice is also really fantastic - no fade to black here!

It is a fairy tale wedding right out of a bridal magazine. Tansy’s step-cousin is a beautiful bride in a gorgeous wedding gown; the groom, Tucker, is the handsome heir to the van Dalen family fortune; the decorations are perfect, the music is perfect, the cake is — of course — perfect. Then, Tansy has to go and catch the bouquet. And if that isn’t enough, in sweeps Gemma van Dalen like a sudden summer storm, a woman whose golden blonde perfection graced several romance novel covers, whose dagger-sharp smile makes Tansy’s heart race. Gemma van Dalen, who has no idea who Tansy is.

Unfortunately, Gemma is also the woman Tansy told her family she’d been dating. For six months. It was a stupid lie, meant to get her out of family dinners. Now, with Gemma grinning down at her like a cat deciding between cream or a canary, all Tansy can do is prepare for the worst. Instead, she finds herself caught in an even bigger lie as Gemma airily declares Tansy her fiancée and whisks her off to dance.

Gemma needs a wife sometime between now and the next three months in order to inherit her grandfather’s fortune and keep it out of Tucker’s greedy hands. And what better bride than someone she’s been”dating” for six months? It’s not like Tansy can say boo; after all, the lie was her idea first.

What begins as a business negotiation — Gemma will give Tansy the money she needs to buy her bookstore from her stepmother and Tansy will go through with the wedding — becomes something else as Tansy finds herself falling in love with the whirlwind that is Gemma van Dalen, all while Gemma finds her own heart being caught in the gentle, caring hands of a very protective and loving Tansy Adams.

What are you supposed to do when you fall in love with your fiancée? Maybe … try dating?

Tansy’s first forays into romance ended tragically when, at sixteen, her older boyfriend not only took pictures of her, but shared them around the school along with salacious details. Her reputation was ruined and the school, not wanting to offend the van Dalen’s family money, covered up what Tucker had done to her. Now, Tansy just wants to be left alone. Dating is hard, but it’s even harder when combined with her trauma, her anxiety, and her inability to trust people. Making up a fake girlfriend to get a respite from her family seemed like such a good idea at the time.

But Gemma, the person, is so much more than Gemma, the idea. Because they’re both in on the same scheme, Gemma sees no reason to lie about anything between the two of them. After all, they have to stay married for two years, and it’s better to go into that as friends and partners. This lack of expectation, with the ground rules laid out before her, makes it easy for Tansy to take a breath and move forward with their shared scheme. Gemma makes it easy, almost too easy, offering up the most breathtaking gifts with the ease of someone for whom money has never been an issue. Her love language is gifts, and Tansy has never really had someone gift her anything. Not the way Gemma does.

Gemma’s childhood has always been one of disappointing her father, who took away all parenting rights from her mother when he divorced her. Gemma acted out for attention, and attention she got. Yelling, insults, boarding school, scathing contempt. With Tansy, it’s different. When a reporter tries using Gemma’s wild past against her, Tansy is right there, defending her. When Gemma opens up about her past — the good and the bad — Tansy doesn’t judge her. Instead, it’s acceptance, acknowledgement that they’ve both been hurt, and steadfast support when she needs it.

This story is a gooey, glittery, frosting-filled romance that does everything I wanted and expected it to do, and does it so well, so effortlessly that it was there and gone in one sitting. You have the fake fiancée, of course, as well as the backstabbing family, the plucky friend group, sparkly revenge, and just desserts. It’s such a light, flaky pastry of a book that will either work for you … or leave you wanting more. The writing is effortless, and the characters are exactly as they appear. The villains are all suitably villainous, and the happy ending feels right out of a Hallmark movie. If you give it a try, I hope you enjoy it!

This was a very enjoyable sapphic romance story with two of my favorite tropes: fake engagement and marriage of convenience.I haven't read any of Alexandria's books prior to this one, but I can tell you that I'll definitely be reading them now. Bellefleur writes with such striking openness and charm, I had a hard time pausing this audiobook. It was a real joy to listen to this story. The fake engagement romance can be a little over the top sometimes, especially if it's a bit too drama heavy, but the conflict in this book felt reasonable and realistic. Plus, I really appreciate how it was all resolved in the end - the ending was perfect.

I loved the chemistry between the characters, Tansy and Gemma work so great together. They have that "opposites attract" thing going on, at least on the surface, and as the story progresses they discover they're more alike than they initially realized. The romance part was amazing, and there was a good amount of spice for a newbie romance reader like myself. Overall this was really fun and I recommend it to anyone looking for a feel good romance story.

When Tansy’s father died, her stepmother inherited her family’s bookstore and Tansy had to grow up with her stepfamily. They’ve always been very nosy so, to avoid some family events she doesn’t want to attend, Tansy says that she’s been dating someone and the first person that she could think of was Gemma, a romance novel cover model.

Everything is great until Gemma herself shows up. Tansy thinks she’ll have to come clean, but to her surprise, Gemma acts as if they were actually dating. Tansy is very confused, so Gemma later explains to her that her grandfather died recently and left her the family’s company, but she can only inherit it if she is married by the time of the annual board meeting in a few months, so this lie could benefit both of them. As they spend time together, they get to know each other and the romance between them becomes less fake each day.

I really enjoyed this modern take on the marriage of convenience trope. Both Tansy and Gemma are great and lovable characters and I really wanted them to be happy. I found it very refreshing how they solved the issues between them by being honest and communicating instead of the very annoying miscommunication trope.

I also love that it’s set in Seattle and I could imagine them in Tansy’s bookstore or in Gemma’s family’s home in Medina. And characters from Alexandria Bellefleur’s previous books were mentioned here!

Thank you @avon and @netgalley for the ARC of The Fiancée Farce.

I was absolutely charmed by this book less than two full chapters in. Tansy and Gemma immediately stole my heart.

I found the plot perfect. The marriage of convenience trope was done so well. I honestly didn’t see the twist coming.

And I absolutely adored the Epilogue! Alexandria Bellefleur is now an auto buy author.

The audiobook was top notch. I found a new audiobook narrator that I love!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher. I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great take on marriage of convenience and was a soft, swoony, and funny romance. I loved that the marriage helped save a family bookstore. The found family as always was delightful, especially with such a terrible blood family. I'm just obsessed with this and all of the books that Alexandria writes.

I made it halfway through before officially calling it quits. It makes me extremely sad because it started off really fun but it had such a weird blend of speed of light fast and glacially slow? Marriage of convenience is one of my favorite tropes so I was super excited to see it in a contemporary sapphic setting. Unfortunately, it lacked the depth and the development of their connection. I can buy insta-lust but it has to go somewhere before I turn 90. Oh and what was with all of the side characters all being horrible people?? I wanted to swoon not be annoyed.

I loved The Fiancée Farce! Filled with tropey romantic goodness, I love fake dating and it’s done so well here. Our main characters are so lovable, individually and together. On the outside looking in, Gemma’s the disaster and Tansy’s the good girl, how could they ever work being so different? But they do! This was fake dating done well, the relationship felt very real and the ending was just excellent. There’s so much excellent queer romance coming out these days and this is one of my recent favorites.

I’ve not read anything by Alexandria Bellefleur before this but I’ve got to now!

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Five stars does not accurately depict just how obsessed I am with this book. Also, forget book boyfriends when Gemma van Dalen is in the picture. She is top tier book GIRLFRIEND material and I love her.

This is my favourite book by Alexandria Bellefleur. Even four books in, you can sense that her writing has grown and shifted and that she is really settling into her craft. She created so many incredible characters in this book, both to love AND to hate. And Gemma and Tansy are two MC’s that will stick with me for a very long time.

A romance cover model and a bookshop owner? And it's sapphic?!? YES PLEASE,

This was such a cute romcom! I love that it was low-angst. Sometimes, you just need a light read, and this book was wonderful.

ADORABLE. ADORABLE. ADORABLE. I could not have loved this more!!

Go read this now and thank me later 💕💕💕

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really sweet sapphic romance and it makes my heart so, so happy to see more queer stories on our bookshelves.

Read if you like:
-Fake Engagements
-Modern Marriage of Convenience
-Opposites Attract
-Instalove
-Queer found family
-Taylor Swift references

For me, it didn't quite land. The relationship felt a bit unrealistic from the start and I stronglyyyy dislike the instalove trope. The main characters were sweet (I really liked Gemma), but they fell for each other far too quickly imo. I was also just a bit bored. Which is consistent with my experiences with Alexandria's other books. She just may not be for me.

If the above tropes are your jam, I do definitely recommend! The audiobook (thank you Librofm!) was also really enjoyable.

I have read a book by this author before and wasn't the biggest fan of it, but a part of me was still curious to check out other books by this author and I'm really glad I thought that way. This book was really good, very addictive, and just a fun time while also having some great emotional depths to it as well. I really liked the themes of dysfunctional family, and being the black sheep in your family. I also like how those themes were tied into some found family stuff. Gemma's friend group was WAY larger than life and I loved their addition to the story. It really made this book pop. The romance was also just incredibly cute. There are some over the top/unrealistic elements to it, but like what did you expect from a book with this premise? However, the actual romance was rooted in so many great conversations between our two leads that really made them connect to each other besides just that instant attraction to each other. I also loved how our two leads where each other's biggest cheerleaders and were constantly hyping each other up. It just made me squee with joy. So yeah, I wasn't fully in love with this book but I did really enjoy it and I'm glad I gave this author another chance and can't wait to read even more by her now.

The Fiancée Farce is my fourth novel by Alexandria Bellefleur. Unlike the other three novels, this one is currently a standalone. Since each main character has side characters around them, there could be another series, but it did not read like this was the intention. (I could be proven wrong, though, and I would read the future series.) The cover intrigued me a lot to read the novel plus I love fake relationships. (I do wish that the cover better reflected the characters as Tansy is described as bigger, yet she appears a lot thinner on the cover.) Once you add in that both main characters are bisexual, this seemed like a winning concept. I am pleased that this novel turned out well for me although there are a few elements that I felt could be improved.

This novel follows Tansy Adams who is an introverted bookseller who prefers the company of books to people. She is trying to save the family business and keep her family off her back for her love life. She invents a fake girlfriend from the cover of a romance novel, who turns out to be a real person. Gemma van Dalen is not only a romance cover model but the heir to a newspaper. Gemma needs a fiancée as her family wants her married to take over the business. The two begin a fake relationship that is mutually beneficial that, as expected, develops into something more. Their relationship was sweet, and I loved how they communicated well with each other. The relationship does develop faster than I expected as it seemed their romance moved forward quickly so the two could focus on their personal issues instead. For me, I would prefer a slowly build up as the tension is something I love in these types of stories.

As there is not a lot of relationship build-up, both Tansy and Gemma have a lot to work on in their personal lives. As Gemma is working to inherit the company, I did love this part of the story, however, I did want a little more about her other job as a romance cover model. Since Tansy saw Gemma on a cover, I would have loved this part of Gemma’s career expanded on a little more. The story itself was well-paced and the other characters interacted well with the two main ones. There is a minor event involving underage photos that I do not think was handled with enough care; however, this was a minor piece of the story, so it does not take away from the rest of the writing. Overall, this was a sweet story and a great novel by Bellefleur. I continue to enjoy her work and I look forward to reading more from her in the future.

**I give a special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Avon, for the opportunity to read this entertaining novel. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**

Thank you @AvonBooks and @Netgalley for the #gifted eARC of THE FIANCEE FARCE!

This sapphic romance was the cutest! I was grinning from the very start of the book as Tansy and Gemma collided and sparks immediately flew.

There are Taylor Swift references galore, the steamiest library scene, a prank involving a glitter bomb and a devious uncle that had me smirking. Oh and it’s set in my home of Seattle. Love seeing some local rep!

My favorite part of the book though was how Gemma and Tansy actually talked to each other. It was so refreshing to have a romance with open communication between the MCs. And their teasing banter was fire!

THE FIANCEE FARCE is out today!

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This book was such a great read. Tansy is a bookseller and Gemma is a romance cover model who cross paths and end up in a fake relationship.

I really enjoyed all of the side characters in this book. The friendships they had were great but their families were awful to them. Even though I kind of knew what was going to happen in the end I was not expecting it to go down how it did so that was a really nice surprise.

I'm not a fan of misunderstandings in books where the characters could have fixed everything by just talking so I really enjoyed that Tansy and Gemma actually search each other out to have conversations about things they heard or said. They said early on in the story that they didn't want to lie to each other and they really stuck to it.

If you enjoy books with two bi main characters, a marriage of convenience, amazing banter, and a myriad of Taylor Swift references this sapphic rom-com is for you.

I always love an Alexandria Bellefleur sapphic romance but I really think she's topped herself with The Fiancee Farce. This book was so much fun and example of when a romantic comedy really leans on both the romance and the comedy. Tansy and Gemma were so lovely separately and together and ultimately made each other better which is my favorite type of romance.

The highlights of this book for me really came with the peripheral characters. They were all so much fun- Gemma has the funniest friend group and for as horrible as her family is, there is a lot of shenanigans to be mined from any time spent with them.

I love so much how Tansy in particular grows in this book and yes, it is another fake dating/marriage of convenience book, but the concept is so much fun and I don't think I'll ever get enough. There are so many ridiculous situations in this book but ultimately the heart of it is two lost people who find each other and make each other better while they fall in love and what's better than that?

Thank you so much to Avon and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an honest review.