This storyline reminded me of Sue Watson’s Sister in Law! A new mysterious girl comes into picture and starts to bother heroine since the first moment she is introduced with her! But in this story there are more brothers, two sister in laws and more likable heroine: Summer, just get married with her hot husband Gabe, raising her new 9 years old, quirky but still adorable stepson, a struggling actress, is still so pleased to be part of big family. This book is really over the top and cheesy/corny. I liked parts of it but I didn’t like a lot as well. Tansy and Gemma were an absolute delight and I loved them as individuals and as a couple. It’s everything else that needed work. Alexandria Bellefleur has gifted us with a gorgeously bright and vivacious romance in The Fiancée Farce—bringing together a beauty and a wallflower, a marriage of convenience, and intensely sexy, swoony, sapphic vibes. Mischievous dogs, glitter-infused capers, and a delicious moment in an old library round out this rom-com perfection, and make it a must read for 2023!" -Sierra Simone, USA Today bestselling author

I have so many thoughts, so this is going to be really long. First of all, this isn't really a review, but consider this a rant. This book is really overhyped, and it's one of those books that doesn't deserve the hype at all. First, I will be talking about the characters, and let's start with Tansy. She is too kind, too sweet, too naïve, too perfect—you get what I mean. There's too much niceness to the point that she is an extremely unrealistic character. Her infatuation/lust with Gemma was also very infuriating. Of course, it's fiction, and nothing is real, but there should be something, anything, that makes us feel like this is happening for real, but there was nothing. Her relationship with her stepmother and stepsister wasn't explained either; they were just there. And her stepmother, after not saying anything for years, suddenly becomes the nicest person alive in the end—like, wow, brownie points to her Summer is a character who grows on you, and rest of the family all have their various likable traits (with the exception of Hannah, although White wrote it that way). Little Henry was adorable, and Summer’s role as stepmother is endearing. A steamy Sapphic rom-com about a modern-day marriage-of-convenience. Perfect for fans of Ashley Herring Blake, Casey McQuiston and Talia Hibbert. So, before I get into the real reason I hate this book, let's discuss why I didn't like Tansy and Gemma, the main characters. I don't know what it was with the two of them, but the fake engagement (I didn't get to the marriage part) felt *way* too forced. The fake love they were trying to portray to me read as too much and too cheesy. And also can I just say, Gemma felt like she was not the type of person to express much outward love in the 36% I read. As for Tansy, uh I didn't like her. She has anxiety, so I should feel for her since I too have anxiety, right? Wrong. Other people probably relate to her, but I didn't. Not one bit. I'm not sure exactly what I didn't like about her anxiety, but it felt like she shrunk into herself whenever she was around Katherine (her stepmother) and never tried to defend herself. Once again, this is probably a personal thing, but I was not a fan of Tansy. If you loved Tansy and Gemma, good! I'm glad people love them, but I didn't.A bi indie bookstore manager agrees to a marriage of convenience with a bi romance cover model to save their family legacies.

My only issue was I did feel the character MC’s in this were quite similar to Darcy and Elle in WITS and the story held a handful of similar traits (why I dropped it down one star.)

Gemma snorted. She seriously needed to ease off the champagne if she was on the precipice of composing sonnets about a pretty stranger’s eyes. No amount of inebriation excused shitty clichés, even if she kept them to herself. Tansy can’t figure out what kind of game Gemma is playing, until they get some time alone and Gemma explains. It turns out that her real last name is van Dalen, as in Van Dalen Publishing, one of the world’s leading newspaper and magazine publishers. Much to the surprise of the rest of her family, her recently deceased grandfather’s will has named Gemma as the heir to the company --- but only if she is married by the end of the year.

No part of this story was believable, if you’re one that has issues with that then I’d stay away from this. This actually wasn’t a big issue for me but it did make me roll my eyes a few times. I kind of felt like I was reading about an episode of Real Housewives a time to two. Okay I LOVED this!! The perfect fluffy, low-angst, sapphic rom-com where most of the conflict is external to the couple. AND it has some of my favorite tropes with a modern marriage of convenience and a fake relationship. It was absolutely delightful and while it doesn't have a ton of steamy scenes, the ones it does have are excellent. I loved this book, but it's one of those reads where I was rather surprised that I loved it, as there are some flaws that would generally annoy me, but didn't in this one for some reason. I have no idea - I'm still scratching my head over my enthusiasm, but oh well, it worked for me!P.S. I really can’t believe Gemma was going to give Tansy that much money lmao I guess I haven’t been properly baptized in the waters of billionaire romances because the look on my face when she followed the number 6 with MILLION. My main issue were all the terrible side characters, and there was an abundance of them. How a grown woman is happy with 5+ roommates is beyond me. Plus, you add in everyone’s family and it was…a lot. Almost all of the family was problematic and toxic and the friends were mostly annoying. But everything changes as soon as a new member steps into family’s comfort zone: a new fiancée earns everyone’s blessings instead of Summer, our doubtful heroine,who gets suspicious of her motives by catching her big lie at the first moment they met. And as people start to die, their perfect holiday turns into a disastrous nightmare! Alexandria Bellefleur has gifted us with a gorgeously bright and vivacious romance in The Fiancée Farce—bringing together a beauty and a wallflower, a marriage of convenience, and intensely sexy, swoony, sapphic vibes.Mischievous dogs, glitter-infused capers, and a delicious moment in an old library round out this rom-com perfection, and make it a must read for 2023!" — Sierra Simone, USA Today bestselling author

All in all, I had a really fun time listening, I was always disappointed when I had to stop to attend to whatever life thought was more urgent. And there’s a playlist on Spotify, which is always appreciated. Written with a surfeit of quippy wit and graced with a delightfully quirky constellation of supporting characters, Lambda Literary Award winner Bellefleur’s fun, fresh take on the marriage of convenience trope delivers all the romantically swoon-worthy moments and steamy chemistry romance readers crave.”— Booklist Sometimes fate has a strange way of intervening and making sure you get exactly what you should, even if you were not looking for it. Not one character is likable; they're not detestable, they're just boring. Shallow. One dimensional. You don't care what happens to whom.The 3rd act angst/breakup made me drop a star. This was an easy 5 stars until then. Anyone who has been following me knows I despise it, and it made no sense here, especially given they'd been communicating so well up until that point. I had to put the book down for a day it made me so annoyed. It did lead nicely into the 'grand gesture' conclusion, but I still resent that it was there at all. Like many female mystery authors, Kate fell in love with the genre after reading her first Nancy Drew book, in her case The Secret of Redgate Farm. But, can a relationship built on a lie ever really work? Will the van Dalen family truly accept the wild child taking over and can this fake marriage help Tansy save her bookstore? Wring and Story Summer is a ridiculous character, among all the rest of her privileged, entitled characters in the story.