If you’re looking for a light-hearted sapphic rom-com, The Fiancée Farce does the job. Bookstore owner Tansy is shy and sick of her family asking about her love life. She tells a small lie to get them off her back when dragged into wedding prep for her stepsister. She bases her fake girlfriend on a sexy and captivating romance cover model. As fate would have it, said cover model Gemma van Dalen walks into Tansy’s life at a party with all her friends and family present. Wild child Gemma doesn’t blink at the lie…and takes it one step further. She announces to everyone that they are engaged! Gemma is set to inherit her grandfather’s publishing business, but only if she is married before the year is out.
If you don’t think too hard about this rule, this is a delightful meet-cute premise. I want more sapphic romances with silly stakes. My main gripe is that the couple gets engaged but doesn’t really get to date (or get it on) enough. I wanted to see them falling in love a bit more before the final declaration of love. Gemma seemed to really fall hard for Tansy simply because she was a nice person, and most of her family are backstabbing trash. I detested Gemma’s family and the betrayal storyline. I get how they helped the main characters grow, but they were quite a bummer. Especially Gemma’s cousin nemesis, who also mistreats Tansy. The ending is cute, and I do want these women to have their HEA. I’m just not sure if they really know each other well enough. I also loved the Seattle setting and most of the side characters. Definitely worth reading, especially if you’re a sucker for shy bookstore owners who need love (and are terrible at dating). I want to put it into the universe for Hallmark or Lifetime to adapt this rom-com for the small screen.
