The Fiancée Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur Genres: Adult, Contemporary
Published by Avon on April 18, 2023
Format: Paperback (384 pages) • Source: Purchased
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Lambda Literary award winner and national bestselling author Alexandria Bellefleur returns with a steamy Sapphic rom-com about a quiet bookseller and a romance novel cover model who agree to a modern-day marriage-of-convenience...
Tansy Adams’ greatest love is her family’s bookstore, passed down from her late father. But when it comes to actual romance… Tansy can’t get past the first chapter. Tired of her stepfamily’s questions about her love life, Tansy invents Gemma, a fake girlfriend inspired by the stunning cover model on a bestselling book. They’ll never actually meet, so what’s the harm in a little fib? Yet when real-life Gemma crosses Tansy’s path, her white lie nearly implodes.
Gemma van Dalen is a wild child, the outcast of her wealthy family, and now the latest heir to Van Dalen Publishing. But the title comes with one tiny condition: she must be married in order to inherit. When Gemma discovers a beautiful stranger has been pretending to date her for months, she decides to take the charade one step further—and announces their engagement.
Gemma needs a wife to meet the terms of her grandfather’s will and Tansy needs money to save her struggling bookstore. A marriage could be mutually beneficial, if they can fool everyone into thinking it’s a love match. Unexpected sparks fly as Tansy and Gemma play the role of affectionate fiancées, and suddenly the line between convenient arrangement and real feelings begins to blur. But the scheming Van Dalen family won’t give up the company without a fight, and Gemma and Tansy’s newfound happiness might get caught in the fallout…
I made it a goal to read more books with sapphic romance this year and this has been sitting on my shelves for a few years. It called to me so I went for it, and I’m so glad I did! I need to read more of her books immediately.
The story follows Tansy and Gemma as they embark on a fake engagement/marriage to help them both out. Tansy used Gemma, a model on a book cover, as a fake girlfriend when making excuses with her family. When she actually meets Gemma in person, she’s shocked to see that Gemma joins the charade and reveals they’re together and engaged. Gemma needs to be married to inherit her family business and she’s willing to do anything to make it happen.
What happens from here is a super cute, sometimes corny, love story. It’s not perfect but honestly exactly what I needed in that moment. I absolutely loved them as a couple and how well they communicated. With a plot this “big” where you know that something bad may happen outside of their control, we don’t also need miscommunication or in-couple issues too. The author did a great job of making the conflict work.
The premise was over the top but highly enjoyable. I was rooting for them from the beginning and really loved it.
My Husband's Wife by Alice Feeney Genres: Adult, Mystery/Thriller
Published by Flatiron Books on January 20, 2026
Also by this author: Daisy Darker, Beautiful Ugly
Format: Audiobook, eBook, Hardcover (320 pages) • Goodreads • Amazon • Barnes & Noble
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Discover the brand new #1 bestselling book everyone is talking about from the author of His & Hers, now a #1 Netflix show!“Nonstop thrills! The best Feeney book yet!” —FREIDA MCFADDEN
“Propulsive, compulsive, addictive.” —LISA JEWELL
"I loved My Husband's Wife."—CHRIS WHITAKER
"A funny, sexy, thoroughly satisfying read.” —Washington PostEden Fox, an artist on the brink of her big break, sets off for a run before her first exhibition. When she returns to the home she recently moved into, Spyglass, an enchanting old house in Hope Falls, nothing is as it should be. Her key doesn’t fit. A woman, eerily similar to her, answers the door. And her husband insists that the stranger is his wife.
One house. One husband. Two women. Someone is lying.
Six months earlier, a reclusive Londoner called Birdy, reeling from a life-changing diagnosis, inherits Spyglass. This unexpected gift from a long-lost grandmother brings her to the pretty seaside village of Hope Falls. But then Birdy stumbles upon a shadowy London clinic that claims to be able to predict a person's date of death, including her own. Secrets start to unravel, and as the line between truth and lies blurs, Birdy feels compelled to right some old wrongs.
My Husband’s Wife is a tangled web of deception, obsession, and mystery that will keep you guessing until the last page. Prepare yourself for the ultimate mind-bending marriage thriller and step inside Spyglass – if you dare – to experience a story where nothing is as it seems.
This is the kind of book that will be polarizing – a lot of people have loved it and I’ve started to see some negative reviews trickle in. For the ride alone, this was a great book for me. The premise is crazy – a woman comes home to her house only to find that another woman is there, thinking she is her husband’s wife. What the hell happened?
There’s a ton of whiplash with the classic Feeney plot twists. I deducted a half-star for the general implausibility of it all but boy did I not guess 90% of that. There was a lot of explaining and I get annoyed by drawn out “confessions” at the end but I really appreciated the amount of twists here. You absolutely need to suspend your disbelief though.
I love thinking it’s done and getting like two more hard turns. Highly recommend!
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