Imperfect Bliss
Summary from Goodreads
Reality TV— Jane Austen Style
Meet the Harcourts of Chevy Chase, Maryland. A respectable middle-class, middle age, mixed-race couple, Harold and Forsythia, has four eminently marriageable daughters—or so their mother believes. Forsythia named her girls after Windsor royals in the hopes that one day each would find her true prince. But princes are far from the mind of their second-born daughter, Elizabeth (AKA Bliss), who, in the aftermath of a messy divorce, has moved back home and thrown herself into earning her PhD. All that changes when a Bachelorette-style reality television show called The Virgin takes Bliss’s younger sister Diana as its star. Though she fights it at first, Bliss can’t help but be drawn into the romantic drama that ensues, forcing her to reconsider everything she thought she knew about love, her family, and herself.
As Bliss tries to rebuild her life, her routine is disrupted by the invasion of a reality TV crew led by the charming but irritating Dario Fuentes, who reminds her so much of her ex. How can she feel attracted by the producer of a show that objectifies women to such a degrading extent? Besides, there are other more desirable men in the world. Like Professor Jordan McIntosh, widower whose devotion to his late wife makes Bliss believe happy marriages do exist; or Wyatt Evers, the well read and ethical host of “The Virgin”. Appearances though, can be deceiving. Emulating Pride and Prejudice, Susan Fale-Hill plays with her characters creating a plethora of misleading signs.
Except for Victoria, Bliss’ family is quite unnerving, just like the “Bennets”. Forsythia, a royalist glamor seeker, don’t disappoint as the obnoxious mother. Harold is the uninvolved father who goes with the flow, masks his dislikes with irony, and hides in his study whenever life throws him a curve ball. Charlotte is the frivolous daughter and Diana, though beautiful and smart, is clearly the one most influenced by Forsythia’s deviated ideas, a certifiable gold-digger-attention-seeker.
The surreal reality TV setting envelopes the story with plenty of chaotic moments, and a handful of romantic ones, such as a stay in a medieval castle. Imperfect Bliss is light and amusing. It’s chick lit, and feels very much like watching a romantic comedy with a satirical touch. It won’t make you smarter, but it will keep you company on a rainy day.