Imperfect Bliss

May 14, 2012
Fales-Hill (One Flight Up) channels Jane Austen in a bawdy sendup of today’s landed gentry: a mixed-race couple and their four gorgeous daughters, all striving and conniving for a happily-ever-after. Broke and reeling from a messy divorce, second-oldest Bliss and her own daughter, Bella, return to the Washington, D.C., “little house of horrors” where Bliss grew up; craven younger sister Diana becomes the star of a reality TV husband hunt; oldest sister Victoria balks at another marriage proposal; and promiscuous baby sister Charlotte vents her girls-gone-wild proclivities. Even their pretentious Jamaica-born mom, Forsythia, takes advantage of her adoring but indifferent British husband’s long leash. But the hilarious hijinks of the Harcourts hides more poignant truths about these strong-willed women. Of course, there’s never a doubt that Bliss will find love in an unexpected place, or that Diana will get what she deserves, Victoria will accept a long-stifled truth, and Charlotte will wise up. The bigger surprise is the touching insight into the gnawing pain deep within each woman, especially social-climbing Forsythia, whose “fierce, blind love” would sacrifice everything for Bliss. Fales-Hill whips an old-fashioned comedy of manners into a stylish, sharp-edged satire. Agent: Suzanne Gluck, WME Entertainment.

July 1, 2012
A slapstick rendering of Pride and Prejudice also skewers high cultured academia and lowbrow reality TV. In this modern version of an Austen marriage novel, four beautiful sisters (American, biracial and college educated) find themselves at the whim of their imperious mother. Forsythia Harcourt, originally from Jamaica, now living in Maryland and fantasizing about infiltrating the British throne, wants good marriages for her girls. Oldest Victoria is suspiciously unmarried, and Bliss is a huge disappointment--newly divorced from her college sweetheart (a lowly Latino revolutionary, no less!), she and daughter Bella have moved back home while she finishes her doctorate. Charlotte is in high school, so Forsythia can only depend on Diana, who does not disappoint. Diana is chosen to appear on The Virgin, in which men will compete to capture both her heart and hymen. Soon the Harcourt house is filled with a film crew: Sue, an overbearing network executive and her androgynous lackey, Punch; macho Dario, the show's producer and director; and Wyatt, the handsome host. Diana and Forsythia are thrilled, Bliss and her father are mortified that Diana's chastity will be auctioned for ratings, and Charlotte is furious at being ignored. But this is mostly background chatter for the real plot, which is discovering who will please the lovelorn, prickly Bliss. Her academic advisor Jordan McIntosh is dashing and recently widowed, but misread signals would be humiliating. Wyatt is great looking and considerate, but Bliss can never get him alone. And then there's sexy Dario, whom Bella adores but Bliss can barely stomach. The show takes the whole family to Austria and England for the suitors to perform a series of ridiculous challenges, and minor dramas ensue, but the novel is mostly concerned with Bliss and her stubborn attempts to keep true love at bay. Satire specializes in ugly characters, and this novel is overfilled with them, which proves an ungainly fit in the lighter realm of romance.

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June 1, 2012

In a multicultural nod to Pride and Prejudice, this second novel from Essence contributing editor Fales-Hill (One Flight Up) features 33-year-old outspoken, mixed-race Bliss (short for Elizabeth), her three unmarried sisters, and their social-climbing Jamaican mother and inattentive English father. When Bliss's younger sister is selected to star in a new reality show, The Virgin, TV crews descend to film the sultry Diana with her family, neighbors, and wannabe suitors. Still smarting at living with her parents while she earns a Ph.D. after her recent divorce, Bliss tries to keep herself and her preschool daughter off camera, but the show's host, Wyatt Evers, and equally attractive producer, Dario Fuentes, frequently seek her out. VERDICT This is chick lit with an intellectual streak, like Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack's Literacy and Longing in L.A. or Trisha R. Thomas's Nappily series (Nappily Ever After). The humorous novel gets its down-and-out heroine from dissed to blissful in traditional romantic-comedy style while lightly poking fun at reality shows. For fans of chick lit, Jane Austen spinoffs, and African American pop fiction.--Laurie A. Cavanaugh, Wareham Free Lib., MA

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2012
Finally, a book that convincingly updates Pride and Prejudice for the twenty-first century. Bliss Harcourt is divorced and living at home with her four-year old daughter, Bella. Her beloved father, Harold, is an Englishman and a disinterested academic. Her mother, Forsythia, is a severely Anglophile Jamaican who laments the unmarried status of her four daughters. When Diana, still a virgin at 21, is courted for a reality dating show called, alarmingly, The Virgin, Forsythia goes full-on Mrs. Bennett. The handsome host, Wyatt, seems nice enough, even if the director, Dario, is too macho for his own good. The least successful part of the novel is the romance, which feels a little flat. The novel's strength is Bliss, a complicated, thoughtful womana feminist raising a princess-obsessed daughter, a woman 380 days into celibacy (and counting), and a very funny narrator. Issues of racial and economic prejudice and Forsythia's own self-loathing add depth to the Austenesque social commentary. Readers unfamiliar with P&P will still enjoy this deceptively light read, even if they miss the fun of seeing how Fales-Hill reworks the most famous scenes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)