Imperfect Bliss by Susan Fales-Hill

Summary from GoodReads:

Meet the Harcourts of Chevy Chase, Maryland. A respectable middle class, middle-aged, mixed-race couple, Harold and Forsythia have 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 Ph.D. All that changes when aBachelorette-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.

My Review:

It’s been a few days since I finished Imperfect Bliss by Susan Fales-Hill. Reflecting back on the read, I have just one question to ask myself – why did I keep reading?

Now, I do want to say that Imperfect Bliss is not necessarily.. well it’s.. okay, it was kind of like a bit of a train-wreck, and the amusement outweighed the annoyance and that’s the only reason I was able to keep going. The premise behind Imperfect Bliss was that it was a modern-day Pride and Prejudice meets The Bachelorette; however, I hate re-tellings of Jane Austen’s works and I really can’t stand The Bachelorette so I’m not sure what I was doing picking this book up.

Instead of something like a woman stringing a bunch of men along with the idea to marry one – oh wait, that’s exactly what was going on in this book! The show that Bliss’s younger sister stars in is called “The Virgin,” and you can guess what exactly that means. I’m not sure if Bliss was intended to be Elizabeth or Jane – because Bliss’s sister, Victoria, had me majorly confused – which worked well because she was pretty darn confused as well.

I think, had the book been a bit less of a train-wreck, and less modeled on Jane Austen’s classic, that Imperfect Bliss could have been a great tool to put some messages out there. Susan Fales-Hill tackles sexuality, single motherhood, the unrealistic ideas behind reality shows and more – but she does it in such a way that it feels as if there is a flurry of activity happening and not all of it is believable.

Still, I have to admit I was amused, or I would not have finished the book. It was a light, fluffy afternoon read that had me laughing out loud more than once.

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