{"id":101,"date":"2012-08-12T19:11:43","date_gmt":"2012-08-13T01:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.adrigomes.com\/literaryexchange\/?p=101"},"modified":"2012-11-20T09:31:06","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T15:31:06","slug":"imperfect-bliss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adrigomes.com\/literaryexchange\/2012\/08\/12\/imperfect-bliss\/","title":{"rendered":"Imperfect Bliss"},"content":{"rendered":"
Hardcover, 304 pages<\/div>\n
Published July 3rd 2012 by Atria Books<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Summary from Goodreads<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Reality TV\u2014<\/strong> <\/strong>Jane Austen Style<\/strong> <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Meet the Harcourts of Chevy Chase, Maryland. A respectable middle-class, middle age, mixed-race couple, Harold and Forsythia, has four eminently marriageable daughters\u2014or 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\u2019s younger sister Diana as its star. Though she fights it at first, Bliss can\u2019t 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.<\/em>
\n\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

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 \u201cThe Virgin\u201d. Appearances though, can be deceiving. Emulating Pride and Prejudice, Susan Fale-Hill plays with her characters creating a plethora of misleading signs.<\/p>\n

Except for Victoria, Bliss\u2019 family is quite unnerving, just like the \u201cBennets\u201d. Forsythia, a royalist glamor seeker, don\u2019t 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\u2019s deviated ideas, a certifiable gold-digger-attention-seeker.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hardcover, 304 pages Published July 3rd 2012 by Atria Books Summary from Goodreads Reality TV\u2014 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\u2014or so their mother believes. Forsythia named her girls after Windsor royals in the hopes that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,12],"tags":[52,30,29],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction-2","category-romancenovels","tag-imperfect-bliss","tag-jane-austen","tag-susan-fales-hill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adrigomes.com\/literaryexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adrigomes.com\/literaryexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adrigomes.com\/literaryexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adrigomes.com\/literaryexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adrigomes.com\/literaryexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.adrigomes.com\/literaryexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195,"href":"https:\/\/www.adrigomes.com\/literaryexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions\/195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adrigomes.com\/literaryexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adrigomes.com\/literaryexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adrigomes.com\/literaryexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}