[amazon_link id=”1451623828″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Title : Imperfect Bliss
Author : Susan Fales-Hill
Genre : Chick Lit
Pages : 304
Publisher : Atria Books
Source : Netgalley/Publisher ARC
Rating : 2.5/5

Imperfect Bliss is supposed to be based upon Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and the reality television show The Bachelorette. So we have Mr. & Mrs. Harcourt aka Mr & Mrs. Bennett, and their four daughters Diana, Victoria, Charlotte and Bliss. Their pretentious mother Forsythia has one goal for all her daughters – that of marriage. While Diana and Charlotte have learnt well from their mother, Victoria and Bliss think like their patient, long-suffering professor father. Bliss, or Elizabeth is the heroine. She is newly divorced from politician husband Manuel Soto, has a four year old daughter Bella, and has moved in with her parents to pursue a Phd in history.

Bliss is vocal in her displeasure when Diana becomes the star of a reality television show “The Virgin“ while Victoria and Harold Harcourt are indifferent. As shooting for the tawdry show begins, much is made of the family and the family home, and Bliss and Bella are drawn in willy-nilly. Bliss becomes almost friends with Wyatt Evers, the show anchor and Dario Fuentes, the producer, although she doesn’t quite trust the two. Her ex-husband has announced that he is marrying his girlfriend and Bliss must break the news to Bella. So this is a very rocky personal, financial and emotional time for Bliss, one which she might not recover from.

I’m a Jane Austen fan and Pride and Prejudice is one my of all time favorites. However the resemblance to Pride and Prejudice seemed superficial; while the Harcourts are in number and gender similar to the Bennett family, and Forsythia with all her prim-and-properness , might be a direct descendant of Mrs. Bennett, Bliss was not what I’d expected out of a Lizzie-like heroine. For all her talk on feminism, women’s issues and empowerment, Bliss seemed way too focused on counting the days of her celibacy, and having wet dreams about her ex-husband . She seemed confused about her romantic decisions and could not break her attachment to her ex, although he seems a cad.

Because the story hinges on a reality television show I expected some description of what passes for television these days, but the book went into it further than that. The shooting of “The Virgin” takes centre stage with Bliss either a spectator, nodding in disbelief at the lengths her mother and sister will stoop too or joining them as they visit foreign countries. The story-line then got repetitious with one shoot following the other. On the plus side, I did like the cover – thought it very well-done. Also, it is interesting that the author brings in issues of race; Forsythia is from Jamaica and married to a Caucasian British professor. Thus the daughters are mulatto. Bliss’s research topic is about the treatment of slave children, specificall y those that Thomas Jefferson has with his slave vs. those of a French planter’s.

The writing goes into great detail with descriptions, which is nice, but is also rife with pop-culture references, and could have used some editing. I had expected a fun-filled romp of a book, with the premise, but given that I couldn’t root for Bliss herself, this book didn’t quite work for me. This is a standard romantic storyline where the heroine must find a mate; here she also has three suitors to choose from – each more handsome than the next. It is pure chick-lit, where the heroine’s ideal man is not only sensitive and caring but has the physique of a body-builder, so this might fit the bill if a quick, easy beach read is what you are looking for.