The Force Of Such Beauty: A Novel

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After a failed attempt at escape, the princess of a tiny kingdom begins to reevaluate her life. "Domestic drama, sparkling fairy tale, cautionary fable, and suspenseful mystery all laced into one." -Booklist, STARRED REVIEW "Like if My Year of Rest and Relaxation was about Grace Kelly." -Molly Odintz, CrimeReads Caroline, a former marathon runner who dropped out of school at fourteen to pursue an Olympic medal, was the perfect candidate for a tiara- shapely, disciplined, accustomed to public attention, and utterly uneducated. After she meets Finn, the handsome prince of a small European kingdom, her fate is sealed. With a collar of pearls locked around her throat and a rope of diamonds leashing her to a balcony, Caroline uses her once-powerful body to smile, wave, and produce children with perfect grace. But once she begins to open her eyes to the world around her-and examine her own reflection-Caroline discovers that she may have entered a bargain that cannot be undone. Barbara Bourland's stunning third novel is her most ambitious and most imaginative book to date. Inspired by accounts of real-life princesses who yearned to escape, and set in a grotesque and gaudy prerecession 2000s Europe, The Force of Such Beauty is a heart-wrenching and compulsively readable testament to the way in which real-life power structures around the world ultimately rest on the subjugation of women's bodies.

Reviews

Its about time someone took the princess story thats normalized to girls and autopsy it with absolute precision. The Force of Such Beauty opens on the night of Caroline's second attempt at escaping Lucomo, the small European country in which she became a princess. But author Barbara Bourland quickly jumps back in time to reveal every excruciating and exhilarating detail that led to this moment....The Force of Such Beauty grips with the strength of an Olympian and holds it with the endurance of a marathoner. Bourlands passionate storytelling transmogrifies into an insatiable urge to keep reading Carolines story even after its end an ending that actually caught my breath, not once, but twice in quick succession.Associated Press

This is not your grandmas fairy tale Influenced by the struggles of real-life princesses, Bourlands brilliant satire skewers the theatrics of power, excessive materialism and economic corruption."Washington Post

Sharp, witty, and intellectually intense, Bourlands prose is a force to be reckoned with. The Chicago Review of Books

"Falling in love with a prince is not a fairy tale, as the protagonist of this engrossing novel discovers. Caroline is a former Olympian-turned-princess of a small European country. Her role becomes more like a trap; her husband, more like a captor. Bourland said she was inspired by real-life royals when writing this novel set in pre-recession Europe."Today.com

With trademark style and sophistication Bourland (I'll Eat When I'm Dead, 2017; Fake Like Me, 2019) plays with the tropes of the princess tales, true and not, that we know as well as our own names as she giftedly conjures Caroline's glittering, threatening worlds. Despite danger everywhere, Caroline is the captivating narrator of her own story: a domestic drama, sparkling fairy tale, cautionary tale, and suspenseful mystery all laced into one. Booklist (STARRED REVIEW)

"Rich in emotion and luscious descriptions, The Force of Such Beauty is a careful dismantling of royalty that leaves readers wondering if any fairy tale is worth our desire. BookPage

"An immersive depiction of the glittering surface and rotten core of royal living, painted in sumptuous and chilling detail."Kirkus

"Bourland offers a smart critique of a corrupt worlds disenchanting effects on a naive young woman. The result is satisfyingly dark and twisted." Publishers Weekly

"This is a fascinating novel about bodies, the way we use them, and the way we break them. Its one of several works to come out this year concerned with the appropriation of female beauty by powerful men, and examines a harsh choice in the lives of women dubbed desirable by the patriarchal state: do you participate, or do you say no...Barbara Bourland is skilled at finding the noir in the everyday, and illustrating the mechanisms of control that keep us in our place." Molly Odintz, Senior Editor for CrimeReads

"In THE FORCE OF SUCH BEAUTY, Barbara Bourland fractures the familiar tale of 'happily ever after' and reimagines it with spectacular style, vision, and substance. Her novel thoughtfully interrogates the trappings of marriage, status, womanhood, and power, while reading as vividly and compulsively as a thriller." Jung Yun, author of Shelter and O Beautiful

"The Force of Such Beauty is a dazzling spiderweb, a richly imagined, chilling spin on the girl-meets-prince fairy tale that scrambles notions of power and femininity. With a sense of spellbound dread, were seduced along with its complicated heroine into a magnetic world of startling beauty and tragic costs."Lauren Acampora, author of The Paper Wasp

A fierce spin on the fantasy of marriage that is pacey, propulsive and fun. Its dazzling, detailed and ultimately revolting catalogue of excess and materialism creates a compelling atmosphere of claustrophobia. I love how the fairy-tale setting cleverly draws one's thoughts from the personal implications of a marriage to the wider world of commerce, status and power.Ros Anderson, author of The Hierarchies

A wayward girl is made a princess, and then Luxury turns to boredom, fascination to fear, fame to thralldom, and love to betrayal. Threads of beauty and dread follow our heroine's descent into the gilded lunacy of a royal kingdom that requires a princess to be glamorous, grateful, and quiet. But Caro is no passive princess in a tower; she is smart, incisive, and achingly real. I couldn't put this book down until its explosive, heartrending, thoroughly satisfying ending.Jennie Melamed, author of Gather the Daughters

Barbara Bourlands The Force of Such Beauty is like if My Year of Rest and Relaxation was about Grace Kelly.Molly Odintz, Senior Editor for CrimeReads

Barbara Bourlands riveting new novel, The Force of Such Beauty, opens with the breathless escape attempt of a modern-day princess named Caroline as she endeavors to leave her marble prison once and for all. In the pages that follow, Bourland traces the path that plunged Caroline into such visceral desperation, revealing how swiftly happily ever after can morph into a cage. What unfurls is a darkly relevant depiction of the ways in which societal power structures hinge upon the subjugation of the female body. Carolines story submerges the reader in the depths of contemporary royal womanhood and only allows you to surface in those final pages as the tension builds relentlessly to a shocking conclusion. The Millions

"'Happy ever after' is not all that it's cracked up to be. Barbara Bourland dismantles the conventional princess story in The Force of Such Beauty to explosively examine the real-life notions of fame, power, and womanhood."Veranda

"Caroline is a former marathon runner who meets Finn, price of a small European kingdom. Her fate is quickly sealed: The perfect couple marries, and Caroline learns to smile and wave, wear tiaras with ease, and produce children. But as time passes, she starts to question the life she just signed up for." NY Post

"...a smart, absorbing novel, with a heroine, Caroline, whos nave but strong-willed. A former Olympic-level marathon runner from South Africa, shes seduced by her lavish life until the fantasy fractures and becomes a nightmare." AARP

"The Force of Such Beauty by Barbara Bourland has a little something for everyone. Part detective story, part thriller, part fairytale - youre sure to find an aspect that will draw you in. Then, Barbaras page-turning pacing of compelling women's stories will keep you reading until the very end." The Hasty Book List

Barbara Bourlands The Force of Such Beauty knocked me out.this one is so imaginative and beautiful and had me gasping at the end. Leslie Zemeckis, Montecito Journal

"IlovedBourlands previous art thriller novel, the Edgar Award nominatedFake Like Me, and am utterly thrilled for her strange and wonderful-sounding new book." Angela Lashbrook, Medium

"InThe Force of Such Beauty...writerBarbara Bourlandcritiques the happily ever after in the form of a modern fairy tale: a former Olympian is swept off her feet by a young, European royal and becomes a princess, literally. Though things are not as charming as they seem for the main character, and she soon ends up a "prisoner princess." Salon

"With how fascinated so many people still are with royals in our contemporary times, The Force of Such Beauty is going to be a must-read for plenty of book clubs. BookRiot

"Becoming royalty isnt all its cracked up to be. Inspired by tales of real-life women who married into royal families, only to find their lives strictly controlled, Barbara Bourlands novel follows a former Olympian whose career ends with a single, devastating accident. She meets and falls in love with a charming prince, but she soon discovers the cracks beneath the surface in his tiny, hyper-controlled, glamorous-on-the-surface principality." LifeSavvy

Praise for Barbara Bourland's novels:

Fake Like Me

One of Cosmopolitan's "Books You Need in Your Life This Summer"

Bourland has an astonishing ability to write viscerally about art, culture, class, and landscape, for a work thats bound to be one of the summers biggest crime/literary crossovers.LitHub

Layered, complicated, big, bold, and disturbing, like the large-scale oil paintings that are the unnamed protagonists medium, Bourland has written a one-of-a-kind, modern-day knstlerroman that deserves a place among the genres all-time best.The Millions

"Barbara Bourlands art-world thriller is both elegant and visceral... While not strictly noir, Fake Like Me is imbued with the intensity of artistic struggle in a manner that resonates with the high stakes and sharp precipices of classic crime writing."Crime Reads

In an art world where were all supposed to be cool and ironic and cynical, it feels good to love a book so fiercely and personally, the way our na

Author Bio

Barbara Bourland is the critically acclaimed author of I'LL EAT WHEN I'M DEAD, a Refinery29 Best Book of 2017, a People Magazine Pick, and an Irish Independent 2017 Book of the Year; and FAKE LIKE ME, which received four starred reviews and was a HelloGiggles Best Book, a CrimeReads Best Crime Books of the Year, a Toronto Star Hot Summer Thriller Pick, a Refinery29 Best Book, a Cosmopolitan Must-Have, a Fortune Summer 2019 Travel Pick, and a 2020 Edgar Nominee for Best Novel. A former freelance writer and web producer at Conde Nast and Hearst, Bourland lives in Baltimore, MD.