The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun

RomanceContemporary

Feb 24

Written By taylor shepeard

Title: The Charm Offensive

Author: Alison Cochrun

Publication Date: September 7, 2021

Audience: Adult

Genre: Romance

Sub-Genre: Contemporary

POV: Dual

Series: Standalone

Format: Audiobook

—Narrator(s): Vikas Adam, Cassandra Campbell, Graham Halstead

3.75 ⭐ | 2🌶️

Pros:
✨Authentic Romance
✨Queer Representation
✨Character Development and Relationships
✨Easy Read

Cons:
✨Spotty Pacing
✨Abrupt Reunion

Synopsis

Dev Deshpande has always believed in fairy tales. So it’s no wonder then that he’s spent his career crafting them on the long-running reality dating show Ever After. …

… As the most successful producer in the franchise’s history, Dev always scripts the perfect love story for his contestants, even as his own love life crashes and burns. But then the show casts disgraced tech wunderkind Charlie Winshaw as its star.
Charlie is far from the romantic Prince Charming Ever After expects. He doesn’t believe in true love, and only agreed to the show as a last-ditch effort to rehabilitate his image. In front of the cameras, he’s a stiff, anxious mess with no idea how to date twenty women on national television. Behind the scenes, he’s cold, awkward, and emotionally closed-off.
As Dev fights to get Charlie to connect with the contestants on a whirlwind, worldwide tour, they begin to open up to each other, and Charlie realizes he has better chemistry with Dev than with any of his female co-stars. But even reality TV has a script, and in order to find to happily ever after, they’ll have to reconsider whose love story gets told.

*Blurb taken from The StoryGraph

Review

This review may contain spoilers.

This Bachelor inspired novel follows both behind-the-scenes handler and hopeless romantic, Dev, as well as the show's upcoming gorgeous, awkward, OCD Prince Charming, Charlie. This read was fast, fun, and cute, with two MMCs that were as loveable to readers as they were towards one another.

Though the Bachelor setting of the Ever After television show was fun, and the sub-commentary regarding mental illness, systemic oppression in media via suppressed representations, and more were fond additions to the novel, it’s the way Charlie and Dev complimented one another that upped the star rating for me. They were completely accepting of each other and went out of their way to be inclusive of the character flaws of their respective partner. Dev gave Charlie a calm environment to ride out his compulsions and panic attacks, while Charlie gave Dev gentle nudges and full support through his depressive episodes. They found solace within one another, and despite this novel being quite average and subpar overall, I found myself absolutely beaming during parts of the story.

The third-act break-up here felt organic to the story, not like a plot device for framework, though the reunion of the characters was rushed and came together a little too easy. Still, I enjoyed my time spent with this one!