Reviews

The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun

Only show reviews with written explanations

kle105's review against another edition

5.0

Dev grew up watching and believing in the happily ever afters of the show Ever After. Now working as a handler for the show, he gets to see it played out every day.

Usually he works with the contestants, but with the quirks of the new bachelor he is reassigned. Trying to figure out how to keep the bachelor from being awkward on camera is a struggle.

Charlie is just trying to revamp his image so he can get back to working in tech, after being fired for being “a liability”. What Charlie hasn’t really told anyone is that he suffers from OCD, generalized anxiety and a panic disorder.

The more Dev spends with Charlie the more he sees him, working with him to make him comfortable, and not trying to change him.

It seems the more time they spend together the more Charlie questions why he connects more with Dev than anyone he’s ever dated, including the women on the show.

I loved how Charlie’s mental health was a big part of the show as well as Dev’s struggle with depression. There was also a wide range of LGBTQIA+ representation. Seeing their relationship grow, how they supported each other, and also Charlie’s struggle to understand and define his sexuality.

Such a beautiful, heartfelt story with a Bachelor reality show setting.

I received a copy for review from the publisher via Netgalley all opinions are my own and given freely.

rlaortiz's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

This is the most beautiful romance that I have ever read. Alison Cochran breathes life into these characters and treats them with the love and respect they deserve. I went into this book expecting a cheesy romance novel and came out with tears in my eyes. This book is gorgeous and I highly recommend it to anyone who like young adult literature.

renegades's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.75

The Charm Offensive was a mindless, completely surface level book with some of the most 2D characters I’ve ever read. I understand contemporary romance is not the pinnacle of literature, but at least some books try to add character and relationship depth that is believable. Not in this book, but in others. Much like reality TV, the Charm Offensive is probably only good if you are willing to turn off any critical thinking or expectation of genuine substance and willing, instead, to lean into pure, inane, nonsensical machinations that purport to be romance. Most of this book is one thing happening after another in an attempt to show two characters falling in love, with no real depth to speak of other than multiple conversations about sexuality and heteronormativity and the patriarchy that seriously sounded like the characters were regurgitating social justice Tumblr posts or paraphrasing lessons learned from therapy. I am begging authors to stop writing dialogue exploring these issues like they are personally trying to virtue signal through a Tumblr post crossing the DSMV and the Kinsey Scale to teach beginners about Sexuality 101. It’s miserable writing and deeply cringe to read.

That being said, most of my reading experience, this was a strange book in that as I was reading it, I fully acknowledged this was Not a Good Book, but every time I put it down I kind of wanted to be reading it again. This happened until the last third to quarter of the book when Dev started to piss me off.

Let’s talk about him, though! Dev feels like some generic self insert whose only personality trait is “loving too much to be loved in return” and “depression”. At least until the last quarter, when he turns into a frankly intolerable selfish asshole who uses his mental health as an excuse for repeatedly being a coward and distrusting the affection from everyone in his life when, according to the story itself, nothing in his childhood damaged him into such an eggshell-thin ego. Like, my god, At least Charlie had a reason for his insecurity, Dev’s entire character arc was incomprehensible, especially when his ex was revealed to not actually be that much of a dick. So he’s just like that bc he has a “too big heart” and loves fairy tales so much he can’t think of one for himself? Grow up! That’s what I kept chanting the last quarter of this book, just—grow up!

Further, there was nothing real in the stakes here that genuinely kept them from being together—at least not in the long run—so the constant internal monologuing about how they could never be felt disingenuous at best and just complete nonsense at worst. Why do they live in a world where reality tv exists, but PR relationships and beards don’t? Why can’t they just pretend for six months? People don’t care enough about the lives of Bachelor stars to follow the minute details of their lives outside of what’s posted on social media and interview with People Magazine, I mean come on. Find a real problem to solve.

Overall, this is a book with a premise that had me wanting for it to be so good so badly that I kept coming back to it. I don’t count out the importance of a book that draws you back in, no matter how frustrating otherwise. Would have been 3 stars but for how much the last 50 pages pissed me off.

Also I read a review where someone said Dev’s Indian heritage was so negligible that he could have been replaced with a white guy named “Devon” and not one single aspect of this story would have changed and I can’t stop thinking about that lmao

bonafidefaygo's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Dev is a story producer for Ever After (The Bachelor) and he's attempting to get tech millionaire Charlie to fall in love on the show to revitalize his public image. But Charlie and Dev both realize he isn't falling in love with the women, he's falling in love with Dev.

This made me smile, and that's really all I can ask of a romance novel. I liked the characters, I thought the chemistry between Dev and Charlie was realistic. Cute when it was cute, sad when it was sad, and hot when it was hot. The whole reality TV setting really worked and allowed for meta commentary on these shows IRL and how they commoditize people's love lives and perpetrate (possibly) harmful norms of romance and love.

Where this book loses me a bit isn't even necessarily the fault of the book, but more of the romance genre. I really don't need a third act conflict that separates the characters. While I understand there's purpose for character development, I just find them so predictable and tedious and we all know the outcome anyway so why include it. However, it's not egregiously bad in this book.

But I also find issue with the need for such harping on mental health issues of the characters and how they feel that they cannot be loved because of it. Like I get the importance of mental health storylines and representation of it, but I don't need both of our main characters feeling unworthy of love because one has depression and the other has OCD. And maybe it's because this book was clearly written with the hopes of a larger than just queer audience, but I don't know that I need a step by step guide to queer identity.

Again these things weren't like super turn offs or even done poorly, they just irk me a bit.

But for a debut this was really good and really all that I can want in a romance. I would read another queer romance from this author again.