Reviews with content warning for Biphobia - The Charm Offensive

I was originally going to give this 3.5 stars because at times the book felt too forced/on the nose. The second half was too drawn out and got a bit repetitive. The timeline and perspective were sometimes hard to folllow. And I wasn't crazy about how the final conflict was resolved. However, I really appreciated the mental health representation so I'm bumping it up to 4 stars.

As someone who has chronic depression and OCD (and likely an undiagnosed anxiety disorder), it was so nice to see the topics handled respectfully. Obviously I can't speak for an entire community because there are different types of depression/OCD/anxiety and people have different experiences, but generally speaking I thought it was accurate. I cried multiple times while reading this because I felt so seen, especially in regards to depression.

My favorite part of the book was how the author explored neurodivergency and love. My disorders have definitely made me feel unworthy of love, just like the main characters--and that includes platonic and familial love, not just romantic. It's so important for neurodivergent people to experience stories where the characters are loved not despite their disorders but are loved and accepted for who they are as a whole. 💜

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bootsmom3's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

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

5.0

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elisabeth_e's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring 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

4.5

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bookobsessedmommy's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Emotionally raw and steamy and beautiful. I absolutely loved it.

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thesawyerbean's review against another edition

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emotional 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

5.0

This was such a beautiful book. It is a story about finding yourself, friendship, love and realising yourself worthy of a happily ever after.
The writing was tender, but at the same time vivid, intense, gorgeous. The way they described each other was stunning, truly some of the best I’ve seen to properly portray love:

“In this moment, in this light, his eyes remind Charlie of the dark wood Mendini violin he played in his high school orchestra, almost black around the strings, a well-loved umber brown on the edges of the lower bout. He loved that secondhand violin.”

An aspect I adored about this book was the amount of valuable representation in its characters and themes. Queer identities, a range of ethnicities, mental health discourse - all lovingly and sensitively included in a way that was uplifting and celebratory. The discussions on what it means to be queer were so affecting for me:

“Labels can be nice sometimes. They can give us a language to understand ourselves and our hearts better. And they can help us find a community and develop a sense of belonging.”

The mental health discourse and the imperative emphasis on looking after your needs was such an important one to depict. Charlie learns to deal with and accept his OCD and anxiety diagnoses. Dev suffers with depression, and Cochrun does a fantastic job of describing the emotions and the despair in a poignant way.

“Burning that bright and that fiercely must be exhausting; no one can sustain it forever. Charlie wishes he could tell Dev it’s okay to flicker out sometimes. It’s okay to tend to his own flame, to keep himself warm.”

I thoroughly enjoyed this. It felt so cozy and loving; the characters were extremely endearing, the story was high stakes, tense, thrilling and fundamentally delightful. I will leave you with a fabulous quote that makes me feel warm inside:

“He didn’t know it was possible to love Dev more, for love to become a bottomless well inside of him he could spend his whole life filling. Coming together with Dev in this new way makes the well inside of him pour over. It feels like an unzipping of his skin, as if he’s stepping outside this costume version of himself to become his actual self—that he’s discovering something true buried so deep he thought he would never reach that person, but there he is, and Dev is with him, holding his hand, guiding him through.”

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frantic_vampire's review against another edition

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emotional 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

5.0

Wow…. Just, wow. Holy crap did I love this book. I loved Dev and Charlie. I loved the blatant aspec rep, the queer rep, and the mental health rep. All of it was so good! Not to mention all the commentary on reality dating shows. I honestly don’t know what else to say about The Charm Offensive other than I really, really loved it. I want to dive back into it and start a reread. If it’s not already clear, this book is getting a solid five stars. And I’m just gonna go scream over this one in a corner.

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