Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun

418 reviews

wardenred's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.0

“There is nothing wrong with believing in happy endings.”
“Isn’t there, though, when statistically, you know half of those endings are actually divorce?” Jules sucks on a lime. “Shouldn’t orchestrating love stories for our crappy show spoil the magic for you a bit?”
“No! Never!”

I expected something fairly lighthearted from this book, but I ended up spending most of it feeling upset and worried for the characters. I'm not saying this as a bad thing; if anything, it means that I cared for these fictional people. Just a case of misplaced expectations, I guess? I should really stop trusting the packaging and pay more attention to reviews. Especially, apparently, when it comes to romcoms. I swear some of the most nerve-wrecking books I've read were marketed as romcoms.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the mental health representation here. Both Charlie's anxiety and Dev's depression were described in a way that I found really relatable, as well as their respective journeys to getting better. There was so much attention put into how certain things appear on the outside and how they actually feel when your brain is actively working against you. Despite being intimately familiar with depression, I was kind of tricked with Dev when it came to the portrayal of this dichotomy. I was genuinely growing frustrated with him for a big chunk of the book for his dedication to orchestrating the reality show love stories. How could he be directly involved in all the staging and framing and nudging people toward specific actions and outcomes, and still believe in those happily ever afters? And then it was revealed just how depressed he was, and it all clicked. Like, oh. Of course. He's not so much ignoring what's right in front of him, he's avoiding what's *inside* of him, until it becomes too personal to go on. To make it clear, I liked this effect a lot.

All the inner workings of the dating show were fun to read about, too, in that somewhat darkly entertaining way. There was exactly as much cynicism and manipulation as I expected, but there were also some sweet moments amidst it all between the core group, as well as some witty dialogue that made me smirk.

I'm not sure I bought Charlie and Dev as a couple by the end of the book, though. They're both wonderful characters, but I feel like Charlie put it best right before the ending:
perhaps they were meant to enter each other's lives for a while, and that didn't make what they shared any less real or important.
Or maybe, upon further thinking, I would prefer it if they ended this specific part of their story separately, yet got a sequel where they could reestablish their connection a few years later, after figuring themselves out more, getting more therapy, and without any cameras watching them or crews looking to splice their narrative in a way that would be palatable to all the people watching at home. I honestly didn't like
that whole part where Ever After was this big part of them getting together in the end. On one hand, yay for the show changing to the better, I guess. On the other hand, It felt like the narrative was hastily shoehorned into the romcom mold.


In many ways, this story reminded me of Alexis Hall's Winner Bakes All books that are also marketed as romcoms and are very much not. Great books, all of them! Just. Misleading packaging.

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ktame001's review

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emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


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athenian_frog's review

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective 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

4.25

I really enjoyed the discussions of sexuality and the ace spectrum, I think it’s good to touch on the fact that you don’t have to instantly know what to label yourself, or to even label yourself at all. Some of the discussions of love and feeling like you don’t deserve love really hit me in the gut.

Also another thing this book did that I don’t see very much: Dev seems very considerate of Charlie’s physical boundaries, and he asks permission a lot when it comes to contact. He also makes an effort to clean his hands/be extra sanitary around Charlie bc he’s aware it sth that bothers him. The affectionate little touches and the sleeping in the same bed without it necessarily being sexual, just intimate…I ADORED this aspect of their relationship.

The dates were also very personalized to each character, and focused on them opening up, which I thought was really cool. That sounds like a “duh” kind of thing to have in a romance but I can’t recall the last time I kicked my feet up for a single date like that…

Another plus: Diverse cast in general, but also the women who were in the show were pretty solid. I really liked watching their dynamic and I wish I saw more of them TBH.

I think the main things that bugged me were:

- the amount of vomiting/mentions of vomiting that happened (it gets better in the latter half but the start feels p noticeable).

- Maureen felt a little flat and kind of like an obvious evil figure 😭 wanted a little more depth to her.

- I wanted some more out of Dev and Charlie’s families, they felt pretty glued to the background of everything.

NOTE: if you’re looking for something steamy and explicit, this doesn’t have a lot in that department. There’s plenty of kissing and making out but the sex is fairly vague. I didn’t really care kissing and cuddling is my shit but just as a heads up!!

Even with these issues in mind I still had a blast reading this. Kudos to Ms. Cocheron!

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mattyb's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25


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nova123's review

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  • 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

4.25

this was so corny but so enjoyable lmao

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melissaroos's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful 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

4.25


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veggiestrawenjoyer13's review

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emotional funny inspiring reflective 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

Romcom/contemporary books aren’t my usual reads- but this one was so good. It took me a while to get into the groove of it, but once I did, it was such a good book. I was soo hooked and it was hard to put the book down. My only genuine complaint is some of the dialogue and language. Some of the wording sounds very social media and tiktokified, which made me cringe a little. However, it gets way less frequent after the beginning. And, the book is so good regardless. The mental health representation felt realistic and I personally could relate to the character’s inner monologue. The romance is seamless and doesn’t feel forced. The characters feel like real, 3-dimensional  people. As I read, the book kept getting better and better. I would definitely read this again and definitely definitely recommend it. 

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junzoin's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny informative lighthearted reflective 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? No

5.0


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micaelacccc's review

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emotional funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0


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pitsikakku's review

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing 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

3.0


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