An absolutely adorable reality TV-style rom-com with big Red, White and Royal Blue vibes (banter + clueless men falling in love and not realizing the other one loves them back). When the newest contents on a Bachelor-style reality TV show turns out to be an awkward introvert who only agreed to be on the show to help restore his public image, romantic-at-heart producer Dev has to coach him into the perfect prince for Ever After. Of course, he wasn't planning on falling in love in the process. And Charlie, who's never really had feelings for everyone, certainly never expected for fall for Dev-- especially when he has a whole room full of women he's supposed to be falling love with on TV. Represents and addresses a whole host of mental illnesses including OCD, anxiety disorders, and depression and does it well. Not to mention lots of great LGBTQ representation. Only small negative is Dev is described as Indian but that rep feels very surface level. Overall so so good, though. Highly recommend this one! It's just a delight.

This book was amazing and full of such precious characters! I loved the range of representation and how you got to know everyone, not just the two main characters. I really enjoyed all the serious discussions about mental health and sexuality, it was a very informative book as well as entertaining. But mostly I loved the story and the angst and the perfect romance between these two! I would read this again immediately, and have already reread some favorite parts!

Do you ever just need to sit down with a book that is refreshing and charming? I know it is a tad on the nose with CHARM being in the title - but wow it is aptly named! The Charm Offensive is an awesome read that really brings you all the warm fuzzy feelings when you read it and a great addition to the RomCom genre. Even if you are not a dedicated watcher of The Bachelor franchise this is worthy of picking it up.

Highly recommend this book! This was my first book to read by this author and I can't wait to read more! The characters and the story stay with you long after you finish the book. One of the best books I have read in a long time.

This was one of my favorite books of 2021. Dev and Charlie are both such likable, well-rounded characters and their chemistry was fantastic. I don't personally watch the Bachelor/Bacheolorette but I still found myself thoroughly entertained by the dating show premise. While this book contains a delightful romance, it also deals with heavier subjects, particularly mental health (anxiety, OCD, depression). I thought these topics were handled well and gave us more insight into the characters. Overall, I fell in love with this story and the characters. It was sweet, funny, and very charming.

What a mindblowingly good romance! I'm not a huge reality TV fan and I wasn't hooked by the premise, but when I saw the blurbs, I knew I had to give THE CHARM OFFENSIVE a try, and I am so glad I did! The protagonists are exceptionally drawn: realistic, flawed, relatable, and often hilarious, and the romance is perfectly swoony, but I think my favorite part of all was how well Alison Cochrun dismantled, upended, and positively destroyed all the stereotypes brewing around romance, reality TV, and life. So often good romance comes with a heavy (but, hopefully, unintentional!) dash of ableism or racism, but THE CHARM OFFENSIVE not only didn't do that (hooray!) but did the complete opposite by celebrating different cultures, modes of communication, and, most importantly, self-care and advocating for one's self in both life and work. An absolutely gorgeous and forward-thinking novel with a dreamy romance at its heart.

When I picked The Charm Offensive by @alisoncochrun to be our #steamandscreambookclub September #TeamSteam selection, I assumed I was going to get a charming & cute romance that would make me hashtag swoon & thankfully, it didn’t disappoint. But it also gave me so much more than I could have ever dreamed of from a same-sex love story.

This book is hands-down a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read for me. It was a slam-dunk, no-brainer & checked every romance box I needed & so many I didn’t know I have been searching for. Alison expertly touched on profound issues that impact us all…self worth, anxiety & metal health issues, sexuality & sexual preference, consent, the confusion of falling in love…all wrapped up in the glitz & glamorized ideation of finding love on a reality TV show.

Oh Nev, you sloppy but beautiful boy. Your heart is so big & pure…I want to protect it all costs!

From the supporting cast & the focus on emotional intimacy to the behind-the-scenes view of a reality behemoth like The Bachelor franchise, everything about this debut novel was pure & emotional, tender & stressful…it was everything I hoped it would be & more.

After reading a book like this, I often find myself incredibly emotional. Yes, the book was touching…but as I closed the final page, I know in my heart how important a book like this is to the LGBTQIA+ community. How impactful it will be on the next generation of Queer youth hoping to see themselves in our beloved main characters.

Alison…saying thank you doesn’t seem big enough for what you’ve created. But I am so thankful this beautiful story exists.

Reading this has made me come to the realization that novels set on fictional reality TV dating shows may just be a premise that I will automatically love. I was completely hooked on The Charm Offensive from the start and practically swooned from the moment Charlie and Dev met.

You’ve got Charlie Winshaw, the awkward tech wunderkind who doesn’t believe in love and only agrees to go on the show to rehabilitate his image, and hopefully get a new job, and Dev Deshpande, a successful producer who believes in fairy tales and always manages to craft the perfect Ever After for his contestants, even as his love life is falling apart. As Dev works with Charlie on the whirlwind tour and through various dating scenarios, they both begin to realize that they have more chemistry with each other than anyone else. Things go incredibly off-script and Charlie and Dev are left questioning if the fairytale ending will be the one that they want.

So sweet and realistic and mindful of mental health. I'll be recommending this queer rom-com a lot! It's great for fans of The Bachelor and Bachelorette & fake dating tropes. Imagine we could tear down the "in front of the camera" personas/facades/put on dramas and we could look behind the curtain and see the mental health and real-life feelings and conversations of those who would be in a dating show situation like this. It's so beautifully written and narrated. I could not pause it! The chemistry is on point and besides the excellent representation and mental health discussion, I also loved the discussions around long-lasting relationships. Lots of fab lines throughout that are hard-hitting (in a good way) or "aha" moments. I will for sure be following the author Alison Cochrun and keeping track of future books she authors.

Thank you to the publisher for a free e-arc via NetGalley. It was my choice to read and I'm leaving this review voluntarily. I ended up reading after release as an audiobook through my library app.

Representation: white questioning demisexual gay male MC with OCD and anxiety, Desi gay male MC with depression, asexual rep, non-binary rep, biromantic rep, sex-repulsed asexual rep, pansexual hijabi female side character, side WLW couple, nonbinary side character, queer Chinese female side character

TW: Alcohol consumption, homophobia/homomisia, mental illness (OCD, anxiety, depression), panic attacks, vomit. Moderate: blood, grief, racism, violence, past mentions of child abuse. Minor: Acephobia/Acemisia.

This book was so much more than a romance story, it's a wonderful novel that I think everyone needs to read. I'm a sucker for bachelor-style stories (One to Watch, If The Shoe Fits) because I like the idea that settings like that work, but more than that because I like seeing stereotypes and decades-old expectations shattered by diversity and representation.⁠
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Charlie and Dev's story is different from others I've read because not only do they share a different dynamic in the reality tv show, but because they're also in different steps of their sexual awareness journey. Throughout the novel, you live through Charlie's awakening and the development of his relationship with Dev, and their dealings with mental health.⁠
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The characters travel to beautiful locations, interact with people of such diverse backgrounds and sexualities, and will keep you laughing throughout. I highly recommend it and can't believe I put it off this long.⁠
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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⁠
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Trigger Warnings: Mentions and descriptions of panic attacks and OCD; mentions of subtle homophobia (by the executive producer) and disregarding/ignoring mental health⁠

⁠Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review and the opportunity to read this work of art.

One of my absolute favorite books of 2021. A pure delight. Alison has a gift and I intend to follow her to her next novel. Not only were the main characters so strongly written but, she paid so much attention and handled the supporting players with same intensity. The aspect of mental illness within this story really sold it for me and made me feel - seen. I loved the realistic nature of the relationship with the backdrop of the "reality show" - well done, please pick this up!!!

This was such a cute and fun read! I loved the Bachelor theme and the real look at mental health and how it can impact a relationship.

This was kind of fun, kind of messy? The angst was a LOT and thats coming from somebody who likes angst! I do feel like I learned a lot about dating shows and reality tv as well. It was cool sometimes, annoying other times.
The pacing was all over the place. Sometimes it felt like we were moving very fast and other times so, so slow.
I don't know. I feel like it could have been shorter? And it wasn't even long? There were some repetitive parts.
But this was fun! Sometimes!
Its between a two and a three star for me. I think I had an ok time reading, but upon reflection there were a lot of issues.

While I liked The Charm Offensive, I didn’t love it. Due to the book being so hyped on Bookstagram & feeling that the Bachelor TV show plot has been overdone factored in to this.

What I did enjoy was the absolutely heartwarming relationship of Dev and Charlie’s, the representation of mental health, and diverse characters.

I would recommend adding this to your romance tbr and giving it a shot especially if you enjoyed books like Red, White, & Royal Blue and/or If The Shoe Fits.

This book means so much to me. This is by far one of my favorite 2020 reads. The representation of depression., anxiety, asexuality was everything. This book is perfect if you are The. Bachelor fan.

Boy meets boy, while filming a reality dating show where he’s dating 20 other women. Yeah, it’s complicated. ⁣
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Charlie is the latest star/Prince of the reality dating show, 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳, where he’s supposed to meet his future “princess” . Dev is his handler, a producer on the show and a huge romantic. Except the more time they spend together, to help Charlie become comfortable for his on screen dates, the more sparks fly between them. ⁣
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I loved these two something fierce with all their awkward, insecure ways. Their bond was just so cute and it warmed my heart to see how protective they were of each other without even realizing it. ⁣
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Loved the positive queer and mental health rep and the way the book celebrated finding oneself, being true to who you are and affirmed that everyone is deserving of love. This book was like a big, warm hug to my soul. 💗

I loved this romcom — there were a lot of LOL moments throughout the book, balanced with more serious topics. Can't wait to read the next book by this author!

I wasn't expecting to love this book as much as I do!!!! I'm obsessed, one of my new favorite romance books! I practically DEVOURED this book and would've binged it in one sitting if I could've. This was such a fun behind the scenes scripted faux drama of a Bachelor type show with unexpected and swoon worthy romance!

This is one of my favorite books I have read so far this year! I loved the idea of a queer love story taking place around a reality dating show! The conversations around dating shows always seemed so inaccessible as a queer person growing up but this book gives me hope that in the future it won’t always have to be this way. I also loved all of the representation that this book featured! This book was a lot more angsty and emotional than I expected going in, which I ended up enjoying, but really threw me off while I was reading what I thought was just going to be a light hearted romantic comedy. Overall, I loved this book and cannot recommend it enough! I actually went and order a physical copy of this book I loved it so much. Can’t wait to read what Alison writes next!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this e- arc!!

A hilarious, heartfelt romcom — practically perfect. In particular, I found Charlie’s struggles with anxiety and his realizations about his demisexuality to be deeply relatable and handled with deft sensitivity by the author. Dev and Charlie have my entire heart. Adding Alison Cochrun to my “buy anything they write” author shelf!