UNBELIEVABLE. Red, White and Royal Blue meets The Bachelor. This book is my new comfort read. The characters are beautiful and full human beings all the way around, the romance is compelling and perfectly paced, AND it gives a fresh and timely take on debilitating mental illness. I am in love with this book.

This was an absolutely delightful book! I was hooked from the beginning and couldn't put it down. Definitely one I will be recommending to everyone.

A book that LGBTQ+ fans of the Bachelor/Bachelorette franchises will love. Touches on mental health, queerness, and is heartwarming as heck. Love the premise, love the diversity of it.

This is not a 5-star worthy romance, but it is a 5-star worthy book. The difference? This book is so much more than a romance. It is a book about mental health, self care, discovering yourself, etc... For me, the romance was secondary.

I love that Dev and Charlie are so imperfect. As someone who struggles with both OCD, and more severely, social anxiety, Charlie was so relatable.

It was refreshing to read a book focusing so much on mental health and the struggles people go through.

I wish I had more words to do this book justice, but I'm struggling for some reason. If you want to relate to a character with anxiety, depression, OCD, etc..., then read this book.

I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book was interesting, and I love that it centers a queer relationship! However after starting it I realized it wasn't really for me, as I find it difficult to get invested in this kind of rom-com. DNF.

Ohh boy, this book was absolutely amazing and beautiful- one of my favorite romances of the year. I loved everything about it and these characters were so adorable. I really enjoyed the reality TV aspect and this whole story was just so good.


I highly recommend this one - it’s definitely one you’ll absolutely love and you’ll hands down full in love with these characters.

Fans of reality tv will love this story which features a Bachelor-style show and what happens behind the scenes between the star and a member of the crew.

Yesterday I read The Charm Offensive by @alisoncochrun and was so completely… charmed ☺️ After the success of Red, White, and Royal Blue, there was a slew of m/m romances that were marketed to the fans of it. Everyone wanted to ride on its coattails. The Charm Offensive doesn’t even need comparison to RWARB because it stands on its own.

I loved the large cast of diverse characters. This book wholly embraced the LGBTQ+ community; it got knee deep in gender identity, sexual identity, and more. It even discussed the lack of need to ascribe oneself to a certain identity.

Charlie and Dev’s journey felt organic and sweets. I loved that although Charlie was the inexperienced one sexually, he went all in with his heart once he realized he had feelings for Dev. And Dev, although experienced and an “out” member of the gay community, realized he had some personal issues to work through that hampered his ability to have a healthy relationship.

I laughed, smiled, felt my heart grow three sizes, and even teared up a bit while reading this. I’ve never watched dating shows but if you have, I’m sure that will only enhance your experience with this novel. I wholly recommend this book! The only reason it wasn’t a full five stars is because I felt like I could guess what was happening with some of the side characters way before reveals, but this was still pretty perfect.

“Kissing Charlie—and coming to terms with the fact that he needs to stop kissing Charlie—shouldn’t have been enough to trigger his depression, but unfortunately, that’s not how his depression works. It’s not logical or reasonable. It doesn’t need some catastrophic tragedy to turn the chemicals of his brain against him. Tiny tragedies are more than enough.”
I loved this. Loved loved loved! The focus on diversity and mental health was amazing. The perfect amount. Not too much that it was overdone or that it missed its mark and not too subtle. It was great. I feel like this needs to be read by everyone, so we can all relate and we can all empathize. I felt so much. All the feelings!
And then the story. Incredible. I loved Dev and Charlie. I loved their development. Individual and together. I had butterflies and warm fuzzies and angst for them.
It’s about reality TV and all I could think about was if they could make The Hating Game into a movie, then this book needs one too. Right now. Take my money!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria books for a copy of this novel. Thank you to Alison Cochrun for writing and sharing this story.
All thoughts are my own.

i got this one on @netgalley from @atriabooks ages ago and never read it, but it was the perfect bubble bath read. if you love the Bachelor franchise and Red, White, and Royal Blue, you will looooove this book. it’s like One to Watch or If The Shoe Fits but better?!? and with a relationship (and supporting characters) that not only break but shatter molds?!? representation ABOUNDS in this one 🙌🏼

I loved this book more than I have loved a book in a long time. Just the right amount of cheesy for a rom com and so so so swoony. I want to hug both Charlie and Dev the whole time. 1000% recommend for fans of Casey Mcquinston.

The writing style in this book is extremely similar to Casey McQuiston's, but fortunately, I found this story to be a lot faster paced than their books. This book made me realize that as a whole, books based on shows like "The Bachelor" don't work for me, but this story gave it a valiant effort and was executed well. I found both Charles and Dev to be very well-developed characters and enjoyed watching their relationship grow. I appreciated the unflinching look Cochrun gave of living with mental illness and felt she didn't try to gloss over anything in the characters' struggles for the sake of the romantic plot. The pacing dragged a bit in the middle but overall, I was engaged the whole time and was rooting for the romance from the get go.

The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun has to be one of my favorite books this year! I couldn't believe it was a debut novel and can't wait to read more from the writer. It is a fantastic queer romance that plays off of one of my favorite themes - reality dating.

It's heartwarming, and the chemistry between Dev and Charlie leaps off the page. It's definitely one I will read again.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

I absolutely adored this Bachelor-style dating show romance between a contestant and producer. It was such a soft and swoony LGBTQIA+ romance and had excellent anxiety and mental health rep.

Talk about being pleasantly surprised ! This book is about Dev and Charlie and their love for each other . Dev is a producer that encourages Charlie to open up on a reality show of which he is a contestant . Well things don’t go as planned it’s is a fun entertaingbjoyrne seeing these two characters live develop. I highly recommend you luck this ine up.

I had a delightful time reading this new romance novel with a fresh take on finding love on a Bachelor-esque reality dating show.

The diverse cast of characters in this novel tackle difficult issues such as mental health stigma, exploring their sexuality, and what it means to truly love someone. I sincerely adored how the author chose to champion accepting friends and partners for who they are and destigmatizing mental health struggles. May we all be so lucky to have friends and supporters like those who surround Dev and Charlie!

I found myself rooting for the two main characters both in their relationship with each other and on their journeys to find and accept who they truly are. This is a book that speaks to the beautiful quiet moments of falling in love that are so subtle you don’t notice until you’ve already fallen.
This book is for those (like Dev) who believe in true love and happy endings. I guarantee you will walk away with a smile on your face (though you may shed a tear or two on the journey).

Thank you to NetGalley and Libro.fm for providing me with an Advanced Reader’s Copy and Advanced Listening copy of this book. My reviews would not be possible without their support for library professionals!

This was cute but I wish the Dev character was more flushed out. He seemed underdeveloped and I felt it could have been more helpful to have his history.

The romantic in me ate this up. This was just the book I needed for a quick enjoyable read. It was adorable. I loved the characters and while this was fluffy most of the time it still had a surprising amount of depth and emotion to it. It had no qualms talking about mental illness and sexuality and gender norms in a refreshing and positive way which I appreciated. If this was a real show I would definitely watch :)

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Alison Cochrun’s buoyant debut romance, THE CHARM OFFENSIVE (Atria, 354 pp., paper, $17), is “The Bachelor” if the bachelor fell for his male handler instead of one of the women competing for him onscreen. Dev Deshpande and Charlie Winshaw are hyper-aware that the narrative they are creating should appear effortless to the viewers. They both have profound mental health struggles, which affect not only how they’re seen but also how they read each other. Fans of the writers Lucy Parker and Alexis Hall will adore seeing these two messy, endearing leads come together amid the chaos of an excruciatingly heteronormative dating show.

I finished this book a while ago but I'm still grinning like a toddler. Dev and Charlie are just so adorable, oh my god. I loved how this book is so damn cute but still has loads of diverse representation with mental health awareness. Exploring sexuality, acceptance, and a mc rooting for HEAs just like I do. I loved it so much, and I'm always going to think about how single Dev and Charlie made me feel.