He gives Charlie a breezy smile. “I know I can make you fall in love.”

The Charm Offensive (From ARC, quotes may have changed in publication copy)

Thank you, NetGalley and Atria Books, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Dev Deshpande has always believed in fairy tales. So it’s no wonder then that he’s spent his career crafting them on the long-running reality dating show Ever After. As the most successful producer in the franchise’s history, Dev always scripts the perfect love story for his contestants, even as his own love life crashes and burns. But then the show casts disgraced tech wunderkind Charlie Winshaw as its star.

Charlie is far from the romantic Prince Charming Ever After expects. He doesn’t believe in true love, and only agreed to the show as a last-ditch effort to rehabilitate his image. In front of the cameras, he’s a stiff, anxious mess with no idea how to date twenty women on national television. Behind the scenes, he’s cold, awkward, and emotionally closed-off.

As Dev fights to get Charlie to connect with the contestants on a whirlwind, worldwide tour, they begin to open up to each other, and Charlie realizes he has better chemistry with Dev than with any of his female co-stars. But even reality TV has a script, and in order to find to happily ever after, they’ll have to reconsider whose love story gets told.

I am not a fan of reality television, but this book ultimately won me over. The Charm Offensive follows Dev, a talent handler on a bachelor-style show Ever After, and Charlie, the show’s newest Prince Charming. When Charlie’s original handler has a hard time getting Charlie to perform well in front of cameras, Dev is tasked to step in. Charlie is an anxious mess and a bit emotionally closed-off, but as the two spend more time together, they begin to realize that they have better chemistry than Charlie could ever hope to have with the actual contestants on the show.  

I absolutely fell in love with Dev and Charlie. Their chemistry and communication from the beginning are exceptional, from how Charlie instantly feels more at ease around Dev to how the Dev takes Charlie’s boundaries and mental health struggles in stride. I was smiling nearly the entire time I was reading and couldn’t help but root for the two of them, however doomed they may have seemed from the start. 

One is the depiction of mental health. Alison Cochrun does such a beautiful job at portraying Dev’s depression and Charlie’s anxiety and OCD in a compassionate and nuanced way. I saw a lot of my own struggles in both Charlie and Dev in a way that I don’t encounter a lot, which felt really validating. The resolution also doesn’t imply that their mental health struggles are magically fixed by love, which I see a lot in romance novels and always feels flat and unrealistic.

With its sweet, tension-filled romance, lovable side characters, and variety of representation, The Charm Offensive is a must-read. It has become one of my favorite reads of the year and definitely goes on my list of go-to comfort reads.