Alison Cochrun

In this witty and heartwarming romantic comedy—reminiscent of Red, White & Royal Blue and One to Watch—an awkward tech wunderkind on a reality dating show goes off-script when sparks fly with his producer. 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.

A Novel

The Charm Offensive

A estratégia do charme é uma comédia romântica encantadora sobre amores improváveis, aparências enganosas e personagens que precisam superar traumas e preconceitos para viver um conto de fada de verdade. Dev Deshpande tem o trabalho dos sonhos: como o mais bem-sucedido produtor da história do reality show Para Todo o Sempre, ele cria contos de fada e ajuda os participantes a viverem uma história de amor perfeita. Mas seu histórico impecável fica ameaçado quando Charlie Winshaw é escolhido como protagonista da nova temporada. No papel, o empresário e prodígio da tecnologia parece o Príncipe Encantado perfeito, mas, na realidade, Charlie é o pesadelo dos produtores — ele não acredita em amor verdadeiro e só aceitou participar do programa para recuperar sua imagem profissional após alguns incidentes. Enquanto o programa os leva para destinos paradisíacos ao redor do mundo, Dev tenta ajudar Charlie a se conectar com alguma pretendente. No entanto, conforme os dois se aproximam, fica claro que a química entre eles não pode ser ignorada. Agora, precisam decidir qual história de amor contar: a que Dev fabricou diante das câmeras ou a que viveu com Charlie nos bastidores.

A estratégia do charme

Wandi camala

Para alguém que diz amar tanto o amor, você é muito bom em fugir dele.

Talvez você só esteja a procura do tipo errado de amor

Você não precisa mudar quem é para ser amado

He’s just a big oversized anxious baby, there’s no way he can handle all of them at the same time. 

Alina

Dev’s fingers in his hair, and Charlie’s arms around Dev’s waist, and the beautiful simplicity of kissing someone who always accepts him, who understands his brain, who doesn’t want to change him or put him in boxes, who only wants him to be more of himself.

He’s angry and he’s tired and he’s so damn heartbroken he doesn’t know what to do with himself except exercise away this horrible knot in his chest.

Here is this thing he put off for so long, that he never thought he would be able to share with another person without humiliation and shame, and now he’s crossed the invisible barrier of his mind to find something surprising on the other side. Himself. More about himself.

Most of the time, Dev is like a human bonfire walking around generously warming everyone with his presence. But 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. He doesn’t have to be everything for everyone else all the time.

“That’s fair, and look, for me, sexuality is fluid, but I want you to know, you’re allowed to have whatever feelings you have toward Dev, even if they don’t fit into some fairy-tale idea of what relationships are supposed to be. You’re allowed to want the romance parts without the sex parts. Or the sex parts without the romance parts. All of those feelings are valid. You’re deserving of a relationship in whatever form you want it.”

“I don’t know if the specific label is important to me.”

“It doesn’t have to be,” she says, “and you’re not obligated to figure it out, or come out, or explain yourself to anyone, ever. But also”—she drops her hands from their spectrum and tucks an arm around his shoulder—“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.

As soon as Dev gets to his room, he takes a long, hot shower, shaves, and shakes out his duffle bag onto his king-size bed, searching for the right outfit that says, “Gay dude looking for mutually enjoyable, noncommittal sex.”

Unfortunately, most of his clothes seem to say, “Straight dude actively trying to die alone.”

Dev reaches up to ruffle Charlie’s hair again, but he’s got a pained look on his face. “You know you still deserve to have this love story. Right?”

Charlie swallows a weird lump forming in the back of his throat. Dev’s fingers are still resting in his hair, and Charlie looks up.

“You deserve love,” Dev says again, “and I honestly think Angie and Daphne are both good fits for you. I think both of them will love you, Charlie. Just as you are.”

Charlie hasn’t met many people like this—people who don’t make assumptions about you when they discover your brain doesn’t work like theirs; people who don’t judge you; people who simply stay with you and ask what they can do to help. People who trustingly hand you all of themselves in PDF form.

In this moment, it feels like Charlie is wide open for him. A week of puzzle pieces, sci-fi shows, and the smallest hints of a hard childhood, but at two in the morning in the guesthouse kitchen, it almost feels like he’s glimpsing Charlie Winshaw in his entirety—anxious and obsessive and still so fucking beautiful—leaning into Dev like there’s some secret part of Charlie that wants to let other people in but doesn’t know how. “I’m sorry I’m such a… burden.”

The tension in the backseat of the town car breaks, and Dev starts laughing. “Yes, Charlie! Oh my God. How did you not know I’m gay?”

Honestly, the possibility hadn’t even occurred to him. “In my defense, you’re obsessed with helping straight people find love, and your cargo shorts are heinous.”

“The way I dress has nothing to do with the fact that I like dick.”

Dev groans and runs his fingers through the stubble on his angular jaw. “Please don’t be awkward about this. Don’t be one of those straight guys who acts like every gay dude wants to date you. I’m not trying to get in your pants.”

“You’re going to be awkward about this, aren’t you?”

“Are you going to freak out every time I touch you now?”

“I already freak out when you touch me.”

He tries not to obsess over what he did to anger Dev. Naturally, he obsesses over it.

Dev plunges his hands into a gigantic shoulder bag and pulls out a tiny bottle of green hand sanitizer. He lathers his hands, and Charlie is weirdly moved by the gesture. Then, when he realizes the hand sanitizer means more touching, he is weirdly freaked out by the gesture.

Emma Hak-Kovacs

Sophie

Keira 💫

Muy gay, amo jijiji. Es un libro muy lindo y con un concepto de "Dating show" que nunca había leido antes. Los personajes principales son muy lindos y muchas veces me identifiqué con ellos en términos de salud mental. Ya que, este libro es muy abierto con los temas de "mental health". Me gustó como ambos personajes se ayudaron mutuamente a avanzar en varios sentidos, pero a la misma vez se dieron cuenta de que el cambio empezaba por ellos. Creo que hubieron algunas cosas que se pudieron haber expresado mejor, pero "overall" el libro fue muy lindo. (Eso si, son pocos capitulos, pero son largos y a mi en lo personal se me dificulta leer así ya que prefiero capitulos más cortos, pero igual me gustó)

Yoli

Mira <3

this book is written very well and i like how not cheesy it is. i love dev and charlie as characters but i also would like to know why they like eachother so much ???

Monicap

Very very very good book.

Loved Charlie, precious cinnamon bun. Loved Daphne's queer awakening on the side.

I kinda wish the women had been a bit more fleshed out and real. Like I get the story wasn't about them, but most of them really were only plot devices. Like I wish Lauren L. had been a person rather than a Lauren. I wish Megan would have been aware of what she was doing or how she was being portrayed (there was a throwaway line like "At home, Megan probably isn't like this, it's just the producers goading her"... Like no. I'm sure Megan has watched reality tv and is aware of the tropes. She doesn't have to be stupid and guileless to be the shows villain. She could be aware and feel some type of way about how she was being portrayed, y'know. She could have had some agency in it, even. But nope, it's all the producers' doing). Like in chapter 1 Jules' was wearing a Paramore t-shirt. Couldn't any of the women on the show have had a bit of personality too?

But like I said I get that the story isn't about them and doing any of that might've broadened the scope of the story in a way Cochran wasn't interested in. It's a love story, not a commentary on gender dynamics in reality tv or whatever.

Rebeca Keren Nuñez

"The Charm Offensive" de Alison Cochrun es una novela romántica contemporánea que destaca por su frescura, humor y exploración de temas como la autenticidad y la aceptación personal. Publicada en 2021, esta obra ha cautivado a los lectores con su historia emotiva y sus personajes entrañables.

La trama sigue a Dev Deshpande, un productor de un popular reality show de citas llamado "Ever After". Dev es carismático, talentoso y sabe cómo hacer que las personas se sientan especiales, pero detrás de su fachada de éxito, lucha con sus propias inseguridades y expectativas poco realistas. Cuando se le asigna trabajar con Charlie Winshaw, uno de los participantes del programa, cuya personalidad introvertida y reserva contrasta con la suya, Dev se encuentra desafiado de formas que nunca imaginó.

Lo que hace que "The Charm Offensive" sea único es su enfoque en la representación LGBTQ+ y la exploración de la diversidad en las relaciones románticas. Los personajes principales, Dev y Charlie, son complejos y multifacéticos, y su viaje hacia el amor y la aceptación personal es conmovedor y auténtico. La autora aborda temas como la ansiedad social, la autoestima y la presión de cumplir con las expectativas sociales de una manera sensible y realista.

Además de su trama romántica, la novela también ofrece una mirada perspicaz al mundo detrás de las cámaras de los reality shows y las presiones que enfrentan tanto los participantes como los productores. La narrativa está hábilmente entrelazada con elementos de comedia, lo que añade ligereza y diversión a la historia sin restarle profundidad emocional.

El estilo de escritura de Cochrun es ágil y envolvente, lo que hace que la lectura sea rápida y adictiva. Los diálogos son agudos y llenos de chispa, y los momentos emotivos están hábilmente equilibrados con momentos de humor y romance. Los lectores se verán inmersos en el mundo de "Ever After" y se conectarán fácilmente con los personajes y sus luchas.

En resumen, "The Charm Offensive" es una novela romántica refrescante y conmovedora que cautiva desde la primera página hasta la última. Con su representación auténtica, su exploración de temas significativos y su estilo de escritura cautivador, esta obra de Alison Cochrun es una lectura obligada para los amantes del romance contemporáneo y aquellos que buscan una historia que los haga reír, llorar y enamorarse.

Lila Roberts

what the FUCKKKKK AHGGHGGH THIS WAS SO GOOD I READ IT IN ONE SITTING

Xavier Beltran Palomino

Un príncipe encantador

manuel

4’75/5
estoy sin palabras y solo puedo decir que me encanto; desde la trama tan original, los personajes entrañables y reales con los cuales puedes sentirte identificado, así como la forma en la que se desarrolla la relación entre los protas y cómo aborda los temas como el toc, ataques de pánico, la ansiedad y la depresión, sin mencionar la búsqueda de identidad. no soy muy fan de los libros escritos en tercera persona, pero creo que en este caso funciona muy bien. hubo solo ciertas escenas que sentí de relleno pero solo fueron unas cuantas, y a pesar de que el libro no tiene nada de spicy, las escenas de tensión están muy bien logradas. me sentí completamente identificado con Dev, soy yo, he vivido la mayoría de sus problemas y situaciones y es por eso que pude empatizar con él, por otra parte Charlie, solo quiero darle un abrazo y decirle que todo va a estar bien, los amo mucho <3

So cute!! I loved the way this book represented mental health, it was done so well. 
Unfortunately in the Audiobook Dev is pronounced "Dave" which was a bit annoying but whatever :) 
I didn't enjoy the 'ever after' show I wasn't really interesting when they started to tell us about what is happening with the girls and all of the small situations that happened between them but I ended up loving it at the end after the number of girls went down a bit 😊💓

allison chen

was it very idealistic and super predictable? yes... 
but i also think it was kinda self-aware and genuine. (truly rom-com essence served on a silver platter hehe) it was so fun to read.. i appreciate the discussion of mental health and i think the character development was satisfying!

Catarina Lopes 

Tatiana

The Charm Offensive: 4.5/5

This is my new comfort book. 

Premise:
Dev is a hopeless romantic who believes in fairy tale endings. This comes in handy at his job, a producer of Ever After, a Bachelor-esc reality dating tv show. Usually, he's talked with engineering happy endings and coaching the women through the grueling process until this season; he's tasked with handling the prince charming, Charlie. 

Charlie is a drop-dead gorgeous tech mogul and ex-cologne model who agrees to participate in the show in hopes of revamping his image to rejoin the tech industry. The only problem is that Charlie is not suave and needs as much help as he can get in the dating department.

As Charlie and Dev get closer, Dev recognizes Charlie has more going on than meets the eye, and maybe they have more in common than he previously thought. Can Dev make Charlie fall in love, or is the real love story behind the scenes?

Writing & Plot:
Nah, this book was SO GOOD. The vibes were so immaculate, and I could not put it down. It is such an adorable love story with a tremendous mental health representation. I'm a sucker for a queer rom-com, and this hit the spot. The plot is pretty straightforward but adequate for what it is. The writing flows effortlessly, and it is so difficult to put down. 

Characters:
I adored Dev and Charlie. Both are complex and interesting to read about. The romance itself is an adorable slow burn that will keep the reader turning the pages. Not only are the two love birds great, but the side characters also have good character arcs, which makes the book all the more believable.

Conclusion:
If you need a new queer rom-com comfort book, this is it. It is binge-able and an easy read that will have you tearing up from cute-ness. This is an instant favorite for me, and I highly recommend it to everyone!

isabella

4.5
is this my new red, white and royal blue?? yes

Vallari S

This book started on such a good note for me. The setting and the characters took me in. I enjoyed up to two-thirds of the book before the charm (pun fully intended) wore off. The third act resolve didn't do it for me. Overall, the book is a sweet-fun read. The characters have heart and make you feel invested in them.

Arianna

Ana Salas

Lauren Grey

The book brought me so much joy!

I listened to this one in one day. I started it while commuting and then just couldn’t stop. I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about the reality tv show setting - because I’ve tried and failed to actually enjoy reality tv - but it turned out not to bother me. It reminded me a lot of the show UnREAL showcasing the manipulative and fake ins and outs of reality tv.

But what really stole the show was the main characters and their respective mental illness representation. As someone who struggles with both depression and anxiety, I don’t always appreciate how it is portrayed, but Cochrun does it beautifully! Charlie’s mental illnesses made him so genuine and unique and I just adored the absolute heck out of him. Dev’s pushing down and ignoring of his mental illness was so relatable. And the way being there for a person when they are struggling was ingrained in the story just made me want to give this book a hug!

The romance was so sweet and tender and had such an organic build up. I loved every minute of it!

Michaella 

4.5
This book really was so cute wholesome while diving into deep and nuanced topic in a authentic and non judgemental way. Also the representation in here slaps and everyone is queer (which is fantastic!!). Overall a really enjoyable read!

i picked this up bc it was written by someone from my home town, and im glad i read it! sweet story and i really loved all the characters 

Ellie Younger

haley bertsch

This is such a difficult book for me to review! Like my rating doesn’t do it justice but also I started it and the whole time I very much was not in the right reading mood for it. So my rating does reflect my feelings towards the book and how much I enjoyed. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted but I adored it for so many of the important conversations it had and the complexities of these characters and the journey they went through so I also wanted to rate it higher to reflect that it had so much good within and it was a me problem because I’d probably love the book if I’d read it at a different time. 

First up there’s Charlie. He was an adorable guy who hadn’t had the right people around him in the past to help him realise he is not the problem. He goes on a dating show for the wrong reasons but still finds love when he doesn’t expect it. It was great to see the struggle he faced with his OCD and anxiety and how that he could be perceived as difficult but only because people didn’t understand. He was sweet and honestly never expected to find love as he had never felt sexual attraction before. Until Dev. In some ways it seems like the mental and emotional struggles of this book will centre on him but honestly Charlie had been through therapy and recognised the importance of his mental health and was trying to build healthy coping strategies into his life. He had good people in his corner so you worried for him but not too excessively. Dev was the one who went through a journey. 

Dev was a sweetheart who believed in love and had rose coloured glasses about the show he walked on. He never meant to develop feelings for Charlie but he did. But really this book was about him accepting his mental health struggles and acknowledging he had depression and then learning how best to live with this. He very much ignored it and tried to push those who cared for him away when he was in a depressive episode as he didn’t seem to want them to associate that side of himself with who he was. It was great seeing him at the end getting help and developing healthier strategies in his life to cope. And most importantly allowing others close to him and help him when he needed it. It was about him acknowledging fairy tales aren’t true and that love is not easy. It doesn’t follow a set narrative and you cannot control it. 

Honestly, this book did so much well and I wish I’d DNFed and tried to read it again another day as I would have loved it if I’d been in the right mood for it. Instead, I struggled through and acknowledge the potential there without truly connecting with it which was sad. 

Becky

This is such a difficult book for me to review! Like my rating doesn’t do it justice but also I started it and the whole time I very much was not in the right reading mood for it. So my rating does reflect my feelings towards the book and how much I enjoyed. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted but I adored it for so many of the important conversations it had and the complexities of these characters and the journey they went through so I also wanted to rate it higher to reflect that it had so much good within and it was a me problem because I’d probably love the book if I’d read it at a different time. 

First up there’s Charlie. He was an adorable guy who hadn’t had the right people around him in the past to help him realise he is not the problem. He goes on a dating show for the wrong reasons but still finds love when he doesn’t expect it. It was great to see the struggle he faced with his OCD and anxiety and how that he could be perceived as difficult but only because people didn’t understand. He was sweet and honestly never expected to find love as he had never felt sexual attraction before. Until Dev. In some ways it seems like the mental and emotional struggles of this book will centre on him but honestly Charlie had been through therapy and recognised the importance of his mental health and was trying to build healthy coping strategies into his life. He had good people in his corner so you worried for him but not too excessively. Dev was the one who went through a journey. 

Dev was a sweetheart who believed in love and had rose coloured glasses about the show he walked on. He never meant to develop feelings for Charlie but he did. But really this book was about him accepting his mental health struggles and acknowledging he had depression and then learning how best to live with this. He very much ignored it and tried to push those who cared for him away when he was in a depressive episode as he didn’t seem to want them to associate that side of himself with who he was. It was great seeing him at the end getting help and developing healthier strategies in his life to cope. And most importantly allowing others close to him and help him when he needed it. It was about him acknowledging fairy tales aren’t true and that love is not easy. It doesn’t follow a set narrative and you cannot control it. 

Honestly, this book did so much well and I wish I’d DNFed and tried to read it again another day as I would have loved it if I’d been in the right mood for it. Instead, I struggled through and acknowledge the potential there without truly connecting with it which was sad. 

Dev zawsze wierzył w bajki. Odkąd sięga pamięcią, pochłaniał romanse, oglądał dramaty sercowe osadzone w romantycznych sceneriach i marzył o miłości. Nic więc dziwnego, że został producentem reality show, w którym gwiazdy poszukują dla siebie idealnego partnera lub partnerki. W pracy wykazuje się szóstym zmysłem i niczym kupidyn z łukiem bezbłędnie przewiduje idealne historie miłosne. W prywatnym życiu jednak nigdy nie miał szczęścia. Do czasu gdy głównym bohaterem programu "Długo i szczęśliwie" zostaje introwertyczny geniusz Charlie Winshaw, który spięty i milczący nie jest w stanie nawiązać nawet najprostszej konwersacji z uczestniczkami. Dev musi ratować sytuację, więc postanawia dać Charliemu kilka lekcji, by znaleźć techniki na rozluźnienie przed kamerami oraz spróbować natchnąć go do nawiązania głębszej relacji z którąś z dziewczyn. Ku zaskoczeniu Deva i Charliego prawdziwa chemia zadzieje się jednak całkowicie poza scenariuszem programu, bo... między nimi! Tylko czy motyle w brzuchu i szansa na prawdziwą miłość wystarczą, by mieć odwagę wywrócić życie do góry nogami...

Długo i szczęśliwie

Alienthe 

UROCZE I PIĘKNE 

niesamowicie prosto mi się czytało. przyjemne, łatwe i urocze. 

Nic skomplikowanego

(4.5/5)

this book😭😭 it's not a 5 star read just because during the first maybe 100 pages I feel like the author struggled to find a pace that worked both with her plot and Charlie's OCD/anxiety and it gave as a result some repetitive scenes, but nothing that made me want to dnf at any point.

having said that, this is such a beautiful story. once what I mentioned before was settled, the story really does a fantastic job of both portraying really complex, nuanced characters and a love story worth swooning over. every single character in this book (aparte from josh and maureen, I sincerely hope they d1e) was beautifully complex, even the princesses. I love Charlie and Dev with my whole entire heart and they deserve ALL the fairy tale endings. it was lovely seeing them both fall for each other and, at the same time, wanting to be better to be together. loved that there wasn't necessarily a third act breakup but third act angst. this was so well done and it made me so so many times I genuinely can't express how much I loved it.

EVERYONE READ IT

anne

amber baardsen

** spoiler alert **
           I......have almost no words. I just finished it and i'm not an emotional person but they are tears in my eyes. Okay.
First of all: the representation. Theres basically more POC than white people and they're almost ALL queer and i love it. 
The mental health rep is *chefs kiss*. Dev mental health is portrayed really well, i think, and i relate so goddamn much to Charlie. Not just because of his mental state, but because of his sexuality journey. I might have to rethink my lables....
Parisa and Jules and Skylar all have my heart and i love them dearly. (Maureen can go fuck herself)
I think almost anyone can find someone they relate to in this book(that's how much representation there is).
The plot, the banter, the angst, the (ew) love, the EVERYTHING is sooooooo *makes inhuman squeal-noise*. 
I can't think of anything negavtive to say about this book except for that there isn't more of it. 
(Also Daphne has my soul in a bag) get it, you seggsy dawg(i love you and wish you all the best)
-I read this a an ebook, but it is now on my prioity book-buy list, because i want a physical copy.
Goodnight<3

The Charm Offensive A Novel

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