Review of The Charm Offensive

Love reality TV dating shows? Love adorable romances with great mental health rep that does not overshadow the actual love story? You’ve got to check out my review of The Charm Offensive!

Review of The Charm Offensive

The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun.

Published on September 7, 2021 by Atria Books. Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

Synopsis: 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, 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 a romantic Prince Charming. 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, 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.

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Review of The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun

Like many people, I have a love/hate relationship with reality dating shows. I watched the first few seasons of The Bachelor and then got bored with the format. I’ve tried Love Island (too much gossiping and tanning for hours on end), Married at First Sight (way too much rehashed drama), Love is Blind (fun, but they need to move on with a new cast).

One of my personal favorites is Dating Around on Netflix, in which a person goes on five first dates, then chooses one of them for a second date, then we find out if they are still dating. Loved the diversity in it and it’s a fascinating study in reading body language and trying to predict if a couple is clicking or not.

So when I saw The Charm Offensive pop up on Netgalley, I was intrigued. And after I read it, I was indeed charmed.

Dev is a producer on Ever After, a Bachelor-esque dating show in which a contestant meets a bunch of people of the opposite sex and then eliminates them one by one. His new contestant is Charlie, a tech guy in need of an image rehab (lolol at who thought this was a good idea, but we have to just go with it.)

Charlie has a lot of anxiety and also OCD. (Again, the show claims they do a psychological screening on each participant but whoever thought Charlie was going to love dating on camera should have their license yanked. But anyway…) Charlie is very attractive but also very socially awkward and, as it turns out, a virgin.

The show is turning out to be a disaster and it’s up to Dev to save it. So he decides to take Charlie on some practice dates to get him more comfortable with the dating concept. And soon they each realize that they are very attracted to each other.

Dev and Charlie were such a cute couple and it’s hard not to root for them. I also loved reading about the inner workings of a reality TV dating show and how much the show is scripted and manipulated in editing. I definitely suspected that!

I don’t really get the connection of the title to the story (maybe I missed it?) and I think a punchier and more descriptive title would be better. But I definitely recommend The Charm Offensive to those who love reality TV and/or a cute romance!

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