The Charm Offensive

by Alison Cochrun

[Sarah Poultney]

I received a galley of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review:

4.5 Stars

As someone who has never even seen a single episode of The Bachelor, I was genuinely shocked by how delightfully enthralling I found this book. Charlie Winshaw and Dev Deshpande are a fairy tale couple for the ages, and the cast surrounding them is so vibrant and full of life I could read a whole series books focused on them.

Charlie Winshaw is, for all intents and purposes, the perfect star of Ever After, a show very much like the Bachelor, but Fairy Tale themed. He's perfect- except for the fact that off-camera, he is an anxious wreck who doesn't believe in love.

Dev Deshpande works on Ever After because he wants nothing more than true love, and he's here to help other people find it. So what is he supposed to do when the show's next star vomits on his shoes on the first night and informs him this whole fairy tale is fake?

The best thing about this book is that these characters are real people, with very real emotions, in contrast with the fictional romance that they're attempting to build around themselves. There are discussions about mental health, romance, and being your authentic self in this book that I have yet to find elsewhere in a YA romance, and they are so wonderfully written and carefully considered that it is absolutely worth anyone's time to read. 

There are a few cheesy stumbling points in the writing, but those moments are so minimal, and are somehow so fitting for a book about the cheesiest reality show concept I've ever heard.