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The Charm Offensive

A Novel

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The Charm Offensive

By: Alison Cochrun
Narrated by: Vikas Adam, Graham Halstead, Cassandra Campbell
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About this listen

 A 2022 Audie Award Finalist

A MOST ANTICIPATED ROM-COM SELECTED BY * BUZZFEED * LGBTQ READS * BUSTLE * THE NERD DAILY * ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT * FROLIC MEDIA * AND MORE!

A BEST BOOK PICK BY * HARPER’​S BAZAAR * ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

“The Charm Offensive will sweep you off your feet.” —PopSugar

​​​​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. Contemporary Contemporary Romance LGBTQIA+ Creators Multicultural Romance Romantic Comedy Comedy Heartfelt Witty

Critic Reviews

"Adam depicts Dev as a mix of dreamy and dramatic, showing his idealistic side and his love for the show. Adam’s flowing narration smooths out the author’s occasional didacticism. Halstead voices Charlie Winshaw, the show’s star and a tech genius who suffers from OCD and generalized anxiety. Halstead accurately represents Charlie’s stilted TV performance, hesitant speech, and withdrawn manner. Cassandra Campbell delivers the daily script updates, her voice creating needed contrast among the sections. With meticulous attention to Dev and Charlie’s singular romance, Adam and Halstead paint a lively picture of reality TV."
All stars
Most relevant
lovely storyline, enjoyed it. I gave 3 stars to performance because of the switching narrators. Both were good however, I would have preferred having just one person read the whole story.

loved it

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As a woman in an interracial queer relationship I loved seeing myself reflected in this story. It was such a fun book which made me laugh but was also grounded in its well developed and nuanced characters, huge heart and respectful exploration of mental health and discovering self identity. This is a new gem. I would die for Charlie.

A big heart and lots of laughs

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I felt the way this story tackles the stigma surrounding mental health and sexual orientation to be respectful, inclusive, affirming and relatable
It made me smile, laugh and cry. It left me feeling good.
The narration was wonderful and portrayed the emotions of Charlie and Dave so well. Though, the voices of the female characters can be a bit cringy, but I wasn’t here for the girls.
There was no descriptive spice, the story instead taking the ‘fade to black’ approach. Even though I would’ve loved some spicy details, I still found this to be a truely beautiful, wholesome, feel good story, that I binged in a single day.

Wholesome

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A really sweet story that tackles mental health appropriately. The two main characters are beautiful gems that really understand what it is to have mental health issues and I think the author deals with it in a very caring way. Dev & Charlie are precious and deserve the world.

It took a bit to get used to the narrators but after a while it was fine.

Heartwarming

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I loved every moment of this! It was so quirky and romantic and sexy and funny all at the same time. Not a single bad thing to say about the representation or the execution of the story. Absolutely gorgeous!

Loved it!

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