Narrated by Vikas Adam and Graham Halstead
I defy anyone not to be completely charmed by Alison Cochrun’s The Charm Offensive. It’s a warm, witty romance that offers an insightful story of self-discovery featuring a pair of captivating, superbly crafted lead characters and a lively, wonderfully diverse secondary cast. It’s billed as a romantic comedy, but it’s so much more than that; I generally think of rom-coms as light-hearted and fairly insubstantial, and this certainly isn’t the latter. It’s most definitely romantic, and it packs plenty of gentle humour, but it’s got a more serious ‘feel’ than the average rom-com, taking a sensitive and nuanced approach to neurodiversity and mental health issues as the two protagonists figure out who they are and what they really want – and of course, fall in love along the way.
Dev Deshpande is a life-long romantic who, for the past six years, has worked as a producer on the reality dating show Ever After, crafting the perfect happy ending for his contestants. Despite the recent break-up of his long-term relationship, Dev still believes in fairy tales and happy endings and still wants the hearts and the flowers and the whole shebang for himself.
Charlie Winshaw agreed to be this season’s Prince Charming as part of an attempt to rehabilitate his image after he was ousted from the tech company he founded and acquired a reputation for being difficult to work with. He doesn’t believe in True Love, but… well, he can probably fake it for as long as it takes, right? Um – wrong. Charlie might be drop-dead gorgeous, but he has almost NO social skills, he dislikes being touched, he has an anxiety disorder and OCD, and has no real idea of what he’s signed up for. It becomes very quickly apparent that he’s bitten off more than he can chew.
When Charlie’s big entrance shows exactly how out of his depth he is, the show’s head producer decides that Dev – who is usually responsible for looking after the female contestants on the show – should switch jobs this season and be assigned to Charlie instead. After all, Dev knows exactly what’s needed, he’s fun, he’s easy to be around and he’s the best handler Ever After has ever had – it’s up to him to save the day (and the season) and turn this particular frog into a prince. Dev isn’t keen – and is even less so after Charlie expresses his scepticism about the existence of such a thing as true love – but Dev is up to the challenge.
So he sets about doing what he does best – making the fairy tale happen for the cameras and for Charlie and his “princess”. Dev’s belief in Happily Ever After and that love conquers all (despite the lack of those things in his own life) is what makes him so good as his job; he genuinely wants the contestants to find love and doesn’t share the cynicism about Ever After exhibited by some of his colleagues and the show’s critics. He’s done his research and he’s worked out which contestant is most likely to capture Charlie’s heart; he starts crafting their romance, working out when and how they should fall in love and move toward the on-air marriage proposal in the season finale. The lovely Daphne is perfect – beautiful, intelligent, charming and a thoroughly nice person – she’s surely any man’s perfect woman. The trouble is… she isn’t Charlie’s. And the more time Charlie spends with Dev, the more he gets to know him… the more Charlie suspects that there’s no such thing as a perfect woman as far as he’s concerned.
The Charm Offensive isn’t your typical gay/out-for-you story; it’s not that Charlie has never been attracted to a guy before, it’s that he’s never been attracted to anyone before. He’s wondered if maybe he’s asexual – although his feelings for Dev answer that question – and the way he questions and works his way through it all, eventually coming to the conclusion that he’s gay, is really well-done.
Alison Cochrun has created a world that feels relevant and familiar, poking fun at the vagaries of reality TV while at the same time taking a hard look at the prejudices that still exist in the industry. But what really makes The Charm Offensive stand out from the crowd is its protagonists and the way they grow as people. Dev and Charlie are very real, with real flaws and real insecurities; they make mistakes and they make poor choices, but even though the lessons learned are sometimes painful, they DO learn and that growth is very clearly shown in the story as they use what they learn to inform their words and actions.
I can’t say that the story treads any new paths – but honestly, that doesn’t matter because you’ll fall in love with Dev and Charlie as they start to know and care for each other, coming to understand the different issues they each deal with every day – although in Dev’s case, he’s become so adept at hiding the truth from those around him and being “on” all the time – the “Fun Dev” everyone expects him to be – that it takes Charlie a little longer to realise that Dev is struggling, too. As both men are living with mental illness, this could have been a pretty heavy book, but it isn’t; the author handles the subject really well, not sugar-coating anything but not casting it in endless doom and gloom either. I very much appreciated that she shows that love is not a panacea – that at its very best it can make someone feel seen and understood and challenge them to care for themselves – and their partner(s) – better.
I absolutely loved this story (and the narration) but there’s just one thing that dinged the grade a little, which is that Dev is of Indian descent, but his culture makes pretty much no impact in the book whatsoever. Other than his name and a mention of Desi characters in a screenplay he’s writing, it seemed to me as though he could have been any ethnicity, and I couldn’t help feeling as though here was a missed opportunity.
I’ve listened to Vikas Adam a couple of times before and enjoyed his work, so I was pleased to have the opportunity to listen to him again, but Graham Halstead was a new name, and I’m always a bit apprehensive about trying an unknown narrator. But the moment he started speaking I heaved a huge sigh of relief as I realised that (under another name) he’s one of my favourites, so I knew I could just kick back and enjoy the story. Both performances are excellent – well-paced, well-differentiated and expressive, communicating an obvious sense of engagement with the material to the listener, and they each do a terrific job of fleshing out and enhancing the strong connection that develops between Dev and Charlie. Mr. Adam’s Dev is perfectly judged; he’s upbeat and charming with a great sense of humour, but as the story continues there’s a real sense that he’s trying too hard, and there’s a subtle edge to his voice in those moments. As Charlie, Mr. Halstead is equally good, pitching Charlie’s awkwardness and discomfort at the beginning just right and then showing his slowly growing confidence as he starts to fall for Dev and come out of his shell.
The Charm Offensive – which is, amazingly, a début novel! – was a fantastic listen all-round; a great story featuring two endearing, relatable leads and a gorgeous slow-burn romance all wrapped up in a couple of wonderful performances. Highly recommended.
Caz
Buy The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun on Amazon
I’d been thinking of getting the audiobook of this as I resent spending £8.49 on an ebook! Spending a credit on it makes sense.
It seems to have got very good reviews, with the main criticism being the same as yours – that Dev’s Indian cultural heritage doesn’t play any part in the story.
I listened to the audio sample to see if I recognised Graham Halstead’s voice but he doesn’t feature on the sample…… However, I was really shocked to hear Dev’s name being pronounced as Dave and that makes it unlistenable for me. I’ve known of lots of Devs and Davs and they’ve always been pronounced as written, never as Dave.
On the Dev-Dave thing – it’s more like the “e” sound is elongated as a kind of “eehh” than pronounced as an “ay” – but it did sound like Dave – as we pronounce it in the UK – for sure. But I went with it as a) anyone listening who hasn’t seen the name written down won’t know any different, and b) I decided that as Vikas Adam is of Indian descent, he may well have been pronouncing it correctly.
Seriously – don’t let that prevent you listening to this, it’s SO GOOD. (Just think of him as “Dave” and it’ll be fine!)
As to Graham Halstead… we generally avoid discussing narrator pseudonyms here, unless we know the narrators are okay with it, but if you want to know who he is, feel free to email me – caz963@hotmail.co.uk
Hi Wendy!
Thank you for your interest in The Charm Offensive. Wanted to assure that the pronunciation of “Dev” as “THAYv” (or the word “they” with the letter v at the end) is authentic! 😊. Unfortunately, many names/words of South Asian descent (not to mention cultures) are constantly mispronounced in the West.
The “e” in a lot of South Asian names is pronounced as a long A. Hence “Dev” is “THAYv”; Desi is THAY-see. Our elephant god Ganesh is Gun-AYSH. (Notice that “a” in Ganesh sounds like a “u” like in “sun”? That’s another example of how a written letter can be a different sound.) As with other languages this “e” to “A” is not a hard fast rule for all words.
Gahhhh so many sounds!!!! 🤪. But as a first generation South Asian—it bewildered me growing up. Hearing and saying a name or word one way at home and with other Desi friends—then hearing it said completely different—in fact something unrecognizable. Even my first name unintentionally still gets mispronounced by people I know (it’s vik-AHS as opposed to VEE-kahs) and it becomes impossible to correct every single time. Well everytime I don’t correct them I’m perpetuating the incorrect pronunciation of my name it becomes weird to correct someone after 5 years—I AM making a concerted effort though. 🤗
So when I do audiobooks I insist on pronouncing our names and words authentically (there are exceptions to every rule but that’s another story), something I am constantly grateful for amongst the producers and other narrators who back me up. Somewhere there’s someone who’s listening who will hear their words or names correctly pronounced and they will feel seen and/or heard. When I recently saw “Never Have I Ever” and heard non Indians pronounce “desi” correctly—I yelped in joy!
Hi Vikas – jumping in to say thank you SO much for taking the time to stop by to clear that up! Pronunciation is a veritable minefield at times, and it’s a difficult thing to actually write about (unless you’re using phonetic alphabets, which are often impenentrable!) so I really appreciate it.
And once again, thank you and all involved for the many hours of enjoyment provided by this fabulous audiobook :)
Thank you very much for replying to me, Vikas.
I really hope that anyone would correct me if I pronounced their name wrong and am sad to realise that some people must give up doing so.
I shall definitely buy the audiobook now!
Great review, Caz. I love the sound of this. And a debut novel? Great characters. Definitely worth spending a credit on after your quite obvious approval I’m intrigued by Graham Halstead as I definitely haven’t come across that name before.
I’m pretty sure you’ll recognise his voice :)
It’s definitely worth a credit – go for it!
This sounds like so much fun. Thanks for the review. I’ve been struggling with books lately (lots of relistening because nothing appeals) and this honestly looks like something different enough but still in my comfort zone of late.
And the discussion about pronunciation was so interesting! I would definitely have wondered about it as Wendy did, so, thank you, Wendy for mentioning that. And thank you, Mr. Adam, for your kind explanations.
This was such a delight to listen to on all counts – great narration, wonderful characters and sensitively portrayed mental health issues… I hope you enjoy it if you decide to listen to it.
This ended up not working for me and I quit about halfway through. I didn’t find it funny, just awkward. Oh well! We can’t all like the same things! :-) I should have known better. I don’t generally like rom-com romances. The narrators were excellent, however!
I’m sorry to hear that :( What I tried (obviously unsuccessfully!) to convey was that while this is touted as a “rom com” – I didn’t think that label really fit.l It’s not laugh out loud funny and it’s not whacky or zany; the humour is gentler than that and there are more serious undertones. The “rom com” label is being widely misapplied these days as a marketing tool, IMO.
Your review is wonderful, Caz, so no apologies necessary. I know I react to things most people don’t and I get very frustrated with myself. The awful production crew was something I couldn’t get past. Just too many unlikable people in one place! I gather from your review and others that by the end this is a positive portrayal of a person with mental illness, but the abuse he suffers early on just made me so sad. I have a couple of grown children with panic disorder, OCD, and generalized anxiety who’ve been treated this way, and it’s painful to read about.
Charlie and Dev are both great characters, however, and there is a gentleness there that is obvious and sweet. I think most readers are going to enjoy watching them fall in love. The end results are very likely worth the discomfort, but I’m not good with pushing through it. That’s on me.