Books Read in 2023

I'm literally so late with this but here are my reading stats for last year!

• Total books read during this year: 54
• Total books that I started to read but didn't finish: 1 (a women's devotional my mom bought me)
  
• physical books read: 38
  
• digital/ebooks read: 17
  
• physical books started but unfinished: 1
  
• ebooks started but unfinished: 0
  
• Library books read: 4
• Library books started but unfinished: 0
  
• Books I loved: 19
• Books I liked: 28
• Books I felt neutral about: 3
  
• Books I disliked or found meh: 3
  
• Books I hated: 0
  
• Books I felt strongly about but can't classify as love or hate: 1
  
• Books purchased: 64 😐
• #1 most loved book this year (not counting my rereads):
• most loved general fiction: How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe
  
• most loved fantasy: The Girl Who Drank the Moon
  
• most loved mysteries: The Will Darling Adventures
• most loved young adult book/s: Ophelia After All, Loveless
  
• most loved children's book/s: The Library of Ever and Rebel in TLoE
  
• most loved nonfiction: How to Be Ace, Sounds Fake But Okay

I'm honestly shocked I read so much. Last year I read 45 books, and the years before that I was reading 20-some books a year (not counting my 1st pandemic year reading slump). Shoutout to my Reference Desk shifts for giving me set times to read every week.

I felt embarrassed about how many books I'd bought this last year, but in 2022 I had bought 116, so I'd say I'm doing pretty well! It helps that I'm only letting myself buy books from thrift stores and independent bookstores (with the occasional Bookshop.org deal and cheap Nook ebook). Back then I was buying books from Book Outlet a couple times a month. As it is, I've only bought 9 more books than I've read! I sold several books (a couple boxes' worth) but didn't keep track of how many, so I've eliminated the "# of books sold" bullet point.

Here are some of the charts from my amazing reading log spreadsheet created by Tirzah Price.

Fantasy remains my most-read genre, but the percentage amount has gone down slightly. In 2022 General Fiction was the third-most read genre, while in 2023 it is the second-most read. Last (last) year's second most read genre, Memoir/Bio, was barely read this (last) year (3 books). My third-most read genre this year, Romance, has nearly quadrupled in percentage from last year. The free romance novel ebooks I've downloaded from Barnes & Noble are to blame.

In terms of form, 81.8% of the books I read were prose, while the rest of the pie was tiny slivers of 3-1 books each. 

[A.N.: I had the "books read by month" chart here, but it's inaccurate so I deleted it and the commentary. Some stats don't translate to the charts for some reason.]

Click to enbiggen

Author/Artist Gender: My percentage of female authors has gone up from 2022's 50% to 54.2%. The nonbinary authors percentage has quadrupled from 2.1% to 8.5%! Thusly, male authors have gone down from 43.8% to 35.6%.

Nation of Origin: The US percentage went down slightly, while the UK percentage went up a bit (I think this was the year I reread The Chronicles of Narnia). The Canada slice is due to the L.M. Montgomery collection, Christmas with Anne, that I read every holiday season. The New Zealand slice is due to a very bad and not even fun romance novel free ebook I don't want to talk about.

POC Authors (should be Authors of Color) vs. White Authors: The amount of white authors went up over 10 percent, so the amount of authors of color I read lowered the same amount :(

POC Protagonists (should be Protagonists of Color) books vs. White Protagonist books: How did this come out the same as the previous chart when they were different in 2022??

I'm tired of doing screenshots, so I'm going to write out the rest of my reading data in a list.

- Nearly 30% of the books I read in 2023 were by queer/LGBTQ+ authors and/or artists. Last year (2022) it was only 18.2%! What a jump!

- 31.5% of the books I read had queer/LGBTQ+ protagonists. Last year this was 25%. Yay for progress!

- I think the chart for trans authors is broken like the 2022 chart's was. Counting from the spreadsheet, I read 5 trans and nonbinary authors in 2023. Last year it was only 2 nonbinary authors!

- I read 2 books with trans/nonbinary protagonists this year, 3 if you count Nimona (and I kinda do). I can think of at least 1 other book with a nonbinary side character. Last year none of my books had a trans protagonist. Yay for progress!

- 18.5% of my books had disability representation, up from last year's 4.5%!!

- 3 of my books were translated, up from last year's 2 translated books. One of the poetry books I read had both born-English and translated poetry, so I counted it as translated. 

- I read significantly less nonfiction this year, 12.7% (a little under half of last year's percentage). The rest was fiction.

- Very different, almost flipped, percentages for age range. Over half of the books I read were for adults, 25.5% for young adults, and 21.8% were for children. 

- Nearly 15% of the books I read were published in 2023 (8, I think). In 2022 the percentage was only 4.3%. Clearly, the SimonTeen free digital read of the day was responsible for this percentage. 

- I read 26.8% of the books I bought in 2023. Some were gifts, so. Last year I read 21% of my purchased books.

What a ride! I really have to try reading more authors of color and books about people of color. I also need to read the books I keep buying.

Rest of December books

 I did my usual Christmas and New Year's rereading of Christmas with Anne. I also read The Nutcracker, Alexandre Dumas's version, as I was bored at my parents' house for Christmas. It was interesting and weird. 

I also read a couple of cheap or free ebooks I had downloaded.  

First up was Murder at Merisham Lodge by Celina Grace, the first book from a historical mystery series called Miss Hart and Miss Hunter Investigate. The premise is that it's the 1930s and both girls are working as servants/staff in a big country mansion for a rich family, and murder starts happening. Both girls are bright and feel there's more to the mystery than the police are seeing, and decide to keep their eyes and ears open for clues. It's sort of like Downton Abbey meets Agatha Christie, and I liked it.  Of course as a murder mystery it's pretty violent and sad. I'd read more mysteries from this series. 4/5 stars, no spice although there is mention of infidelity and extra-marital relations. Trigger warnings: murder, gore, blood, corpses, violence, sexual assault mentions, abortion mention (a girl gets pregnant out of wedlock), sexism, classism.

 

Next was I Was Born For This, which I snapped up because it's by Alice Oseman and I love her books and the ebook was cheap. I didn't really know what it was about, but it somehow also wasn't what I was expecting. Angel (who goes by the English version of her Arabic name) is a huge fan of a diverse boyband called The Ark, and would rather talk about the boys and their music than think about her future. She meets up with an online friend and fellow The Ark fan in London to attend the band's concert, and all sorts of stuff goes down. One of the boys from The Ark, Jimmy, finds almost every single aspect of fame and being in a boyband excruciatingly difficult and anxiety-inducing. He runs away from an important interview, and that is how he and Angel meet. A sort of weird friendship springs up between them, as Angel (who knows everything about Jimmy, yet is a stranger to him) helps Jimmy through a panic attack and running away to go back home. This book is a fascinating look at fandom, fame, friendship, and mental illness, and while it made me very sad at times, I cared for all the characters and rooted for them to be happy. The fandom stuff was interesting to me, as a decade-long user of tumblr (I was never a mega-fan of any musician/musical group, but was aware of the climate). I liked all the Christian/Biblical references and Joan of Arc quotes, etc. in the book. 4/5 stars, 2 chilis due to a little bit of (mostly mentioned) sexual content and talk. Trigger warnings: suicidal ideation, depression, panic attacks, OCD, blood, serious injuries, anxiety, alcohol, obsessive/stalking fans, transphobia, racism mentions, parental neglect, a character is kicked out by their parents, a guy lies to a girl to get her interested in him, drugs mention, knife

 

I think I forgot to mention this earlier, but I also read (not in December) The Screwtape Letters through one of those emailed enewsletters via substack. After the smash hit of Dracula Daily, a lot of other books (especially public domain books) got the email treatment. As an epistolary book, TSL works great for this, and it was fun to get an email in my inbox with the day's Screwtape letter. 4/5 stars. Trigger warnings for mentions of death, war, sins such as adultery and the damned being tortured/eaten etc. Nothing explicit

SimonTeen's free December ebooks

SimonTeen (the teen books arm of publisher Simon & Schuster) did a fun promotion where every day from December 1-25, they had a book you could read for free digitally if you made an account on their website. Being my parents' daughter, I love free stuff; naturally, I had to avail myself of the opportunity. I read so many good books due to this promotion; here they are. 

 

Pride & Prejudice & Pittsburgh by Rachael Lippincott ★★★★ (December 10) Aesthetics moodboard for P&P&P

Rather than being a lesbian Pride & Prejudice retelling, as the title suggests, it's about a 21st century girl who somehow time-travels to Regency England. Audrey, who had been trying to rediscover her spark for art, needs to figure out how to get back to her time and home in Pittsburgh. Lucy, the young lady whose backyard Audrey ends up in, is being forced into marriage by her domineering father. Can they figure out how to get Audrey home and Lucy out of getting married, and figure out their feelings for each other??? This book was so good and I really enjoyed it, even if the title feels like a placeholder they never got around to replacing. The story is not P&P enough to justify the title. No spice, just kissing. Trigger warnings: controlling & abusive father forces daughter into engagement/marriage and threatens to kick her out of the house, internalized and societal homophobia, a girl is tied up and locked in a room, semi-controlling boyfriend/codependent relationship (past)

Rana Joon and the One and Only Now by Shideh Etaat ★★★★ / 🌶🌶🌶 (December 12)

Go read the book description at the link above and then come back, because it's hard to sum this book up succinctly. Rana is so full of grief at the loss of her best friend and angry at her mother's unequal and sexist treatment: her mom will nag her to diet and be more girly while pampering Rana's brother and letting him do whatever he wants because he's a boy. Their dad visits once a year because he lives in Iran, and the family frays under the weight of pretending to be one happy family. Rana wants to enter a rap battle in her friend's memory as it was his dream, and in starting to practice and gain confidence, she befriends and starts to fall for a fellow Iranian American girl. I really rooted for Rana and wanted her to have every happiness. I gave it 3 chilis because of a couple of sex scenes and explicit language. Trigger warnings: car accident death that may have been suicide, lesbian has sex with a guy which could be seen as self-harming, depression, mental illness, homophobia, bullying, anxiety, controlling parents, fatphobia and diet culture, drug use, underage drinking, sexism, infidelity, partying, sexism

Miles Morales: Suspended by Jason Reynolds and Zeke Peïa ★★★★ (December 14)

I loved both Miles Morales Spider-Man movies, so I was excited to read this one even though I don't usually read comics-based middle-grade novels. This one reads like Miles is writing in his diary or talking to you and includes poetry by Miles that moves the plot along. It's a sequel to MM: Spider-Man; you don't have to have read it to get what's going on here as it's summed up, but MM: Suspended is a continuation of that story. Miles is suspended for standing up to his racist teacher, and something is not quite right at school... I feel that Reynolds really captured Miles's voice, and I enjoyed being along for the ride, even though the villain/threat is creepy. Reynolds deftly folds Miles' personal and superhero dilemmas with the current racist book-banning issue in an age-appropriate way, and with such economy of language, all in a 14 year old AfroLatino boy's voice! I was really impressed by his writing and will have to check out more of what he's written. Peïa's art is dynamic and fun but never distracting. It's not illustrated enough to be a graphic novel, but it's got way more illustrations than your typical middle-grade novel (Miles should always have art). There's a librarian character I found very intriguing. Highly recommended. Trigger warnings: insects/bugs, violence/fighting (if your kid watches superhero movies it's probably fine), racism, racist/unsupportive school and teachers, lying to teachers (see prev. so it's fine)

A British Girl's Guide to Hurricanes and Heartache by Laura Taylor Namey ★★★.5 (December 17)

This is the sequel to a book I asked for for a couple of birthdays ago and still haven't read, A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow. I hate reading series books out of order, but ABGG2HaH was only available one day, so I read it anyway. It seems to be a reverse of the first book, which was about a Cuban girl going to England after suffering loss; this one's about an English girl going to Miami after suffering loss. Flora has just lost her mum and has hurt her family with her grief and anger, so she runs away to stay with her friend Lila (first book girl)'s family. Her best friend Gordon, who had just confessed his feelings before she ran, follows her to Miami, just after she's met Baz, a Cuban cutie who's part of a famous photographer dynasty. Flora goes to cool places I'm dying to visit, deals with the Cuban chisme grind, and tries to figure out where her heart lies, all while continuing to throw herself into photography. I enjoyed this book a lot as a Cuban American, even though I know nothing of Miami. I'm not from England either but I'm not sure how true Flora's Englishness rang. The right words are there, but idk. Still, a great read! I def want to read the first one now. No spice, just kissing. Trigger warnings: death, early onset dementia, grief, hurricane/natural disaster

November Reads

 I'm so behind on book reviews lol

 

The Hollow by Agatha Christie - 3 ½ stars

This is another Hercule Poirot mystery that I picked up from the thrift store, and like all the other AG mysteries I've read, it's well-written and interesting. You can read the summary here.  Just about everyone in the story, who are all related or friends, is a suspect, and I didn't guess who the killer was. Besides our beloved M. Poirot, the most fleshed-out characters were the dead man's wife and mistress. The mistress (I've forgotten all their names, of course) is an artist, and it was really interesting to read about how the muse would overtake her and she'd walk around everywhere hunting for the right inspiration until she found it and could create the art she needed to. The wife, a dim woman who worships her husband, is a rather pitiable figure. There's a scene where she and the children are sitting at the table waiting for her husband to arrive, and the food is getting cold, but she's stuck in decision paralysis because if she sends the food back to be warmed right before her husband arrives, he'll be mad and scold her for making him wait, but if she doesn't send the food back he'll be mad and scold her for it being cold. That is such a realistic portrayal of decision paralysis and anxiety. I found the older lady interesting, with her speed-of-light thought process that is definitely ADHD. Poirot obviously solves the murder but it's sad. Still, I enjoyed reading this. The characterization is strong in this one, even for characters who don't come into the story much. 3 ½ stars, 1 chili pepper as there's mentions of sex but no scenes. Trigger warnings: murder, firearms, infidelity, misogyny and sexism, controlling and verbally abusive relationship, antisemitic depiction/description of Jewish character, classism

A Duke She Can't Refuse by Gemma Blackwood - 3 ½ stars

This was a free ebook I downloaded from Nook. Book summary here  It's got several romance novel tropes: the nobility love interest (duke, obvs. You'd think no other types of men exist in Regency romance novels except nobility ones), forced/fake engagement, "don't fall in love with me" but of course they do, wallflower/bluestocking doesn't want to marry, etc. This book also has a mystery that was quite interesting, with a couple of thrilling rescues. It's actually a no-spice romance, which I didn't realize until end the because I enjoyed the book so much that I didn't notice. The sexual attraction, "no we mustn't" and kissing is still there though. This, unsurprisingly, is the first of a series; I'd be willing to read the rest, preferably free or from the library. 3 ½ stars, 1 chili pepper for the kissing and lusting. Trigger warnings: young woman is kidnapped and held at gunpoint, a character falls out of a window and dies (off-page/past), house fire/arson, grief, I think someone cuts their hand and bleeds?

 

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite - 3 ½ stars

This is a sapphic Regency romance novel, so of course I put it on my to-read list. The ebook went on sale for $1.99 and I snapped it up. Book summary here  I like that the protagonists are both women in their 40s and have their own careers that they enjoy and are fulfilled by. Type-A Agatha runs a printing business and gentle Penelope is a beekeeper. They meet because a swarm of bees creates a colony inside Agatha's warehouse, and are attracted to each other. Agatha is a widow (although not the waspish one in the book) and Penelope is in a lavender marriage to her brother's partner. This keeps them apart initially as Agatha thinks it's a real marriage (well, it is legally but you know what I mean) and tries to keep her distance, and Penelope sees this as lack of interest. Penelope reads butch/masc as she wears trousers 90% of the time because of the bees and has short hair. There are several other queer people in this book, which I really liked. I also learned a lot about Regency beekeeping practices. There's a lot of conflict with the Lady of the village and her brother the vicar, who together rule the village with an iron fist and attempt to impose their will (touted as "morality" rules) on the townspeople and especially Penelope and her queer friends and family members. They fight back, of course; there's surprisingly a lot of political activism in this book. The Queen Caroline Affair comes up a lot; I had never heard about it but it needs to be made into a period drama. I know I only gave it 3 ½ stars, but I really enjoyed this book and will definitely check out Olivia Waite's other books. 4 chili peppers (this is definitely a spicy book). Trigger warnings: homophobia, religious homophobia, corrupt religious leader, bee killings mentioned, bee cruelty/endangerment, grief, infidelity mentions

Aesthetics moodboard for TC&KoWW

Book Review: Northranger by Rey Terciero and Bre Indigo

Cade has always loved to escape into the world of a good horror movie. After all, horror movies are scary—but to Cade, a closeted queer Latino teen growing up in rural Texas—real life can be way scarier.

When Cade is sent to spend the summer working as a ranch hand to help earn extra money for his family, he is horrified. Cade hates everything about the ranch, from the early mornings to the mountains of horse poop he has to clean up. The only silver lining is the company of the two teens who live there—in particular, the ruggedly handsome and enigmatic Henry.

But as unexpected sparks begin to fly between Cade and Henry, things get… complicated. Henry is reluctant to share the details of his mother’s death, and Cade begins to wonder what else he might be hiding. 

I had heard about this book on (surprise, surprise) Bookstagram and immediately added it to my to-read list. A gay Jane Austen retelling starring a latino character? Hell yeah, this was made for me. I bought this from a local-ish comic book store booth at my local pride.

This graphic novel retelling of the usually overlooked Northanger Abbey follows its source material pretty closely. Gothic novel fan Catherine is now horror movie-obsessed Cade, who feels alienated from his family and community for being gay. The book summary pretty clearly lays out how he feels about having to work at the ranch; Cade, who already sticks out for being latino in a rural, white area, also hides his gay identity for obvious reasons. This is difficult because he's falling for sweet and hunky Henry (same first name as Northanger Abbey's love interest). Henry Tilney is one of my favorite Austen leading men because he's so witty and funny; Northranger!Henry is nice but not that funny, probably because it's draining to be a closeted gay Christian in the South who's endured familial loss. Due to (mostly unintentional) eavesdropping and ominous accusations made by a disgruntled farm hand, Cade gets the idea that something terrible happened at Henry's family's lake house, maybe even murder. Is Cade living in a horror movie? Could he be falling in love with a serial killer?? If you've read Northanger Abbey, you know where that line of thinking is going, but it's a wild ride anyway. 

This is a fantastic book, both as a Northanger Abbey adaptation and as an exploration of being gay and closeted in the heteronormative, Christian South. I can't say I enjoyed the book, as it's always harrowing to read about homophobia, racism and xenophobia, plus I'm a wuss when it comes to scary stories, but I'm so glad I bought and read it. 

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Spice score: 0.5 out of 5 chilies 🌶 (just kissing)
Read in: September 19
From: 4 Color Fantasies pride booth
Status: keeping for now

Aesthetics moodboard for Northranger 

Representation: gay, second/third generation Hispanic/Latino American (I think Cade is Mexican American?), anxiety (not explicitly stated), step-/blended family, queer Christian

Trigger warnings: homophobia, racism, ethnic/racial slurs, xenophobia, sexism, alcoholism, suicide (voluntary euthanasia), terminal illness, cancer, conversion therapy mention, being closeted, horror/suspense themes, mental illness, animal abuse, family struggling financially, alcoholic character is racist & homophobic antagonist (demonization of alcoholism)

Ace Week books

I read these books back to back at the end of Ace Week, which is the third week of October. 

 

Loveless by Alice Oseman

This is one of the big ace books that are touted around bookstagram. I'd bought it at Target during a sale as I loved the Heartstopper show on Netflix, which is an adaptation of Oseman's series of the same name. This book has a very similar feel as the show, and it's set in the same universe (the characters go to the same high schools as the Heartstopper characters). Georgia starts university and struggles with society's and her expectations of finding and wanting love and sex. (More expanded summary) The way she's an introvert and loves fictional love and fanfiction but finds herself recoiling when faced with the prospect of PDA is so relatable. Some of her thoughts and decision-making during dating mirrors my own. Her confusion and despair were sad to read about. She also deals with friend drama, some of which she contributes to. Pip, James, Rooney and Sunil are mostly well-rounded, dynamic characters and I enjoyed spending time with them as well. Pip, a butch latina, and Sunil, Georgia's college and asexuality mentor and beautiful cinnamon roll (too good for this world, too pure) are my favorites. The love they all have for each other warmed my heart. Friendship love truly is so important. I wish I had had this book when I was in high school or college. 

4.5 out of 5 stars, 2 out of 5 chili peppers. Keeping. 

Aesthetics moodboard for Loveless

Representation: asexual, aromantic, aroace, pansexual, lesbian, Hispanic/Latine British, femme, butch/masc, South Asian British, gay (homoromantic), nonbinary, character with multiple pronouns, depression, anxiety (I don't remember if it's specifically mentioned but Georgia has it)

Trigger warnings: binge drinking, alcohol, partying, sex, depression, past toxic & controlling relationships, inferred past rape, anxiety, fire/burn accidents & minor injuries, low self-esteem, a character uses sex to make herself feel better/wanted

How to Be Ace: A Memoir of Growing Up Asexual by Rebecca Burgess

I'd seen this book around ace bookstagram a lot too before finding it at Big Gay Comic's booth at my local Pride. Rebecca Burgess writes about their experiences growing up uninterested in crushes and dating, and is in distress about being abnormal and broken, etc. due to society's messages. They find out about asexuality and write about their struggles getting others to accept and understand them, as well as dealing with anxiety and OCD. Society's pressure about dating and having sex as markers of adulthood are dwelled on a lot in this book. (Read the book summary here) Rebecca tries dating, but they hate the physical contact that is expected. You can't help but to root for Burgess as they come to understand and accept themself and find a relationship that works for them. There are a lot of similar themes to Loveless, like the aforementioned topics as well as going through college and making friends. Maybe I shouldn't have read these two books back to back in order to fully appreciate the differences, but oh well. I loved the Good Omens shout-out in this book; Burgess says they see their own asexual relationship reflected in Aziraphale's and Crowley's. I think the intended audience for this book is young adult and older, based on the mentions of sex. The drawing style is a very 'childish' style and makes the book seem younger than it is. The page where it depicts various ace approaches to sex actually has illustrations of couples engaging in these activities, and with the cutesy cartoony drawing style it kind of takes you aback. Burgess does not, as far as I can tell, also identify as aromantic, but I think it applies as they have no interest in other people or dating for a long time (and they seem to only date people they like as friends). Overall, this was a valuable book and I'm glad I read it. This is also a book I wish I'd had in high school.

4 out of 5 stars, 3 out of 5 chili peppers due to the sex mentions/illustrations. Keeping for now.

Representation: asexual, aromantic in the beginning at least, anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, sapphic relationship, possible biromanticism, protagonist is diagnosed with endometriosis towards the end of the book but it doesn't come up much

Trigger warnings: rape mention, corrective rape mention, OCD spiraling thoughts, panic attacks, anxiety, eating issues due to OCD, depression, aphobia, homophobia, ableism, poverty, going hungry, economic issues, being out of work, unhelpful therapist, sex mentions, amatonormativity, low self-esteem

Bookworm Math

So I started a bookstagram (read: turned my regular personal IG account into a bookstragram by posting more about books and bookish things) and made a post about a meme that's been floating around Instagram. You've heard of girl math and boy math, and the concept quickly spread into concepts like reading or bookworm math. Here are my contributions.

Bookworm math:

• Buying books from independent bookstores is basically the same as donating to charity.
• i.e. noble, selfless, giving, charitable, altruistic, philanthropic, demanded by my religion, Matthew 10:8, etc.
• Paying $3 for a thrift store book is too expensive, but paying full price for a book at an independent bookstore is not.
• Let's be real here. Thrift stores get so many book donations and they will never run out of books to sell. I don't want to see a hardcover over $2 or a paperback over $1. Who do they think they are, The Strand? Also, see the previous bullet point.
  
• Buying a book from every bookstore, book selling stand/booth/stall, museum gift shop, etc., is the admission fee for visiting it.
• What do you want me to do, be rude?? break the rules?? It's mandatory!
  
• I gave away ten of my books, so now I can buy 20!
• Makes sense to me. I was so good at weeding my books that I deserve a little treat.
  
• Buying yet another bookcase when I run out of shelf space is a good investment.
• My books need a place to live! What, you want them to live on the floor like so much refuse? You know and I know that I'm going to keep buying books for the rest of my life, so it's a good investment really.
• I am justified in buying this bookish T-shirt/tote bag/pin/etc. because I'm a librarian. It's basically for work!
• Note to the IRS: I do not count my bookish purchases as work expenses

Am I right or am I right?

Book Review: The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun

The publisher of this book ran a promotion where if you made a free account for their e-reading app, you could choose an ebook to read for free. I'd had my eye on The Charm Offensive for a while, as it's a queer Bookstagram darling that features an ace-spec character, so I jumped at the chance. Here's the summary:

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.

It took me a bit to get into this book and adjust to the writing, but this was a fun and cute read with a lot of mental health discussion and representation.  I felt for Charlie being constantly overwhelmed by reality television and being unable to pretend to be a charming extrovert; I did one episode of a game show and it solidified for me that a career in reality television is not for my introverted self. I can't imagine trying to act happy and normal whilst dating 20 strangers and dealing with manufactured drama for several months! Charlie has severe social anxiety and OCD, which are not understood by most of the people in the show. Dev is the only one who kind of gets what's going on, and this helps them connect (the show making them cohabitate doesn't hurt either). Charlie quickly becomes dependent on Dev, and Dev finds he genuinely cares for Charlie; this is surprising to both of them, as are the feelings they develop for each other.

I felt that it was unrealistic for Dev to believe so strongly in love and happily-ever-afters when he's worked for a dating reality TV show for six years. Everything in those kinds of shows is fake. He's literally helping manufacture it behind the scenes! I also don't get how Charlie and his awesome assistant thought being on a reality dating show would rehabilitate Charlie's image so he can get work in his field, which is coding?? What does that have to do with anything? It's established almost immediately that Charlie doesn't like to be touched, but then after the first week or so Dev kept touching Charlie without asking/warning first and Charlie seemed to be okay with it? I also thought Dev's behavior and decisions towards the end were unnecessarily dramatic. So what if Charlie is supposed to get engaged to one of the women? Just keep it quiet until Charlie can legally break up with the winner. There is some miscommunication trope, I'm afraid.

Charlie not realizing he's gay makes sense in context of his being demisexual: if he is only sexually attracted to people he's in love with, and he's never been in love before, then he'd be ignorant of both aspects of his sexuality. Dev is also gay, and he appears to have ADHD as well as depression. 

Over all, I really enjoyed this book, and I liked that it had mental health as well as ace-spec representation. I'd recommend it to people who like their romance books to have depth and representation, but still make you kick your feet and giggle. This would be such a great rom-com movie.

Score: 4 out of 5 stars, 4 out of 5 chilies 🌶
Read in: September 19
From: Glose app
Status: deleting my Glose account later

See my aesthetics moodboard for The Charm Offensive!

Representation: Indian American, gay, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, anxiety, depression, demisexual/asexual spectrum, ADHD (not explicitly named), Black minor characters, Asian minor character(s), bisexual minor character(s), lesbian minor character(s)

Cover notes: Another cartoony romance novel cover. I'm not a huge fan of the style but what it's depicting is perfect.

Trigger warnings: ableism, homophobia, biphobia, depression, OCD, anxiety, racism, low self-esteem (possible internalized homophobia), being in the closet