Book Review: The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The True Love Experiment
Author: Christina Lauren
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication date: May 16. 2023
Length: 416 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction/romance
Source: Library
Rating:

Sparks fly when a romance novelist and a documentary filmmaker join forces to craft the perfect Hollywood love story and take both of their careers to the next level—but only if they can keep the chemistry between them from taking the whole thing off script.

Felicity “Fizzy” Chen is lost. Sure, she’s got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she’s asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn’t been practicing what she’s preached.

Fizzy hasn’t ever really been in love. Lust? Definitely. But that swoon-worthy, can’t-stop-thinking-about-him, all-encompassing feeling? Nope. Nothing. What happens when the optimism she’s spent her career encouraging in readers starts to feel like a lie?

Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass—unless he agrees to her list of demands. When he says yes, and production on The True Love Experiment begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too.

The True Love Experiment is the book fans have been waiting for ever since Fizzy’s debut in The Soulmate Equation. But when the lights come on and all eyes are on her, it turns out the happily ever after Fizzy had all but given up on might lie just behind the camera.

Christina Lauren books can be counted on to deliver zippy dialogue, great chemistry, entertaining characters, and unexpected plot points… and The True Love Experiment exceeds expectations with all of these! In fact, The True Love Experiment might just be my favorite Christina Lauren book yet.

Fizzy Chen is a character we’ve met before — she’s the main character’s zany best friend in The Soulmate Equation. Apparently, fans have been clamoring for more Fizzy ever since the earlier book, and now she gets her own chance to shine!

Fizzy is a very successful romance author in her late 30s, who’s reveled throughout her adulthood in her casual, open-to-anything approach to sex and dating. But as The True Love Experiment opens, she’s realizing that she may finally have just plain run out. She’s never been in love, and (in a very funny scene) she explains to best friend Jess that she may in fact have now dated every single man in San Diego. With these eye-opening revelations, Fizzy hits a major writer’s block — how can she write compelling romance when she’s not sure she actually believes in it anymore?

We also meet Connor, a gorgeous guy (whom Fizzy initially categorizes as romance tropes Hot Millionaire Executive, Hot Brit, and DILF) who’s a completely devoted divorced dad and the producer of environmentally-conscious documentaries. When his boss gives him an ultimatum — produce a money-making new dating show to save the production company, or be out of a job — Connor has to weigh his professional integrity against the reality that if he loses this job, he’ll have to move to LA to find work, which means giving up his role in his daughter’s daily life. Reluctantly, he commits to the dating show concept.

When Fizzy and Connor meet, they initially rub each other the wrong way… but we know that won’t last, because there are instant sparks amidst the bickering and button-pushing. Between them, almost as a dare to see who can come up with the craziest concept, they develop a framework for the new show: Fizzy will be the star, and the show will cast “heroes” who fit into defined romance archtypes — the bad boy, the hot nerd, the cinnamon roll, the one who got away. Fizzy will date each of them, the audience will vote on her true soulmate each week and determine who gets eliminated, and in the end, the audience will select a winner who’ll receive a cash prize. But there’s another twist: Fizzy and all contestants will also take the DNADuo test (see The Soulmate Equation for more info), a genetic screening test that identifies relationship compatability and defines matches on a scale (Base, Silver, Gold, Diamond, etc). At the show’s finale, the DNADuo match results between Fizzy and the finalists will be revealed, and then Fizzy will get to decide who she truly wants to be with.

As you might expect, all does not go according to plan. How is Fizzy supposed to fall in love with one of the show’s heroes when she’s distractingly attracted to Connor? The more time they spend together, the clearer it becomes that this isn’t just a matter of physical connection — but falling in love isn’t an option when (among other reasons) it would breach her contract with the show.

Okay, that’s the basic plot outline. What that doesn’t tell you is the insanely great connection between Fizzy and Connor, the absolutely hilarious dialogues that occur throughout the book, Fizzy’s amazingness as a person, and how utterly loving Connor is, as a dad, a friend, and a person who’s mad for Fizzy.

The book is told through both Fizzy and Connor’s POVs, so we know what’s going on inside and out. There’s the obligatory big obstacle that seems to tear the two apart late in the book, and I was very frustrated at first — but getting to hear from both characters why the incident blew up the way it did, how it triggered them and what past issues it brought up, and how internally conflicted they were in the aftermath helped me accept what had happened, even if I disagreed with how both of them behaved in the moment.

The show itself is lots of fun, although I question whether a show like this would be as successful in real life as it is in the story. The show starts with eight heroes and unfolds over just six episodes — is that really enough time to find true love? (OK, I need to admit here that I have never watched a single episode of The Bachelor or other dating shows, so I take anything of this sort with heaps of grains of salt).

I listened the audiobook, which has different narrators for Fizzy and Connor, and they were both wonderful! The downside of listening to the audiobook is not being able to highlight the parts that made me laugh out loud (there were plenty!) and share them here.

The True Love Experiment is so engaging, charming, and funny. I love that the characters are clearly amazing people, and that we get to see them in other roles (parent, aunt, best friend, daughter) to get a view of their lives outside the relationship as well. Fizzy and Connor are each fantastic on their own, and their connection together is not only full of physical chemistry but also based on emotional honesty and empathy.

Overall, The True Love Experiment is a joyful, entertaining read, with plenty of humor but also sincerity and intelligence. Highly recommended!

24Dec2021

Book Review: The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: The Charm Offensive
Author: Alison Cochrun
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication date: September 7, 2021
Length: 358 pages
Genre: Contemporary romance
Source: Library
Rating:

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.
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.

Full disclosure: I have never, ever watched an episode of The Bachelor. I don’t believe people can find true love via a TV reality dating show. But, grudgingly, I suspended my disbelief in order to read The Charm Offensive, and ended up enjoying it quite a bit.

In The Charm Offensive, Charlie makes for an unpredictable and unconventional “prince” for the fairy-tale based dating show Ever After, supposedly the most successful and popular dating show on TV. Charlie is a former tech genius who was fired from his own company. His publicist thinks putting him out there as a romantic lead on a hugely-watched show will rehabilitate his image… and hopefully, make him seem employable again when it’s all over. Are you feeling skeptical about this plan? Yeah, me too.

Meanwhile, Dev is a production team member of Ever After, tasked with “handling” the twenty women cast as potential love interests for Charlie. But after the initial filming attempt goes horribly, with Charlie barely able to talk on camera, Dev is reassigned to be Charlie’s handler. It’s Dev’s job to prep Charlie for the grueling weeks ahead, getting him into prince mode and making sure he’s ready to be on camera and at the center of attention.

The more time Dev and Charlie spend together, the more their chemistry and connection grow… but not without challenges. Charlie, it becomes clear early on, suffers from debilitating panic attacks and OCD, and he can barely keep things together when he’s under stress, which is pretty much constant on the set of Ever After. Dev deals with recurring depression himself, but his preferred persona is “Fun Dev” — he’s always, always upbeat and on when he’s around his coworkers and the cast, not wanting anyone to see beyond the surface.

Dev is out and proud, but he’s concerned about his growing attraction to the gorgeous Charlie. Charlie is… enigmatic. Because of his differences, Charlie has never seen himself as worthy of love, and he’s never explored romance or sexuality. As he spends time with the women competing for his heart, as well as spending almost 24/7 with Dev, he starts to acknowledge the attraction and the feelings he has — all for Dev. Yet his contract with the show requires him to continue playing out the romantic fantasy with the women competing to be his princess, and as for Dev, his career is on the line if he allows himself to act on his feelings for Charlie.

Charlie and Dev are very sweet together, and they share moments of vulnerability and honesty, as well as some absolutely swoon-worthy kisses. At first glance, the premise of The Charm Offensive makes this book seem like it’ll be mostly airy and light, but there’s actual depth here. Both Charlie and Dev have mental health issues to address, and Charlie is someone who’s neuro-atypical in a world that doesn’t quite know what to make of him or how to make room for him.

Additionally, Charlie hasn’t had an opportunity in his life to ever really consider love or orientation, and it’s refreshing to see the characters in this book talk about the spectrum of ways a person can be, discussing not just straight vs gay, but also delving into demisexuality, being aro/ace, graysexual, and more. There are some deeper moments of soul-searching that enable the characters to move beyond easy definitions and labels and make them feel like well-rounded, well-developed individuals.

The concept of Ever After is so ridiculous that it’s actually really funny, with the contestants competing in quests like rescuing Charlie from a tower and kissing frogs, the prince handing out tiaras at the weekly crowning ceremonies, and even the absolutely vital moment of riding up on a white horse. Still, the nagging little logical part of my brain couldn’t help thinking that there is actually no way that a show like this would cast someone like Charlie, who’s never been on camera, can’t speak publicly, is unbelievably awkward, and has just no game when it comes to the women. I couldn’t buy the idea that the show would gamble on him as its lead — it makes no sense, and it also makes no sense that this is the best idea Charlie’s publicist has for rehabbing his image and getting him another job in tech.

Putting that aside, there is a lot to appreciate and enjoy about The Charm Offensive. The writing is often very funny:

These are not appropriate morning-yoga thoughts. He tries to focus on things that calm him: Excel spreadsheets, quiet libraries, one-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzles, 90-degree angles.

Dude, except for the 90-degree angles, I so relate.

Also puzzle-themed, I actually think Charlie could be my soulmate in another universe:

“This is your idea of a romantic time?”
… Dev asked Charlie what he would do with his ideal afternoon. So now they’re working on a jigsaw puzzle while watching the first season of The Expanse…

Most of all, Dev and Charlie are both great characters, and I loved seeing their connection grow. This is a sweet, funny, and thoughtful look at love and communication and choosing happiness. The geeky sci-fi and puzzle bits are just icing on the cake!