Jay Coles, left and Alison Cochrun Cochrun’s Charm runs too long; Coles’ Things offers pleasant surprises TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER | Bookworm SezBookwormSez@yahoo.com The Charm Offensive: A Novel by Alison Cochrun, c.2021, Atria; $17; 368 pages.
The applause is all for you this time. It’s deafening, really — perhaps because there’s a standing ovation beneath it. All the work you did, the emoting, the emotions — you know how much your fans appreciate it.
So take a bow. Drink in the love. As in the new novel, The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun, that’s one thing that’s sometimes missing in life.
Dev Deshpande was good at his job. He knew it; his colleagues knew it. It was fact. He might personally be terrible at love — case in point: He was