A queer version of the bachelor except its the bachelor and a producer falling for each other???? SIGN ME UP. This was a surprisingly sweet and funny story about two people getting to know each other and falling in love. Dev Deshpande is a romantic, he believes in fairy tale endings and happily-ever- afters... too bad his own love life is far from that. After breaking up with his boyfriend of 6 years, who also is a coworker with Dev on the reality dating show Ever After, Dev is more than happy to be focusing on work... and that work is the new bachelor Charlie Winshaw. Charlie is doing Ever After to prove to the company that he was just fired from that he can be sociable and regain his reputation in order to work at his company again. Charlie is a gorgeous tech millionaire... but his biggest problem stems from his difficulty with working with other people, be it in working relationships or romantic relationships. Charlie has severe anxiety and has extreme OCD, but he can’t seem to let other people know and people find him difficult to work with. Now its up to Dev to coach Charlie through this dating show and make him presentable to national television, the only hiccup is that now that Dev and Charlie are partners they can’t seem to stop falling for each other... even though Dev is suppose to be helping Charlie date 20 women and finding a fiancee at the end of the show. Soon Charlie and Dev are going on practice dates, working on puzzles, and dealing with mental health issues and discovering one another all while trying to work out their feelings for one another and what will happen at the end of the show.

This was a very cute romance story that handled mental health and sexual identity really well. Charlie has severe anxiety and OCD, and was treated as “crazy” and fired from his job and hasn’t really told anyone except his one friend about it while Dev has clinical depression but does not want to acknowledge it and refuses to go to therapy despite knowing that everyone wants him too. Charlie is also just starting to realize that he is not straight and trying to understand his own sexual orientation. The characters in this story both struggle with many real issues, especially with having mental health issues and the difficulty of not only accepting it but letting people around you know as well as discovering yourself and your sexual orientation. I found Charlie and Dev’s struggles very relatable as someone who deals with similar things and found this to be a refreshing story as it delves into these difficulties while also having a very sweet love story. I would highly recommend this because its just so well done and sweet.

*Thanks Netgalley and Atria Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*