Charlie, Love and Clichés by Ella Maise - A Book Review
Synopsis:
Six years ago at a random diner I met a stranger and he became the-one-who-got-away, or more correctly the-one-who-didn’t-show-up.
A small advice from me to you: if you haven’t dated, touched *or* kissed a guy in years and *years*…do not try to crawl away or hide from the-one-who-got-away. It’s not a good look.
William Carter, the stranger I’d met six years ago was the last person I’d imagine ever seeing at my dad’s firm where I work. While I panic and fight off the butterflies in my stomach and in general struggle to act normal, I realize he doesn’t even remember me. I’m not sure if I should feel relieved or heartbroken. Things get worse when I learn we’ll need to work in close quarters to each other, but at least I let him know that I don’t have a crush on him anymore right away. Just in case he gets any ideas.
While I’m in the process of writing lists and making serious changes in my life, because I decide I’m ready to be the heroine in my own story; having William just a breath away is not helping things. Especially when things shift between us and we start to make eye contact in meetings. Then he shows up in places I least expect him to…as in blind dates and sex clubs. He also gives me cheese because he knows how much I like it and there are secret notes he leaves in my office. If you were wondering, I still don’t have a crush on him though. Nope.
Even though I’d promised myself I’d never wait around for another guy and postpone my own life, I’m afraid William Carter who looks at me as if I’m his and was always supposed to be his might ruin my hopeful plans. And quite possibly me for any other guy since I’m craving his touch like I’ve never craved anything in my life before. But we both know we’re a losing game so we keep admitting that neither one of us has a crush on the other.
Not anymore. Not at all. Not even a little bit.
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Tropes:
- Workplace Romance
- Slow Burn
- Grumpy X Sunshine
- Second Chance
Ella Maise is an author I accidentally stumbled upon before the days of BookTok. My first introduction to her was through reading Marriage For One, which I absolutely loved and set a new love for a new author. I followed that book by reading To Love Jason Thorn – I have to admit, the cover is what drew me in, but as I read, I realised it was yet another story of hers that I enjoyed. Marriage For One is a story that I think about often, despite my lack of remembering the plot.
When I set out planning my A-Z Reading Challenge choices, I was familiar with Ella’s Charlie, Love and Clichés book, completely unrelated to the book cover, not sure why you’d assume it was. When I’d seen that it linked to the letter C and looked very pretty, I of course added it to my list.
I had high hopes for this book, but was knocked to be apprehensive following my curiosity at the reviews on GoodReads. I’m sure I said last time that I needed to avoid looking at reviews right before reading a book, have I done just that? Well no I haven’t!
Charlie, Love and Clichés follows hopeless romantic Charlie Davis in her navigation of working in the shadow of her sister at her father’s company. We first meet a flustered Charlie, running errands and collecting leaving supplies for a colleagues last day at the office. Charlie makes her late arrival at the office known, being flustered and awkwardly bumping into those passing by.
Once arriving at the office, Charlie begins avoiding her highly critical and opinionated father, who owns the company she works for. Only when she arrives, she finds her colleagues gathered around the desks meeting the new team member and replacement, William Carter.
Upon seeing William’s face, she realises it’s “diner guy” who she met 6 years ago at a diner where the pair had a date. A date which spanned over a few days, as the pair had an instant connection and chemistry that resulted in them meet at the same diner every night. That was until William failed to turn up one night and without any way of contacting each other, or knowledge of surnames, Charlie believed that was the end of their story – until now. After realising who the new team member was, her father informs William he would like him to meet his daughter, which prompts Charlie to duck and crawl away. Only she’s not able to hide so easily, not with balloons tied to her and therefore pin pointing where she was crawling to.
After meeting, Charlie attempts to pretend she doesn’t remember him, out of fear he won’t remember her. However, the pair quickly become reacquainted, as William reveals he did in fact remember Charlie straight away.
The story follows their journey from becoming strangers again to coworkers, friends and then the development and second chance of their relationship. Initially the pair decide it would be best to be friends, to keep things professional and because neither are looking for anything serious – Charlie as she is planning on moving away and William who has just exited a 6 year marriage. Only things aren’t that easy as they both live across from one another, whilst working being apart of the same team – resulting in them to bump into easy other constantly. As the pair become reacquainted, their easy going conversations resume from six years ago, making it harder for the pair to only just be friends.
When the pair develop their friendship, Charlie reveals to William her plans to move away soon. This prompts William to help with her job search, where he puts her in contact with a former colleague, who subsequently offers Charlie a job in California.
Charlie’s father invites William to dinner at their family house as an opportunity to get to know him and make him feel welcome in a new city. Only when he’s at the dinner table, he observes the scrutiny that Charlie faces from her family. There’s constant nitpicking and degrading about the hard work that Charlie puts in at the office everyday. She is compared constantly to her sister, who is seen as the star daughter; despite doing the same level of work as Charlie. After having enough, Charlie decides to leave and is quickly followed by William, who is enraged.
William and Charlie begin to spend more and more time with one another, leading them to re develop the feelings they had from six years ago, before eventually admitting how they feel. Charlie is adamant she won’t allow another man to derail her plans of moving away from her sister’s shadow, which prompts William to explain they will make the long distance work.
After William’s team miss out on working with a previous client of his, William places blame on Charlie for providing her sister with plans that William and his team had created, despite them having a negative relationship to begin with. This causes a rift between the pair, due to miscommunication about what had happened and that William was reluctant to understand that Charlie’s sister was already in his office when Charlie arrived, but stated she was waiting for William as a cover up for snooping.
The pairs miscommunication continues when William is met with the arrival of his ex wife, who is also pregnant, leaving Charlie to believe that their relationship is over before it truly began, due to her believing that William would want to set up to being a father.
Charlie decides she is done being blamed for William’s team missing out on the client and decides to confront her sister about stealing plans. When she arrives at her sister’s office, she confronts her, only to be told lies from her, prompting Charlie to become enraged and start shouting. This sparks the arrival of their father, who despite Charlie’s protests, takes her sister’s side. Deciding she’s had enough, Charlie decides to quit working at her father’s company and informs him that she’s moving to California. After leaving the office, she receives a phone call from her new employer asking her to move to California in 48 hours due to a work emergency.
With her relationship status with William being unknown, Charlie decides to move to California early to pursue her new job. Only when arriving, she’s secretly reeling in her disappointment and heartbreak at the end of her and William’s journey.
Thinking she’ll not hear from William, she begins to start her new life but is interrupted by William at her front door with Charlie’s beloved dog, Pep. William reveals that the baby his ex wife is having is in fact not his and that he has quit his job at her fathers company after realising he only wants to be with her and will not stand with how she was treated by her own family.
I don’t think it’s ever taken me as long to read a book, as it had to read this one. 18 days! I know 18 days isn’t a lot, but I typically read books in less than a week if I’m enjoying them. I don’t know what happened with this book, I didn’t not enjoy it. Work and life just got in the way and before I knew it, I never got round to finishing it.
I initially intended for Charlie, Love and Clichés to be my last read for January, but because of life and work, it ended up being a book I didn’t finish until the second week of February.
Yes it’s stressing me out at the fact I started a book in one month and finished it in another!!!
When I first started reading this book, I was really enjoying it. I thought Charlie was very relatable and I liked the chemistry between her and William. I liked how easy going it was. Then, the slump/work/life thing got in the way and when I picked it back up again, I was almost over the story. I was severely lacking in motivation to continue it, which made me feel sad because I really wanted to love this book.
I think if the whole work and life thing didn’t get in the way, then I would’ve loved this book and it would’ve been a near 5 star read. Unfortunately that’s not the case and that’s alright. I’m still a fan of Ella Maise and will most definitely read other books by her that spark my interest. Just because I don’t love this book, doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. I really did enjoy it, but towards the end, I just wanted to start a fresh with a new book that didn’t make me feel guilty at the length of time it was taking me to read.
I’m the type of reader that if I’m going to absolutely love a book and give it a 5 star rating, it has to be something that I’m glued to and complete within 1-4 nights. Otherwise, anything longer than that the rating goes down. I mostly go from how it made me feel and the vibes I felt in that moment of reading/upon completion and if a book looses that feeling because I’ve not read it as fast, then unfortunately it didn’t make a big enough impact to have a 5 star rating.
Final thoughts are I did enjoy it and it’s not a book I absolutely hated, I think if I ever have the time or nothing to read (like that’s going to happen *looks at endless TBR*) then I might revisit, using the word ‘might’ very loosely.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Georgia
♥
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