Codename Charming by Lucy Parker

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Codename Charming
by Lucy Parker
August 15, 2023 · Avon Contemporary Romance














I didn’t read book one in this series and perhaps I should have, but I am jolly glad I read book two. It’s a treat.
Petunia De Vere (who everyone calls ‘Pet’ which takes some getting used to) is the personal assistant to a newly minted royal – Johnny Marchmont. He’s well-meaning, but endlessly clumsy and prone to putting his foot in his mouth. Pet often finds herself being flung aside by Johnny’s flailing limbs. Invariably, it is Matthias Vaughn who catches her, sometimes with his head. Matthias is one of Johnny’s bodyguards. He’s the strong, silent type you want to climb like a tree, while Pet is sunshine and humour and adventure.
Johnny’s clumsy moments are invariably caught on camera, but one particular photo causes a real stir because it appears as though Johnny and Pet are on ~intimate~ terms. This is, of course, not true. Johnny is devoted to his wife, Princess Rosie. Nevertheless, the rumours aren’t dying down and the team decide that Pet, who is a bit of a viral sensation due to Johnny’s clumsy antics, needs to be in a fake relationship, specifically with Matthias Vaughn. That Rosie gets a chance to play matchmaker is just a happy coincidence.
Cue a classic grumpy-sunshine, fake relationship plot. But kind of with a twist. Being in a fake relationship with your colleague while working in front of the rest of your colleagues is really awkward. They become so wonderfully shy with each other. But there are these tendrils of attraction that draw them closer. The first day or so of their fake relationship is absolutely swoonworthy.
Alas, after the initial phase, it plateaus a bit. They get to know the facts about each other, but their emotional closeness is pretty high right from the jump. That initial shyness almost forces them to be vulnerable and open with each other – in actions, if not necessarily in what they say. Then it’s just a waiting game to see who will take the leap first and confess their feelings. For the story, it makes sense that the emotions are there from the get-go because they’ve liked each other for years but done nothing about it, but the stakes are artificially inflated from that point on because we know they both adored each other from word go.
Perhaps because I didn’t read book one in this series, I found the first few chapters a bit confusing. I assume this is because there were references to events in book one that were more fully explained then and only mentioned briefly in book two. That said, I was still able to follow the story. I just wasn’t as immersed as I could have been.
In terms of criticism, I would say that the humour wasn’t always a good fit for me. It tends towards slapstick and a kind of forced, sometimes farcical humour. My favourite parts of the book were those that weren’t meant to be humorous – when it was just pure emotion with some sexytime thrown in there. There are also quite a few supporting characters, which makes sense as it is a series, but the sheer number meant that most of them remained relatively flat characters.
While the royal family in this series is completely different from the actual UK royal family, you do still need to be broadly on board with a) royals existing in the first place and b) paparazzi are generally bottom-dwellers. Rosie and Johnny are, of course, endearing characters and there is just as much emphasis on their staff as there is on them. Nevertheless, there’s a lot of inherited wealth and privilege.
Overall I liked this book, though some parts were much more swoony than others, especially as the tension between them became mostly me, the reader, waiting for one of them to admit their feelings to the other already. While the waiting part wasn’t my favourite, the emotional development and vulnerability between Pet and Matthias was delicious.