One Week to Win the Chocolate Maker

Bestseller Janovsky (The Fake Dating Game) delivers another over-the-top queer romance, this time riffing on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Pennsylvania native Charlie Moore’s family is struggling to make ends meet and their house is on the verge of foreclosure. His solution? Enter a contest hosted by the eccentric Amorina Chocolate corporation, the prize of which is heir Dario Cotogna’s hand in marriage. It was a scheme cooked up by Dario’s late grandfather, and it has Charlie and four others from across the world arriving for a week in the beautiful Villa Meraviglia in Perugia, Italy. What follows is a Bachelor-esque competition for Dario’s affection, albeit with some Roald Dahl–inspired twists along the way. It’s an unabashedly goofy setup, and the parallels to the original often feel odd or out of place, not least because the love interests are based on Willy Wonka and Charlie Bucket. Meanwhile, Dario’s oft-mentioned penchant for wearing fedoras and “steampunk-style” fingerless gloves, and Charlie’s visceral attraction to these sartorial choices, may turn off some readers. Despite a handful of cringe-worthy moments, however, Janovsky excels at combining the silly and outlandish with the sincerely heartfelt. The author’s devoted fans will welcome this. (Jan.)