AMC: Charm

Due to missing All My Children, I decided to finally read my copy of the Kendall Hart (Alicia Minshew) book “Charm”. It was written by an unknown author in 2008 and was a tie-in novel to All My Children. Here are my thoughts on it and if you don’t want to know don’t read the rest.

Charm is the name of the book as well as a real fragrance that was sold at Sears and online. The main character named Avery Wilkins, who is a lot like Kendall. She has a cosmetics company named Flair that was started with make up made in a kitchen, which is similar to Fusion.

Avery fell in love a man named Finn Adams. He was the love of her life, and married. Unfortunately he died before they could tell the world of their relationship. Finn gave Avery the money to start her business. Upon Finn’s death, his adult daughter Parker got his 51% in the company. Parker and Avery had to work together, but she was a complete party girl, who had drug and alcohol issues.

Avery was involved with a man named Marcus, who cheated on her and then fell for a man named Brad. Marcus was immature, while Brad had two unsuccessful marriages. She bounced between the men, though her heart was with Brad. The first of Brad’s marriages ended in divorce (as they were too young when they were wed) and the second in death as his wife had mental problems and died accidentally. Brad was blamed at first, but was cleared of all charges.

The fragrance Charm was also part of the story as its creation in Paris was discussed in great detail. Her partner Justin (a gay man) helped her get a meeting with an amazing perfumer, who created the fragrance.

Like AMC’s Kendall, Avery was adopted. A mother who drank too much and an abusive father who left raised her, and her mother ended up using her body to support them. Avery had a famous mother, who gave her up for adoption, named Patricia Lucas. There was one good thing about that in she now had a sibling named Lucy. Patricia ended up trying to use Avery to restart her flailing acting career and Lucy was duped into helping a competitive cosmetic company.

Parker also caused problems for Avery as she became unhinged. Work issues turned into personal ones, and Parker paid people to kidnap Avery. Avery escaped Parker was caught, and that was that.

By the end of the story, Avery’s life was complex, but in order, she was pregnant by Marcus, loved Brad who accepted the situation and Parker was out of the way. Her adoptive mother suffering from Alzheimer’s disease was getting settled in a home in an outer borough of New York City, so things were going well.

This book was very typical of its genre. I saw copies at a bookstore recently in the discount section. This book was a quick read (less than 2 hours) and under 300 pages. If someone misses AMC this may be a good way to spend some time in a place like Pine Valley even if the story took place mainly in New York.