The Charlie Method

Campus Diaries, Book 3

By: Elle Kennedy

Narrated by: Teddy Hamilton, Persephone Lee, Sean Masters

The third in the steamy, hilarious Campus Diaries series by New York Times bestselling author Elle Kennedy, set in the same world as Off Campus and Briar U.

College senior Charlotte Kingston is living two lives, and she's nailing both of them. By day, she's the perfect sorority girl, a STEM student in biomedical engineering, and the adopted daughter of an overachiever family. At night, she's Charlie: a risk-taking daredevil looking for fun who finds herself chatting on a dating app with two anonymous hotties.

Will Larsen may seem like the breezy boy next door, but his congressman father is a constant thorn in his side. After a scandal hits another Division 1 hockey program, Will's dad is determined to distance his son from it, hiring a journalist to prove how squeaky-clean Will and his team are. Which means the last thing Will wants is for anyone to find out he and his best friend Beckett Dunne - a laidback Aussie shielding secret heartache - sometimes share girls in the bedroom.

When Charlie finally meets them in person and realizes she's been chatting with two gorgeous Briar U hockey players, things get steamy fast. But all their messy secrets are piling up, and real life soon threatens to shatter the fantasy. With Charlie, Will, and Beckett all coming to terms with what they want and what others want for them, difficult decisions will need to be made.

Especially when lust starts to look a lot like love.

©2025 Elle Kennedy Inc. (P)2025 Elle Kennedy Inc.

Trigger warning for adoptees

First, I’m in the process of reading right now. Trigger warning for adoptees—this touches on search and reunion, as well as adoption-related complex trauma.

I’m giving Elle Kennedy some serious side-eye right now. I love her writing, but I am beyond exhausted by authors who write about adoptees without a shred of understanding—no research, no grasp of the trauma, and certainly no awareness of what it means to come “out of the fog into adoptee consciousness” (Branco, S.F., Kim, J., Newton, G., Cooper-Lewter, S.K., & O’Loughlin, P., 2022). The dominant narratives in adoption stories almost always belong to adopters and the adoption industry, while adoptees themselves are often used as plot devices rather than fully realized characters. Using adoptee experiences as a convenient source of drama—without exploring the actual nuances of what it means to live without cultural connection or biological mirroring—is both lazy and ignorant.

The healing process of being an adoptee is complex, yet time and time again, we’re reduced to one-dimensional characters whose only defining trait is gratitude. Meanwhile, adoptive parents are framed as one-dimensional saviors who can do no harm or wrong—despite the fact that they participated in a system that, at its worst, functions as human trafficking, and at its best, deals in cultural erasure and deep trauma for adoptees, while parenting from spaces of adoption incompatance. I just wish more authors would take the time to understand adoptee mental health before crafting these narratives.

That said, this one feels slightly different so far. The way spiraling is described actually resembles adoption-related complex PTSD, which is rare to see. But let’s be real—I will challenge the idea that most adoptive parents respond well to reunions initiated by the person they adopted, especially in closed adoptions where adoptive parents have done nothing to support the adoptee’s experience of cultural reclamation, identity development, or biological connection.

(Spoiler-ish thought ahead) Charlie has to guess what will happen if she searches, rather than it being an expected and regular part of family conversations and culture. That uncertainty speaks volumes, it’s a glaring indication of how little space she has been given to process her origins, and how the unspoken expectations her adoptive family has shaped her fears around her reunion experience. (End of spoiler-ish though.)
Writing about a marginalized group without authentic research or understanding isn’t just lazy—it’s dangerous. Fingers crossed that Elle Kennedy did her homework and spoke to actual adoptees about their stories. We’ll see. I’ll come back and update this review, and I am hoping with all my soul that this book holds space for adoptee character development—one grounded in reality and critical thinking.

Loved it!

I enjoyed the story and how it wasn’t one dimensional. It dealt with multiple topics outside of the love story. I am hoping there is a book about one side character in particular but to avoid spoilers, I won’t say who. Narration was fantastic. 🎧

THIS BOOK!!

Elle out did herself. Loved everything about The Charlie Method. Charlotte is honestly what I think a lot of girls wish could be. (Open and free and not hide who she really is) Will and Beckett are both amazing, just in awe of their growth since the Graham effect. Chefs kiss 🤌🏻🤌🏻

IT WAS AMAZING

This book was so good. It’s probably one of my top books of the year. You feel so many different emotions when you read it and the narrator did such an amazing job. I 100% recommend.

Elle Kennedy is great, but this book was just ok.

Elle Kennedy is an incredibly talented author who crafts her characters brilliantly, and as a long-time fan who has read most of her work, I was excited to dive into The Charlie Method. As individual characters, I liked Charlie, Beck, and Will—they were well-developed and engaging in their own right. However, I struggled to buy into the throuple dynamic at the heart of the story.

Could I see this working as a purely physical, no-strings-attached situation? Sure. But as a believable, jealousy-free, drama-free relationship between three “normal” college students? Not so much. Kennedy’s execution of this relationship didn’t quite convince me, though I’m sure others may feel differently.

That said, The Charlie Method was still an entertaining read. It had the fun, engaging writing style that Kennedy is known for, but overall, it just didn’t hit the mark for me. Would I recommend it? Probably not. Will I reread it? Also no. But this doesn’t change my opinion of Kennedy as a writer—I’ll absolutely keep reading her books because I genuinely enjoy her storytelling. This one just wasn’t for me.

everything great untill the encouraging of drug use appear💀

this is the first time I read threesome in romance,it's great but I still prefer the intimacy and exclusive feeling of just only 2 people making love more. everything great untill the fmc said she want to do drug to feel free and to relieve her stress. that's almost make me stop listening lol wth is wrong with romance authors these days? this is not the first time I read about the mmc and fmc try to use drug to relieve their stress in romance book it's make me wondering what kind of agenda these people tryna push to their readers. sorry for my grammar but I hope you understand me and rethink about this kind of hidden agenda that you try to put in your book.

tbh I am abit disappointed in this book I think this book is the least favorite from this serie.

YES just yes

I am obsessed with this book. Uuuggghhhh I need Lars and B in my life

Oh boy, this book was a lot. Duet Narration was fantastic!

Despite the critics I have, I still had a good time reading this. The narrators did anyone amazing job!!

Will, Beckett and Charlie's story was complex and a slow journey. The banter was great, the spice was enjoyable (sometimes a lot), and the storyline felt organic for the most part.

What was going on with the pacing of this story?? Did anyone edit this?? There were so many storylines crammed together that it was too much. Then, somehow, there were also very dull and repetitive parts that were unnecessary to the progression of the story.

Dad Chat was my favorite part!!!!

Also, how did this make me love a historical fanfic and want to read the rest?!

Content warnings: adoption trauma, child abuse (not MCs), toxic parental relationship, loss of a loved one, grief, shame, anxiety, negative self-talk

My rating: 4/5

Spice: 4/5 (quantity)

Secret Dating Lives of People Pleasers

The Charlie Method is a MFM romance. Charlotte is a perpetual people please with a wild side of her perfect image that includes racing and hooking up with random men. She knew of Beckett and Will as hockey players with their stereotypical reputations. However, she starts talking to them on a hook up app where they take their flirty, filthy fantasies into make them reality. However, Charlotte has to reconcile that fact that people pleasing may mean missing out oh the best things in life.

Charlotte is adopted from South Korea, and that storyline is explored where she had to figure out what she had a drive to be perfect while she met a brother that she didn’t know she had. Will had to go through the same realization about learning not care about other people’s opinions. Beckett had his own demons that caused him to be closed off to intimacy beyond sex. These plots were very interesting. However, there wasn’t a lot of character development, but a lot of sexy times. The characters were still well developed and interesting, getting to see past characters was a lot of fun! I personally felt the length of the book. Needless to say, The Charlie Method is not a bad book! I enjoyed it a lot! It just didn’t measure up to the Dixon Rule or The Graham Effect.

Amazing!!!- especially the duet narration

This has been my favorite book out of the series! I loved the main characters and the unconventional relationship dynamics. I am also so pleased that this was recorded in duet style narration- it completely enhanced the listening experience.