Bless This Hot Mess is a hilarious, campy, musical and moving book that provokes you to ponder: If I steal a few hearts, can I still get into Heaven?

When a failing radio station’s morning show starts stealing, sampling and remixing ‘90s pop songs in a Hail Mary attempt at attracting an audience, virtuous virgin Japheth is forced to team up with Rino, a dangerously charming Italian car dealership heir with advertiser dollars to spend and maybe-mafia vibes, and their enemies-to-lovers romance threatens to become the station’s biggest scandal and its only salvation.

At WWJD Radio in Greater Napanee, salvation is off script. The phones are ringing off the hook, the fax machine is spitting out cease-and-desist letters from every boy band of the ’90s, and Trinity, the trio of accidental evangelists, are stealing pop songs “for the Lord.”

There’s Rebekkah; the breathless true believer who, though 30, still refers to herself as an ingénue. Her best friend Japheth; virtuous and still virginal. Ronald: poly, pan, and building an ark in his backyard.

Together they’re keeping WWJD barely afloat.

Until it burns down. Literally.

Their only shot at salvation comes from Rino Ferrari: a devastatingly charming Italian car-dealership heir with too much money, too many secrets, and maybe a little mafia energy. Unfortunately for Japheth (romantic mess and professional overthinker), Rino is also the last person he wants to need… and the first person he can’t stop thinking about.

As scandal, suspicion, and undeniable chemistry collide, Japheth and Rino tumble from enemies to lovers in a rom-com where faith is flexible, temptation is tailored, and the guy you’re supposed to hate is the one who makes you feel alive.

Outrageously funny, shockingly tender, and just heretical enough, Bless This Hot Mess will jump-start your heart.

Available from Border2Border

Bless This Hot Mess Book Release Party | September 3, 2026 at 7:30pm

Get your hardcover or paperback personally signed, listen to songs from the book’s original soundtrack, and strike a pose with our very special guest: Sexy Jesus. They’re also be free sodas and beer from Left Field Brewery, music, laughs, and plenty of fellow readers ready to bless this beautiful hot mess together. Pre-order your hardcover or paperback now at HopelessRomanticBooks.ca and have it waiting for you to be signed at the party. Bless This Hot Mess original soundtrack is available now on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube.

Hopeless Romantic Books, 1080 Queen Street West, Toronto

More Info and Tickets

Charlie David is the author of the novels Mulligans, Bless This Hot Mess, Fatal FX, Shadowlands, and Boy Midflight—works that blend heartfelt storytelling with wit, honesty, and emotional resonance.

Mulligans was adapted into a feature film distributed by Warner Bros., HBO Canada, Sundance Channel, Hollywood Suite, and MTV / LOGO, while Shadowlands became a TV miniseries now streaming on Amazon Prime in 14 languages worldwide.

Through these adaptations, Charlie’s fiction has reached a broad international audience, establishing him as a distinctive voice in books and screen storytelling.

Beyond his novels, Charlie has written, directed, and produced more than a hundred hours of television, earning twenty-two nominations for the Canadian Screen Awards and winning eleven Telly Awards for excellence in digital and broadcast media.

Whether on the page, screen, or digital platforms, Charlie’s work consistently champions stories of identity, love, and resilience with both humour and heart.

WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK

Bless This Hot Mess is a big, joyful comedy, with the spirit of stage shows like Altar Boyz, Shucked, and Book of Mormon and TV series like Girls5Eva and Schitt’s Creek. It’s loud, heartfelt, a tad outrageous, and proudly rooted in small-town Canada.

Part of the reason I wanted to write this story comes from my own complicated relationship with faith. I grew up steeped deep in Christianity while also coming to understand myself as a gay man. For a long time those two identities felt like they were in constant conversation, and sometimes conflict. Faith can be beautiful and comforting, but it can also carry expectations that make you feel like you don’t belong.

Writing Bless This Hot Mess became an opportunity to explore those tensions with curiosity and humour. I didn’t want to write something cynical about faith, and I didn’t want to write something preachy either. Instead, I wanted to find the comedy in the collision between the reverent and the irreverent. What happens when big spiritual ideas meet messy human ambition, pop music dreams, and small-town gossip?

About the Author

Bryen Dunn is a freelance journalist based in Toronto with a focus on tourism, lifestyle, entertainment and community issues. He has written several travel articles and has an extensive portfolio of celebrity interviews with musicians, actors and other public personalities. He’s willing to take on any assignments of interest, attend parties with free booze, listen to rants, and travel the world in search of the great unknown. He’s eager to discover the new, remember the past, and look into the future.