I really loved this book! I couldn't put it down. I was absolutely I love Alfie and Mabel. I had such a great time reading this!
I just reviewed When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein. #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL]

I love this book with my whole heart. It's warm and heartbreaking while also being relatively low-angst and comforting. How did the author manage such a perfect balance? it's magic. Oh, and it's super sexy and hilarious, too!

Tropes- Grumpy/Sunshine, Fake Dating, One Bed, Slow burn, Miscommunication
Diversity/Rep- Plus size FMC
Thoughts- This book was exactly what I needed. The perfect book to get me out of my reading slump. I loved reading about these two. And when we finally reach the spice…whewww… I hope you have a fan and some water nearby.

📚BOOK REVIEW📚

When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I was so excited to get the galley for this from @netgalley that I didn’t wait long to read it. I breezed through this way quicker than I anticipated.

The miscommunication between our mains kept the action going, and lead up to some spicy romance scenes. Definitely for fans of the grumpy/sunshine and fake dating tropes!

A Ghost Writer and a football player with fake dating!! Sign me up! Add in the grumpy sunshine trope and I am living for this book. I really have been enjoying books with the FMC as a writer lately. I will add this one to my list of those books becuase I will be needing to buy a physical copy when it releases! It was a quick fun read that had me devouring it in one sitting. This is my first Charlotte Stein book and it looks as if this author has an extnesive backlog that I will be checking out!

This book is great for those who love a slow burn grumpy/sunshine read. Unfortunately, it was not the book for me. I found the male main character to be too grumpy and pretty unlikeable. It was extremely hard to fathom why the female main character would want to be with him. The spice was fine, it just felt like it took a long time to get there. So again, if you love slow burn, grumpy/sunshine romances, this is perfect for you.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read this book in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to fall in love with this book so badly but my rating was brought down by the excessive amount of dialogue/banter. While most of the banter was enjoyable, it felt like the story was dragging. The banter didn't lead to anything half the time and just seemed to make the book longer for no reason. It there is going to be so much dialogue/banter, have it be used to advance the plot or move the story along.
I did like the characters on their own. I felt they were very strong, well developed characters. I also liked the tropes of grumpy x sunshine and workplace romance. I think this book just needed more editing.

3.5 stars

Got the free arc ebook. Was a cute read, some spice towards the end. Slow burn at first because both characters fight their feelings... but love how both show their true selves to each other.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC. I was excited to read this book based on the description - grumpy former footballer and cheery ghostwriter enter into a fake dating arrangement. The description described some of my favorite tropes. There were parts I enjoyed - Alfie and Mabel’s interactions were entertaining and at times very funny. I enjoyed Alfie’s character more than Mabel’s. Although I was drawn in early in the story (despite an awkward writing style), I wasn’t a fan of the last third of the book. Without spoiling the ending - I was unsatisfied with Mabel and Alfie’s storyline and found myself annoyed by Mabel’s constant insecurities and self-doubt. By the end, I was skim reading to find out what happens.

I LOVED this book. This was the most perfect, grumpy/sunshine, fake dating, friends-to-lovers book I've read in a long time! The banter was hilarious, the friendship was endearing, and the tension was incredibly hot. Mabel and Alfie are the definition of heartwarming love, their shared connections and personal discoveries made me love them even more. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for this ARC, I absolutely adored this book!

Could work for others. Did not connect with the writing style. I would still recommend however as the premise was really sweet.

The premise of this book is very cute—think Roy from Ted Lasso falling for a sweet, eternal optimist type.

I’ve never had this criticism for a story before, but the bantering takes up too much of the story—there’s massive amounts of back and forth & long stretches of dialogue with very little description.

For many portions of the book, it was hard to get a feel of where the characters were, what they were doing, or what they were feeling through the heavy focus on dialogue!

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC!

Thanks to NetGalley for this arc!

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book! I honestly don’t think the title does it justice — I thought this was just going to be too cute and trope-y, but it was more than that.

Alfie is so Roy Kent coded that I was picturing him the entire time (and hello Beck, also known as Ted Lasso). When I first started reading it, I thought the writing style was strange and hard to get used to, but I ended up loving it once I pushed past the beginning. I loved the banter and laughed out loud multiple times. It was a solid slow burn, and the end result was very rewarding! I really enjoyed this book!

This wasn't my favorite book. One of the main things for me was that this was written in UK english, and I'm American. It was a bit confusing at times trying to figure out what something meant. I also felt like there was too much description. Things were just described to death if I'm honest. I found myself just skipping a few pages here and there just to get past the descriptors. Now I love the plot. I'm a huge fam of the grumpy/sunshine trope. But overall, I just didn't find myself excited to jump back into this book after a long day...

I would say 3/5 stars, I liked the plot and the banter when it was there, but the descriptors were too much for me.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is very tropey (grumpy x sunshine obviously, celebrity romance, and fake dating) which can be fun however I felt like the beginning of the book had too much banter and the plot kind of fell through for me. It was not a bad book by any means but I didn't love it either. Thank you net galley and St. Matins Press for an e-arc in return for my honest review

While the plot of When Grumpy Met Sunshine has great potential (grumpy ex-footballer hires sunny ghostwriter, shenanigans cause fake dating scenario, will they/won't they), the writing just didn't work for me. Too often, I found myself rereading sentences to make sense of what was actually happening, and I often had trouble differentiating between inner monologues and actual dialogue. I'm sad to say that this fell flat for me.

Oh my gosh I loved this! it was cute as heck, and totally engaging. I hadn't been hoping for more than just a fun read, so I really appreciated HOW fun it was. It kept me reading until way too late at night.

I will never not love the grumpy/sunshine trope, and when you make one of them basically Roy Kent I'm basically sold already. This was just impossibly charming and I was routing for them the entire time. I loved it!

This book was not for me. I didn’t like the voice of the female main character and I found the dialogue to be a little too much. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc ebook in exchange for an honest review.

—What you’ll get🤍: grumpy/sunshine trope, famous millionaire footballer, plus sized FMC.
—Spice level🌶: 3/5 slow burn with such a delicious payoff! The chemistry is palpable.

Fans of Roy Kent are in for a treat with this slow burn romantic comedy!

A gruff, growly, retired footballer ends up with a fluffy, bubbly, pastel-loving ghostwriter to help him with his memoir. She gets him to open up to her slowly, seeing him for who he really is rather than for who he shows the world. A beautiful friendship full of delicious banter blossoms between them. And when they are forced into a fake dating situation, things only get better (and steamier!).

I’m normally not a fan of slow burn romance but this story was just too fun not to love. The banter, the sharing, and the understanding between the main characters was so well done. The chemistry build up between them was executed beautifully. The steamy scenes were hot and fun and definitely paid off by the time they rolled around.

Stein clearly has a distinct writing style. It’s great in the way that she has a clear voice. The only downside was a lot of repeated elements through the story that distracted me after seeing them many times (a high amount of colon usage, characters lettering their thoughts [a. b. c.] repeatedly, etc.). But really, these are very small stylistic choices that I’m sure some people will love! Not a big issue in any way, but noticeable elements for sure.

Finally, the epilogue being one year later felt too far on the future to me. A few months-half a year would make more sense. But I was so happy with the epilogue, it didn’t really matter in the end!

Overall, this was a fun and easy read that anyone who loves romance and the grumpy/sunshine trope will surely enjoy.