When Grumpy Met Sunshine was such a fun read. A slow burn romance with great character development. Loved it!

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Griffen, and Macmillan Audio for the eARC & ALC of this beautiful book. Available now—it released February 6th.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine
by Charlotte Stein

Narrated by Emily Spowage

Story Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (0-5)
Narration: 🎧🎧🎧🎧 (0-5)
Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (0-5)
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 (0-5) I bump up for self-pleasuring

What I’m Starry-Eyed Over:
🤩 One narrator works great here with single POV. Her accent is such a treat.
🤩 Workplace type with forced proximity.
🤩 Laugh-out-loud funny from the start. And it gets funnier than I was even expecting.
🤩 Both MCs are just so quirky and cute, and I love how their conversations are so raw and honest.
🤩 The fake dating & “We’re going to have to lean into it.” Yes, please! Lean way into that fake dating.
🤩 “Oh, and I might possibly have to sometimes snog your face off on your doorstep.” I just love when the word snog shows up in my books.
🤩 It gets pretty hot and very detailed when they pleasure themselves, right next to each other, in the back of the broken-down car, with so much dirty talk—absolutely one of the best scenes I’ve ever read. These two are the best mix of real, hot, and intimate in their steamy interactions.
🤩 I love how they get to know each other, how Mabel finds a different side of Alfie than she’s read about.
🤩 Great text and email threads.
🤩 When Alfie does Mabel’s hair and she internally freaks out about his thighs touching her.
🤩 When Alfie protects Mabel by reporting publicly that they’re dating.
🤩 The beautiful bigger girl body representation.
🤩 How Alfie won’t let Mabel talk badly about herself.
🤩 Cleverly written single POV, where we still get some of Alfie’s thoughts in their amazing dialogue.

What I’m Wishing/Dizzy About:
💫 I was glad I had the ebook along with the audiobook because the epistolary components were a bit confusing at first with just the audiobook (without seeing the visual).
💫 I love fake dating trope, but I felt like I was missing the secret pining that usually comes with it.
💫 In the end, the miscommunication was frustrating and sad.

Overall, I enjoyed When Grumpy Met Sunshine despite having a few issues. The body positivity was exceptionally executed, especially during the steamy scenes. I enjoyed the banter and the romance. I thought much of the book was sweet and vulnerable. However, it was repetitive, relied too heavily on miscommunication, and the ending felt rushed.

Also, if you dislike a lot of dialogue in books, avoid this. I think 80% of the book is dialogue.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Hmmm this one didn't quite pull me in but I did read the whole thing -- though a bit after the pub date. I'm sure there are people who are going to read this and love it but it wasn't a great fit for me personally. I liked the ghostwriting aspect of the story and am always a fan of the grumpy x sunshine trope but I felt that certain parts were very lengthy and could have been cut back to give more detail with less filler. Some of the information was told to us and not really explained which is fine but I prefer more depth with certain topics when they're brought up for a reason. Overall it was an okay read and if you like a lot of banter you might want to try it!

I'm thankful for the digital ARC from St. Martin's Griffin via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was another DNF for me. The first few chapters were all banter and no substance between the characters, and I just didn’t care. I love good banter, don’t get me wrong, but there was nothing about these two that made me want to keep going to get to know them and see how their love developed. The beginning of the story didn’t set me up to feel excited about what was to come. I simply didn’t care, and there were far too many books at the time that interested me more. And I have no intentions of going back and giving this another try. The title of the book was too on the nose for me too, I should have known better. Early on I was getting the sense that it was going to be more telling vs showing of the grumpy/sunshine trope. I don’t want to be fed that necessarily, I want to see it for myself.

I had high hopes for this one - the premise was cute and it hooked me in. This book was definitely chaotic, I was confused for a good part of it, especially in the beginning. I didn’t feel like Alfie was super likeable, I’m all good with grumpy but he was gruff and just closed off for the majority of the book. Mabel was cute, sunny and I love a plus-size heroine. I do wish more of her backstory was included/that she had a bit more development in the book. I still very much enjoyed their banter - I snorted of laughter several times. They definitely have chemistry and once the fake dating came into play, I felt like the book flowed smoother. Overall, their chaos was cute and became very them to me but I definitely wish both of the main characters were more fleshed out and I wish it didn’t take quite THAT long for them to admit they had feelings. 

I switched between the audiobook and ebook to read this. The narrators were enjoyable and brought the characters to life. 

Thanks to St-Matin’s Press, Macmillan audio and NetGalley for the chance to read/listen to an early copy. All opinions are my own.

I wanted to love this one.. Grumpy sunshine is one of my favorite tropes. There just wasn't enough to move the plot along. The third act conflict didn't really work and fell a bit flat. It was ok but not a favorite

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I am really sad that I did not enjoy this book. I love the cover and it sounded like it would be fun, but I was bored for the first half, then it started getting interesting. And then the ending was just confusing and didn't really work.

Wonderful story for everyone to enjoy. I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely. Happy reading!

Not for me. I just could not get into it. The writing felt chaotic from the very beginning. Not my vibe. Thanks for the opportunity!

As I read this book I felt like nothing was happening, and it was way too long. The miscommunication trope became annoying and over done. It felt like a poor fanfiction of Ted Lasso, in that Alfie reminded me a lot of Roy Kent. But other characters fell flat, without much development or personality. This book was not up my ally at all.

I want to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin for an ARC of this book.

I have truly loved some of Stein's erotic romance (she's one of the very few authors I'll still read in that sub genre) and this contemporary romance featured some of her trademarks but lacked sparkle. There's tantalizing character backstory that could have been better mined for emotional depth and plenty of banter that ended up going in circles for me (most of the time). For two characters who talked a lot during the course of the book, not very much seems to get said and then they just STOP talking at the end to facilitate a third act separation that just didn't work for me and spur the reader towards the happy ending.

There were bits I really liked (I'm not a monster, there were parts of the final chapter that got me in the feels) but it never really came together as a whole for me.

I tried multiple times to get into this book and just couldn’t. I don’t dislike the grumpy/sunshine trope but I did feel like it was a little forced in the part that I did read.

Honestly this wasn't a book that worked for me. I have never read a book by Charlotte Stein before and won't be closing myself off to future books, but overall this wasn't my cup of tea. I loved the premise and how much it intrigued me, but Mabel as a character felt insufferable at times. I could tell that Alfie really liked her, yet she kept doubting because of her size and that tended to get on my nerves. It had really great potential but overall felt flat and underdeveloped as a story. I wasn't a fan of the lengthy dialogues either.

This just did not do it for me. The cover and premise really pulled me in. But alas, fell flat. The FMC’s inner dialogue killed this book for me. Lots of words. But nothing of substance. It feels like we have to trudge through all the lengthy babbling monologues in slow motion like quicksand, but we all know there is nothing quick about it. Even the spicy scenes..
I also couldn’t connect to the characters. Adults but they acted pretty juvenile.. is there a thing of too much banter? Some of it was funny, but just felt over the top. I cringed a bit. Not a fan of the dialogue. Lots of miscommunication.
And the sentence structure felt a bit choppy.
I really wanted to love it.
But the cover is really cute.

First of all, this cover is perfect. Second, I love Alfie. He was not what I was expecting. This story was fun, cute, and deeper than I thought it would be. I'm beginning to become a big fan of sports-adjacent romances, and this one was the perfect Ted Lass0/Roy Kent combination. I can't wait to read more from Charlotte Stein.

This was a really sweet story. Grumpy/Sunshine, not very friendly to friends to lovers, miscommunication, and a happily ever after. Everything that someone could possibly want in a romance.

I did not like this one at all. I love grumpy sunshine tropes and bigger bodied female main characters but this just did not gel with me. Maybe it was the Ted Lasso type male character or the sudden switch from grumpy to all over each other but I didn’t love it.

Mabel Willicker is a ghostwriter with so much sunshine and cheer that she feels she can crack the nut that is grumpy ex-footballer Alfie Harding and get him a best-selling memoir full of details. But when their business arrangement is mistaken for a real relationship, the pair puts on a show for the public. Is their budding romance just for show, or could there be something more to their story?

I love a good grumpy to sunshine trope. Throw in a fake relationship and you have romance gold in my book. There were some really fun and engaging parts, but it was chock full of dialogue that made reading feel clunky and exhausting at times. I wish that the author did more showing than telling through drawn-out internal and external dialogues. I think that would have helped me to engage more with the characters. Because of this, I stopped reading at 42% in the book. I wanted to keep going but struggled to stay invested. As such, I will not be posting my review to my Goodreads account.

Thank you to Charlotte Stein, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an e-copy of this book for an honest review.

This was adorable. I eyeball read this and then did the audiobook when it was released. I really enjoyed this story. It was surprisingly funny, and very sweet. Alfie is just clueless about so many things, but he's willing to step outside of his comfort zone over and over again for Mabel. I love Mabel! She's adorable and honest and takes way too long to understand what's happening between them, lol. I get super heavy Ted Lasso meets Fake dating romcom. This was my first by Charlotte and I really enjoyed her writing style. I'm also glad I followed it up with the audio when it released. Sometimes I struggle with 3rd person POV in romance, but the narration really helped me connect with the characters and I enjoyed it more the second time through.