This is my first Charlotte Stein book, and while the title can tell you the trope, it was a cute and sweet story with small town antics. I loved reading about the characters and finding their why behind their motives. Great book championing the small town and local kiddos while they traverse the path to love!

I really want authors to have original ideas. I was so looking forward to a Roy Kent-Esq MMC but I’ve learned that no one and nothing can compare to the original. Overall I was disappointed in this story and felt like I couldn’t connect to or enjoy any of it.

I wanted to like this -- the characters are likable! But the writing wasn't really there for me. It's overwritten at parts, and the end feels extremely rushed.

- Fake Dating
- Forced Proximity
- Grumpy x Sunshine
- Plus Size FMC
- Spice (1/5 🌶️)

Mable is a Ghostwriter who is plus size and happy living in the background after her trauma filled childhood.

Alfie is a retired footballer attempting to write his memoir but is struggling because its only a career, he took due to his alcoholic father’s pushing.

After series of hilarious but absurd events Mable has taken on the task of getting the cold exterior footballer to open up.

When they have to start “fake dating” so word doesn’t get out that he’s using a ghost writer lines get blurred.

Mis-communication always causes heartbreak.

The way the came back together is beautiful.

The main character Afie reminded me of Roy Kent from Ted Lasso which is perfect for a grumpy meets sunshine. The dialogue at times felt excessively too long and/or forced banter which took away from the overall flow of the story and character development . Their year apart also felt unnecessary. Thank you Net Galley for a copy of the e-book in exchange for my honest review.

This story sounds so cute and has a few of my favorite tropes, but it was a little long-winded for me. The audiobook was a hard to follow despite listening to many British accented English audiobooks and I had to slow down the speed. The banter was somewhat immature and I couldn't get into the characters. It has a lot of potential just didn't work for me.

This book was so delightfully horny! An grumpy English soccer player who primarily communicates in grunts and growls (very Roy Kent from Ted Lasso!) and his cheery memoir ghost-writer--who has more going on under the surface than she likes to reveal--have off-the-charts chemistry! I read this in one massively frenzied sitting! A+

When Grumpy Met Sunshine is a fun, banter-filled romance that fans of Ted Lasso will enjoy!

Mabel Willicker is a ghostwriter hired to write the memoir of Alfie Harding, a notoriously grumpy retired footballer, written in the image of Roy Kent. When images of the two together make their way to the British tabloids, they agree to pursue a fake relationship—and discover real feelings along the way.

Some of the more enjoyable elements of this book were the banter between the two leads, and Alfie's total appreciation and obsession with Mabel. The writing style was a bit odd; it leaned very heavily on dialogue and almost had too much banter. I really appreciated the representation of a plus-sized main character, though I wish that she had been less preoccupied with the idea that a sexy man would never be interested in her—even as Alfie showed his interest in a million ways!

Overall, this was a 3 star read for me but I recommend for Ted Lasso fans and those who enjoy British romcoms!

Alfie is an ex-footballer and Mabel is his ghost writer. The unlikely pair match up quite nicely actually even though it doesn’t seem like they would at first. Stein always comes up with the most unique characters who have their own quirks, so I enjoyed that aspect of the book a lot.

However, I did find the beginning to be quite slow. It took me a while to get back into her writing style since it’s so unique. As a result, I found that I didn’t immediately love this book as soon as I started it, but rather it grew on me slowly.

I think if you’re a fan of rooting for unlikely pairings, then I think you’ll enjoy this opposites-attract novel. Alfie definitely lightens up and we can see a great romance bloom between the two of them.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine seemed like it would be a sweet rom-com and there were elements that I really enjoyed about it. However, I'm a clean romance reader, and this had a spice level all its own!

That said, the banter was wonderful and I really enjoyed the characters who each felt unseen for different reasons. One was a famous footballer who hated the sport, and the other was the ghostwriter of his upcoming autobiography, sworn to secrecy by the very nature of her profession. While their lives seemed like polar opposites, as they started to get to know one another, they found all sorts of connections and similarities that drew them closer into each other's confidence.

Thanks to Charlotte Stein, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

In case you can’t quite tell from the title, When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein is new UK-set grumpy x sunshine romance! However, what I thought was going to be an opposites attract romance slowly turned into something different.


I feel deceived by the summary of this book. Not in that it’s inaccurate, but that I was so excited for this book and had such high hopes for a cute romcom and instead I started reading a book I was thoroughly confused by…

Ok so these two people who are supposed to be a ex-professional soccer player and a prolific ghost writer are having a conversation that’s giving off the same energy as two socially awkward chimpanzees interacting for the first time...?

And somehow cleaning someone’s eyes of the pepper spray that you sprayed them with is erotic??? Color me confused!

Additionally, the flow of this novel felt very disjointed. For example, some chapters were just 3-4 pages of Mabel’s thoughts during a 30 seconds moment and then the next sentence was like “and then we ate dinner for 3 hours and went home.” Why there were inconsequential moments being stretched out and major plot points being glossed over is beyond me and it made the flow of this novel very bizarre.

Aside from all of that, there were a few steamy scenes that I enjoyed and the last chapter/ending was kind of satisfying? But it just took so long to get to any good parts (no joke: I got to a fake dating trope at the 50% mark of this ebook) that I almost gave up on this book a few times.

I’m not sure I’d necessarily recommend this book to anyone, but you’re welcome to read this book if it strikes your fancy!

*I received an ARC from St. Martin’s Press in exchange for my honest opinion.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein is an opposites-attract romance. This is the story of Mabel and Alfie.
 
Alfie was a professional soccer player, and he is rather closed off and a private person. We only get to see glimpses of him, and it was very difficult to connect to him and sometimes he was too grumpy. At the same time, it made people even more curious about him and a biography about him is being published. And that’s where Mabel comes into the picture.
 
Mabel is a ghost writer, and she has such a vibrant and creative personality. She is basically the opposite in every way and their writing process is quite the ride. Mabel is a lovely person and basically carried this story forward.
 
The concept and title immediately intrigued me, and it was definitely a cute story, but I wanted more from it. Unfortunately, I just didn’t feel the romance in this story and there were too many hurdles for me.
 
Overall, if you like romcoms, this might be a story for you. 3 stars.
 
(ARC kindly provided in exchange for a review.)

Thank you to the author, publisher and @NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Obviously Grumpy x Sunshine - YES

Roy Kent inspired MMC - YES

Fake Dating - YES

I just loved this. As a big fan of Ted Lasso (but weirdly not a soccer fan), I did love our grumpy MMC Alfie. He had that same Roy Kent-ish ability to deadpan the sweetest, most romantic thing and just say it like it’s a completely normal thing.

And our FMC is amazing as well ❤️ you know, gotta give a girl some love too.

I LOVE A GRUMPY SUNSHINE STORY! This book has it all, a not too heavy sports romance, slow burn, b a n t e r, I loved every second of reading it. This might be one I pick up for my shelves.

On paper this should have been like catnip for me - super grumpy Roy Kentish soccer player + sweat sunshiney ghost writer, so I’m really sad to say this one didn’t work for me. I didn’t like the writing style and just felt there was too much miscommunication between the main characters. It didn’t make it believable that they would end up together.

I would consider giving this author another shot in the future, so hopefully this was just a one off.

Thank you to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a review copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins press for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 Stars.I loved the representation in this book if someone who is a curvy girl. That being said I couldn’t get into it and I think it was because of the constant miscommunication that happened in this book and the lack of maturity from people who are supposed to be adults. The other thing is I just couldn’t get into her inner monologue it was too much all the time and sometimes it was okay but other times it just was too much. This was especially true during the spicy scenes.

I liked the story line of this book but it took me a bit to get invested in the characters. Personally I don’t love the chapter titles or the email exerpts/newpaper clippings at the end of each chapter. I do think that they helped tell some of the story but could have been used less frequently in the book, For me, it took a way from the flow of the book.

When grumpy met sunshine was sadly another book I couldn't get into at the time I read it. I tried picking it up a few times but couldn't get past first few chapters. Thank you Netgalley and publishers for allowing a chance to read and review.

Do you ever finish a book, absofreakinglutely love the damn thing and accidentally pop over to the reviews and feel like you're the weird one out?

Well, I guess you can say I'm the weird one out because I had so much fun with this book and cannot fathom the lower ratings. I haven't laughed that hard or uncontrollably cheesed due to a romcom in a long time and this one took the cake and the cherry on top. The banter was a mixture of hilarious, cheeky and adorably goofy at times. From the Michael Myers pepper spray moment to threats of violence for leering... my god this was funny as hell.

The chemistry growth was steamy and actually unique for this genre. Take a cold shower build-ups and just excellent smutty scenes. Yes, some of their moments seemed immature. But it also felt relatable and spontaneous.

There is a bit of focus on fatphobia and body image mentions that may seem a bit much at times but also relatable too. I do think the author managed these topics well. 

Odd one out or not, I loved this book. Hilarious, hot and the type of pallet cleanse needed after a heavy book.

3.5/5. This one honestly took me a while to get through. I think the first 200 pages could be condensed and the last 100 pages were really good. I love a slow burn back and forth but this was just too much for me.