I would give this book a 3.5. It was cute, but I think it took too long for them to get together. I did like the social media, notes and text snippets at the end of each chapter. I would definitely read another book by this author.

We start with Alfie Harding a grumpy retired footballer who is being pushed into telling his story through a memoir. In general he tries to stay as far away from the limelight as possible and barely reveals anything about himself to anyone, or expressing any sort of emotion. Which means writing his own memoir is out of the question

Enter in Mabel Willicker, a ghostwriter tasked with getting Alfie out of his shell. She is the perfect candidate, she is vibrant, sassy, and cheery, and even though Alfie has turned down every ghost writing candidate before her, she bypasses his defenses.

What starts out as a purely professional relationship quickly turns into a fake dating arrangement when the public catches wind of Mabel present in Alfie's life. He is a hermit, and the opposite of a people person, so they need an excuse that is easily explainable as to why Mabel is around. The pretending only lasts so long until real feelings and attraction catch them both by surprise.

I wanted to enjoy this one. It had so many elements that I would normally love, but I think the writing style just did not work for me. I could not get behind the romance or the characters, dialogue felt very cringey for me. I just could not relate or like the characters. I do think there were so many important topics and themes covered in this novel, and the author did a lovely job of writing them. This book just overall was not for me.

I must confess that I started this book several times before I really got into it, but once I did, I enjoyed the banter between Alfie and his bubbly ghostwriter Mabel. Alfie is a reclusive former football star who wants everyone to just leave him alone. Other ghostwriters have tried to write for him with no success. Then when Mabel enters the scene, she is not taking no for an answer and keeps pestering him with innumerable questions until he finally starts to answer. The romance is not very believable but the story is humorous and cute. I liked the characters and must say that they were very dynamic and realistic. The plot was straightforward rom-com and easy to read with a moderate pace and a satisfying conclusion.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review, and all opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16th CFR, Part 255, “Guidelines Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

I fell right into the hilarious, heartwarming story about a grumpy footballer and a curvy ghost writer. It took me a few pages to get my bearings but once I started, I didn't want to put When Grumpy Met Sunshine down.
Alfie portrayed such an ice man, that I didn't think I would care one way or another about him, but Mabel's sunny personality and clever wit drew me into the book. Charlotte took her time developing the friendship and revealing the commonalities between their upbringings, giving the reader a better understanding of the whys behind their individual personalities. Alfie is so misunderstood, and he protects the inner man by being reclusive and irritable! Mabel sees herself through society's lenses, knows she doesn't measure up to those standards and refuses to believe that others may value her. A perfect set up for a romance that starts as a fake but ends in attraction and chemistry! Unexpectedly, the physical chemistry parts of the book were off the charts! I have never read a Charlotte Stein book so I thought I might be in a clean closed door rom com. Boy was I wrong! Steam at its highest and very well written!
I wish there was more to the ending of the story. All I know is that they have now found each other. and I am curious about their new lives with each other.
I will admit that once I closed the book, I gave a big sigh. It was a story that pulled at my feelings, twisted and turned each one and then put them in a sweet space. I enjoyed When Grumpy Met Sunshine and reading a new to me author, Charlotte Stein.
I received an Advance Reader Copy and am leaving this review voluntarily based on my personal reading experience.

I don't like giving out 1 star reviews regardless of how I feel about a book because I know it takes a lot of time to write a book. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of a bad review, but not every book is going to hit the mark with every reader. With that said, I tried this in two formats. Digital copy from Netgalley, and then I used an Audible credit (sigh) to preorder for the release today so I could give it another try. I gave it my best effort. I didn't make it through the first chapter on my digital copy, and today, I finally stopped with an hour left of the audio version.

The repetitiveness and lack of chemistry make me not give any care in the world about these characters or their story.

Hopefully, this book will fall into the hands of the right readers, but based on reviews I've seen here on GR (which I do take with a grain of salt most of the time) it's not just me or even a handful of people having the same issue making us all sound repetitive. You win some, and you lose some.

Thank you, Netgalley & St. Martin's Press for the e-ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own!!

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I would like to say for the record, I didn't realize how spicy of a book this was going into it. I typically don't read designated spicy books and I don't recommend them either for that reason. I might read a book that has a dash of spice and the rest is plot, but those do not fall into the romance/spicy category.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine sounded like a sweet rom-com styled book from the summary provided. But once I got into the book, I quickly realized it was not what I was expecting it to be and I just didn't love it. The book is about Mabel, a ghostwriter who has been assigned to write for the grumpy football player, Alfie. Mabel and Alfie end up spending an elongated time together while writing his memoir leading the public to think they are dating. Of course, they aren't but they decide to fake date and thus the story goes on.

The book started with what a good emphasis on the Grumpy and Sunshine trope but that eventually got lost in the midst of the romance. I didn't really see how he was a grumpy person and she was sunshine. Mabel (our main character) also made a lot of comments about how she was expected to be a sunshiney person all the time, but I just didn't see that play out in the book. Alfie was supposed to be grumpy, but the only real indicators that he was were the descriptions of how he was dark, brooding, and hairy. I just wanted there to be more banter between the two of them for the sunshine/grumpy trope to come alive. Instead, it was just super cheesy and instant instead of there being a slow burn.

I also got super lost throughout the story with the transitions and dialogue. I found myself going back several times to see if they were at his house, her house, in the car, etc. The transitions didn't feel natural because there was so much dialogue cutting it up.

I really did love the idea of Mabel being the ghost writer for Alfie as she finds out more about him. I was hoping we would see the romance of the story bloom from how she gets to know him, relates to him, and so on but that just got muddled in the midst of all the spice making it too insta-lovey of a story. Again, I think it had real potential for a slow burn but it was just too quick paced for me personally.

First, I’d like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this as an ARC.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine is a sweet, romcom with some steamy scenes.
Let me start of by saying it did take me a while to really get into the story (30% in), don’t know if it was the writing style. Once I got into it, I couldn’t put it down. You instantly fall in love with Mabel and Alphie, the banter between them was great. They both went through a lot in the past and they don’t know how to express their true feelings for each other. The ending was perfect, the way Alphie basically professed his feelings was amazing. This book might not be for everyone but I definitely recommend checking it out!

A warm, big-hearted body-positive romance so sunshiny for a winter day. I loved the ease and authenticity of the writer's style as well as the wholesome Ted Lasso feels. Readers of Olivia Dade and Chloe Liese will fall hard.

Lighthearted and fun rom-com. Lots of banter and very exaggerated scenes and situations, but makes it more fun. Overall I couldn’t get into it but I think there’s an audience for this book who likes diverse characters, fake dating, and grumpy sunshine tropes :)

Thank you to Charlotte Stein, publishers St. Martin's Griffin, and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC.

Unfortunately this was just not for me. I liked the concept of the plot but that's about all I enjoyed. Dialogue and plot progress very slowly because the fmc's every thought is given. The dialogue is immature for 30 year old working professionals with jobs that are public facing.

This story is trying so hard to encapsulate awkward encounters between opposing personalities that would have worked so well in a visual media because you have body language and facial expressions. Unfortunately it's just weird and cringey in this print medium.

I wanted to love this book so badly, the storyline and tropes are something i normally love. i just didnt connect with the characters and it was hard for me to get into the story. i did still enjoy the book it just wasnt what i was hoping it would be so it just might not have been the book for me personally.

This entire book was a VIBE! I absolutely adore Mabel and Alfie! Their banter was so fun and the unapologetic frankness— even better!! If you’re a fan of grumpy/sunshine… opposites attract… fake dating… or a lovely one bed situation— this is the book for you!!

Everything about this book is rom-com gold.

From the beginning I could relate to our FMC in more ways than I would like to count. And her self expressed unexpected wit and quick comebacks were perfection.

Our MMC is this perceived grumpy jerk but really we all know just a mushy teddy bear who is so flustered he says everything wrong. Definitely got Mr. Darcy vibes off of this one.

Thank you St. Martins Press and Netgalley for this 5 star read!!

I’m a little bit obsessed with this book.

Almost immediately after starting this book, I fell in love with the dynamics our two main characters, Alfie and Mabel, had. While Mabel is sweet and our “sunshine” of the book, Alfie is a “grumpy” ex-sports star who actually isn’t as grumpy and mean as he tries to make the world believe he is.

There were a lot of misunderstandings in the beginning for our main couple, but once we got further into the book, their dynamic really seemed to shine with some absolutely great banter! It’s hard not to enjoy Mabel and Alfie’s conversations when it’s so obvious that they themselves are enjoying their back and forth and find each other super funny, which really had me cheering on these two and their story!

Despite the fact that this book is a five star read for me, I did have a few issues with it. For one, this book is weirdly horny. And not in a “the content inside is just not my personal kink” kind of way, but in a “who gets turned on by spraying pepper spray in someone’s eyes??” sort of way.

(That is only slightly joking. There was pepper spray and the scene was slightly sexual, but it was not sexual because of the act of pepper spraying someone.)

I also kind of wish that this book was a little more about writing? Without giving too much of the characters’ personal plots and story away, writing is a really big focus in this book but seemed to be pushed to the side in order to focus more on the characters and their romance. I would have been completely fine with a little less focus on the romance/sex scenes in order to focus more on the act of writing and making this memoir.

Those two little negatives aside, I found it very hard to put this book down! I had to run to instagram to scream about it once I was finished, which is probably the highest compliment I can offer a book. I’m definitely in love with this book, and I can’t wait to see what everyone else thinks!

I’m not sure what I thought of Stein’s When Grumpy Met Sunshine, except what I thought depended on what part of the romance novel I was reading. Stein’s romance fell into three not-well-meshed parts: an initial and lengthy slow-burn getting-to-know-you romance between retired footballer grump Alfie Harding and sunny ghostwriter Mabel Willicker, a shorter sequence of explicit love scenes when the burn fires up and vrooms away, and a dangling chapter dedicated to the HEA. This is how I experienced the novel as a reader, disjointed, but the blurb will give you the overall picture:

When grumpy ex-footballer Alfie Harding gets badgered into selling his memoirs, he knows he’s never going to be able to write them. He hates revealing a single thing about himself, is allergic to most emotions, and can’t imagine doing a good job of putting pen to paper.

And so in walks curvy, cheery, cute as heck ghostwriter Mabel Willicker, who knows just how to sunshine and sass her way into getting every little detail out of Alfie. They banter and bicker their way to writing his life story, both of them sure they’ll never be anything other than at odds.

But after their business arrangement is mistaken for a budding romance, the pair have to pretend to be an item for a public who’s ravenous for more of this Cinderella story. Or at least, it feels like it’s pretend—until each slow burn step in their fake relationship sparks a heat neither can control. Now they just have to decide: is this sizzling chemistry just for show? Or something so real it might just give them their fairytale ending?

I loved every second of Alfie and Mabel’s fake courtship with real feelings. Stein is a great comic writer, so I laughed a lot, but I was also touched, at times heartbroken, especially for blunt, crabby Alfie. The romance began with an emphasis on Mabel and her sunny-sad life of plain, over-weight woman without a boyfriend, uncertain career, and novelist’s side-lined ambitions. Nevertheless, Mabel is irrepressibly energetic, relentlessly cheerful, and resilient. Mabel has bounce back. But the narrative soon gives over to Alfie, broody and vulnerable in surprising ways. This initial first good chunk of Stein’s novel is masterfully balanced between guffaw-worthy humour and building her loveable characters, to the reader and each other.

Mabel and Alfie are brought together by his publisher and her agent. Their meet-cute hilariously sets up Stein’s humour and trope in one Alfie comment: ” ‘…you think I’m a big hairy manimal who’s never gonna be able to work well with this here human cupcake,’ he said. Then just for good measure, he flung a finger in her general direction.” Said human cupcake is a sharp psychologist and has very little ego, which make for a great ghostwriter as she humours and coaxes Alfie into revelations. On the other hand, Alfie is such a lonely figure that Mabel’s sympathetic demeanor, intellectual match to his big-brain (he’s not all brawn, but the brawn is beefy) and common background see her succeed where anyone else would fail. The combination of humour and pathos is nicely summed up in a scene between Alfie (who has a flip phone and hates all tech) and Mabel’s normal person, not-a-Luddite attachment to her cell phone; Alfie is hefting it aloft with his 6′ 1″ reach and Mabel, at 5′ 2″, is hopping:

“Jesus. It’s not a baby, Mabel.”

“Even though I take it everywhere with me.”

“You take lots of things everywhere with you.”

“Yeah, but do I also gently cradle them while staring lovingly at their faces?”

“Oh my god it’s a lump of plastic,” he snorted. “It does not have a face.”

“It does when Oscar Isaac is staring out at me.”

“He is not staring out at you. His image is.” Lord, he was so practical about things. So literal and straight down the line. Like somebody’s grandad from a mining town where everybody was miserable, she thought. But weirdly, not in a way that felt mean. She didn’t hate that about him, apparently. Instead, she had the thought, and then got a little weird bloom of warmth through her. As if she was starting to like him.

Firstly, you can see how droll and adorable these two are: how Mabel is the one who has the upper hand and Alfie who is vulnerable. Scenes like this one follow one upon another so that Mabel liking Alfie makes sense. Because Alfie in love with Mabel is obvious from “first sight”. What tips everything in Alfie’s favour is his willingness to be vulnerable to Mabel. And when, in the most poignant scenes, Mabel and Alfie discover they come from similarly broken childhoods, it’s obvious to everyone except Mabel, they belong to each other and together: “He’s the other kid with you in the assembly, her mind said, about an hour in. And though that was an unsettling thought, she couldn’t deny it was true. It felt to her as if she’d always known him. As if she’d once been friends with him, years ago, and now they’d been reunited somehow.”

All this lovely stuff goes down the explicit love scene rabbit-hole and stays there for pages upon pages. And then, the Big Mis walks into the narrative room and Alfie and Mabel, who’ve talked, don’t talk to clear things up, aren’t honest about their feelings. A long period of dual selves-imposed penance occurs and then, in an awesomely romantic scene, they’re “reunited” and the HEA ensues. I’m not sure the long penance period worked, like at all, for me. But there was still much to enjoy in Stein’s grumpy-sunshine pairing (including one glorious blow at Thatcher and her version of England; much appreciated, Stein). Miss Austen agrees, in When Grumpy Met Sunshine offers “real comfort,” Emma.

Charlotte Stein’s When Grumpy Met Sunshine is published by St. Martin’s Griffin. It releases today, Feb. 6th. I received an e-galley from St. Martin’s Griffin, via Netgalley. This does not impede the free expression of my opinion, which is laid out for you above without the aid of AI.

When asked what my favorite trope is, every single time I will put on a whole TEDtalk on why grumpy/sunshine makes my days better so I leapt at the chance to read this. [Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.]

At first few chapters, I was struck by how freaking ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔯𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔤 this was. It was like walking down the street, and you find a cozy coffee shop with delicious pastries, comfy chairs, free outlets, and affordable coffee. You want to settle in and stay. I'm such a sucker for a British Rom Com. It wasn't till I was like 40% in that I realized what I needed to-

**This opposites atteact romance is PERFECT for anyone who was EVER 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙎𝙇𝙄𝙂𝙃𝙏𝙇𝙔 into Roy Kent of Ted Lasso.**

Alfie, our footballer (soccer player for the US folks) is the most cinnamon roll grizzly bear who falls first and hard for our plus sized ghostwriter heroine, Mabel.

Overall I give it 4/5 🌟 and a strong recommendation for people who want something to read after their Ted Lasso binge.

Available everywhere tomorrow 2/6/24!!

#WhenGrumpyMetSunshine #charlottestein #netgalley #netgalleyread #netgalleyreview #romance #oppositesattract #grumpysunshine #britishromance

I have conflicting feelings when it comes to my reading experience for this book. I really struggled through the first third of this book. I almost put it aside to try again later or just give up and declare it not for me. The entire circumstances at the beginning were, in my opinion, quite ridiculous (without anything really happening) - and the dialogue between the two MC’s makes no sense for two people who just met. At times, it also made me cringe - it wasn’t even funny (to me).
After all that, I did push myself through and I do not entirely regret it. I did end up not being completely disappointed with the experience this book took me through. The book did have its moments. The dynamic between Alfie and Mabel did sort of get better, but the constant miscommunication right up until the end was excessive. Also, it was so obvious that Alfie liked Mabel, but her insecurities get the better of her until the grand gesture one year later - one year of no speaking or seeing each and wham! Why so long?
This book wasn’t for me, but I am confident there are people who will enjoy this. There are a number of sexy scenes throughout - maturbation, masturbation in front of the love interest, a few sex scenes, and lots of reference to sex (even when they are relative strangers).
I wonder if this book would have been more interesting to me if it had been in dual POV… I am struggling to decide between 2 and 3 stars. Since I am not entirely convinced that I could recommend this to anyone, I think I’m going with the 2… but I do believe there is an audience for this book.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a digital arc of the book. The opinions expressed are honest and my own.

4.5 ⭐️
3.0 🌶️

Delightful and heartfelt. But don’t forget the steam 🔥

☀️Single pov
☀️Grumpy/sunshine
☀️Fake dating
☀️Banter
☀️Kissing for paparazzi
☀️Slow burn
☀️One bed
☀️Grand gesture

Gosh I loved this book. The banter between Mabel and Alfie was absolutely hilarious. I really felt the awkward moments, the silly moments, and the steamy moments between these two. It’s reading about two strangers meeting but it feels like they’ve known each other for their whole lives. I truly related to the insecurity of both characters, who are fighting to break out of the mold they’ve placed themselves in for so long.

Definitely recommend if you like romcoms, fake relationship, adult characters (37 & 33), cheeky humor, social media and gossip, dirty talk, and the grandest of grand gestures.

ARC from NetGalley; all thoughts/opinions my own. My review is voluntary.

This was another mid level read for me. Nothing really stuck in my mind, the characters weren’t fully developed and the grumpiness seemed extremely forced.

I was a little nervous picking this one up because it had such a low Goodreads ratings, but a trusted reviewer I follow had given it a good review so I had some hope and I'm happy to say I ended up on the side of that reviewer because I had a fun time with this book!

That being said, I definitely can understand why it might not be a huge hit with readers on the whole. The writing style is very voicey in a way that I think is very easy to bounce off of. I didn't particularly love the voice myself and it took the first couple chapters to get in the swing of it, but it obviously wasn't enough to turn me completely off the book as a whole. This book was also dialogue heavy which is something I think just doesn't work as a choice for some people. I, however, find banter to be one of my favorite things to read between couples and so I had a good time with it in this book.

I really liked Alfie, I thought he was a super sweet hero and loved him and Mabel together. And I liked the gesture he did at the end of the book.

Overall a fun read that I devoured about 90% of in one sitting and I hope it finds more of us outliers who enjoyed it!