I had such high hopes for this book as I'm a sucker for grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity, and of course fake dating. And the adorable cover too? It had so much that appealed to me. Yet this book left a lot to be desired and I honestly couldn't wait for it to be over. If I was the kind of person who could DNF books, I would've. Real rating of 2.5.

It's one of those books you keep reading in hopes it'll get better and never does. The dialogue was not only lengthy in every scene but it was also super immature for characters in their 30s. I wasn't a fan of the banter and it followed the "tell don't show" method instead of the other way around and I was left bored and never got to a point where I even liked the characters who felt so shallow. The miscommunication was awful and overall I just could not get into the story and skimmed most of it since it since it was mostly chaotic and confusing dialogue and banter the whole book. There's a little spice and honestly it needs another round of editing as there was a ton of typos and sentences I just did not understand grammatically. It's very rare I say this, but I do not recommend this book, even just for vibes and no plot as it has virtually neither.

If this book is up your alley then I'm happy for you! But personally I cannot recommend it in good conscious as it didn't tick any boxes for me and left a lot to be desired. I like the concept and the story that was supposed to be conveyed (a grumpy footballer having to meet up with a ghostwriter to write his memoir), but it just wasn't... conveyed.

Ugh this one is hard to review because I ended up liking it but I had to push through the reading. Off the bat I couldn't connect to the book and felt like I was missing something. BUT fake dating is one of my favorite tropes and I wanted to love this book. I loved the banter between Mabel and Alfie, even it it was a lot of banter. Mabel being plus sized and how she feels will have girls understanding how she is feeling about herself and how others may look at their relationship because of her size.

I got 11% in to the book and just couldn't carry on. I love grumpy sunshine but Alfie felt like a caricature of a person. The writing was also just ok. I think maybe this author just isn't for me though I did laugh at some of the antics. I do think this would have turned out to be a solid three star read if I would have finished it because it wasn't bad it just wasn't for me. I think grumpy doesn't have to mean leaving an interview because they ask where you get your hair cut. I guess I prefer mine more stoic. And also while he talks to Mabel you see that he isn's as grumpy as they are trying to push and thats something I like to learn a little later in the book.

While I had super high hopes for this novel, unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. I thought the premise was interesting but there was too much banter and not enough substance to the characters. The writing was extremely choppy and very hard to follow. There were several times throughout the novel that I found myself having to go back and reread what I had just read because I had no idea what just happened.

•••𝘿𝙉𝙁 @32%•••

𝘼 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙢𝙮, 𝙤𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙨-𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩 𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙮 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙖 𝙜𝙧𝙪𝙢𝙥𝙮 𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙛𝙤𝙤𝙩𝙗𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙛𝙖𝙗𝙪𝙡𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙨𝙪𝙣𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙚-𝙮 𝙜𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙩𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙧.

I really tried to get into this book, I even the audiobook going in hopes I could finish this. I got 32% into the audio and decided to call it a day - which was quite a disappointment.

I usually am a fan of the Grumpy/Sunshine trope, but I didn’t care for it in this. There were so many inner thoughts that had me annoyed with these characters. The banter in this also didn’t work for me.

One of my goals this year is to start DNF’ing books I’m just not vibing with. I usually struggle what that part as for some reason I just have the urge to finish every book, but there’s not enough time to be doing that.

I don’t think I’ll pick this one back up at a later time, it just wasn’t my kind of read.

Thank you so much NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the review copy in exchange for my honest review!

•𝗧𝗪/𝗖𝗪: Sexual Content, Fatphobia, Alcoholism, Child Abuse

Mabel has been hired to ghostwrite retired footballer, the reclusive Alfie's, memoir. Their first meeting is a bit of a disaster, but they bond over their similar childhoods, and Mabel is quick to agree when Alfie proposes a fake relationship to hide their business arrangement. When the feelings start to become too real, Mabel has to decide if she can trust Alfie, and more importantly, herself.

I'm torn on my feelings about this book. The premise and tropes were there, but I never connected with Mabel or Alfie, and the scenarios they got into were quite unbelievable, even for a romance novel. There was too much miscommunication between them and Mabel's inner thoughts made the actual writing hard to follow. The story did pick up in the last 20%, but it was a bit too late for me.

I really wanted to love this book. It’s got an adorable cover, it includes one of my favorite tropes (grumpy/sunshine), the MMC is inspired by Roy Kent, and the FMC is a plus sized ghostwriter by trade. It’s alternately an emotional exploration of two damaged people, and startlingly filthy(in a good way!). Somehow though, the pieces just didn’t come together as well as I’d hoped. The dirty talk is top tier, and the pining was sooo good. Overall though, I found the pacing a bit uneven, and the miscommunication trope really started to wear thin for me by the end. I still found it an enjoyable read, but I can’t help wishing for more.

This read was not what I was expecting, but I think that made me love it even more. This was much more of an emotional read than the adorable cover and synopsis lead me to believe. I never expected a book that looked like this would make me sob by the end. It was only Mabel's POV which I disliked while reading because I thought Alfie was so obviously falling hard and fast for her and I wanted his POV so badly. Stein seemed to be reading my mind because she used that to pull on my heartstrings when we get to the ending. I loved Alfie and Mabel and their dynamic was a picture perfect grumpy/sunshine pairing. The banter was fantastic and just weird enough that it really worked well as a window into these characters. Overall, this was a great read that managed to worm its way into my heart much deeper than I was expecting and I imagine I'll be thinking about Alfie and Mabel for quite some time.

(3.75 stars, rounded up!)

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read an advance copy of this book.

I am such a sucker for the grumpy/sunshine trope and this really delivered. It did take me a bit to get used to the author's writing style. I had read the novella Curve Ball and I really did not vibe with it. As I said in my very short review of that one, it was disjointed. However, that was not the case in the end with WGMS.

On top of loving the grumpy/sunshine trope, I also love books that make me feel aaaaaaallll the feelings. This book had me emotional but also amused. It was so sweet and so hot. The chemistry felt so real and they felt like a real couple. That might not make sense to some people but sometimes in romance books, the relationships just feel superficial. With this one, I could tell they actually really liked each other. They weren't just in lust. That like grew into love and it was so pleasant to experience.

The premise of this book sounded so cool and I am always a giant fan of a grumpy/sunshine book. Every trope that I typically love was in this book. I absolutely was so excited to read this book. There was a good premise and honestly, there were so many bits of this book I enjoyed thoroughly. My issue with the book was mostly just that there was a lot of lengthy dialogue sections and not too much of the actual story. A lot of immature banter was thrown in and I had to keep reminding myself how old everyone in the story was. I also, at times, had a hard time following what was going on in the book.

The FMC of this book is a funny, curvy, sunshine of a human and I truly did like her a lot. The dynamic between her and Alfie our MMC was good and they truly did play off each other. I will say I did laugh when he was slightly stalking her. Or as he says, unintentionally stalking her.

I want to see where this author goes in her writing as the book was everything I was looking for, it just didn't hit for me but that's not to say that someone else isn't going to enjoy the book. I'm going to keep an eye out for more books by Charlotte and give those a try.

I really wanted to love this book. It was one of my most anticipated books of the year. I just didn’t vibe with it.

I really wanted to love this one, but it just wasn’t for me. I originally DNFed but then went back to it with the hopes that it would get better, but I just found myself bored and annoyed with the lack of communication between these two characters. Miscommunication can be realistic, but when characters are in their late 20s or older, it really angers me!

also… can a book have ~too much~ banter? because this one seemed to! this one just felt like they were trying too hard…

This was a DNF for me. I almost didn’t choose it based on the title, but the description pulled me in. I only got about 10% in and I couldn’t continue. The writing was terrible. It jumped around and there was too much talking.

The title is the book equivalent of click bait because both the main characters are sunshine and I just want to squish their cheeks like a stereotypical great-aunt! I would suggest the alternate title: Largely oblivious woman meets terribly awkward mess of a man. Although that doesn’t quite roll off the tongue.

I’ll be honest. As cute and fun as I found these characters, they’re also just on the side of delightfully weird that feels a little like a fan-fiction. Did I enjoy this book? I really truly did. Did it feel like a fleshed out novel? Not exactly. There’s a lot of stream-of-consciousness from Mabel (the female MC) and I love it dearly, but I often got confused what was retrospection/introspection versus imagination versus actually happening in the moment. Sometimes moments between the characters felt a little half-baked before the next scene fell into place. It’s all fun and delightfully adorable, but to sum it up, I’d say this story is quirky and a bit underdeveloped.

Read if you like:
⚽️ Sports/Celebrity Romances
📖 Celebrity Memoirs
💋 Fake Dating
🌤️ Grumpy x Sunshine Trope
🔀 Opposites Attract

I was so excited for this one since I absolutely adore opposites attract, workplace romances, grumpy x sunshine tropes that this one promises with the splash of one of my favorite tropes of fake dating.

Despite my excitement this one didn’t work quite as well as I was hoping due to the way the story was structured that just didn’t fully work for me with the way the dialogue and lack of movement in the plot occurred leaving the pacing to feel slower and off.

Overall, I know many will enjoy this one, especially if you like slower-burn paces of your romances, but for me, personally I needed a bit faster of a pace to enjoy this one more.

Thank you so much to the publisher for my ARC in exchange for my thoughts/review.

Thank you to St Martins Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this book, in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was such a sweet and steamy read! Grumpy sunshine trope is one of my favorites to read and adding the athlete and ghostwriter into made it even better!

Definitely add this to your TBR for February if you’re a RomCom reader!

I was halfway through this book when I knew it was going to be 5 stars.

WHEN GRUMPY MET SUNSHINE had me literally screaming in the middle of the night with laughter. I absolutely loved the characters in this book and how they interacted with each other. Mabel was the literal physical embodiment of sunshine, while Alfie was grumpy personified. However, The way that they were able to have such endearing banter made me so happy. I have such a weakness for fake dating and grumpy/sunshine, and this book was just perfect. I wish I could write more, but I simply do not have the words for how much I enjoyed this book.

I received this arc from Netgalley and St. Martin's Griffin in exchange for an honest review.

Alfie is a retired footballer who is supposed to be writing a memoir. If he could stop firing his ghostwriters.
Their beginnings are more than rocky - think pepper spray to the face - but they eventually end up slightly argumentative friends, bonding over miserable childhoods oddly enough (warning for neglectful, abusive, alcoholic parents).
The media notices them together and, not knowing about the ghost writing situation of course, assume they’re an item and chaos ensues while the paparazzi try to out-scoop each other.
The two decide to combat this and keep their secret by leaning into their assumptions, and then the good old fake dating trope carries on in the usual way.

The way this one started made me think that instead of grumpy/sunshine (with fairly intense impulse control issues) I need something closer to mildly-annoyed/sunshine. Because, in the beginning, the grump was Too Much. I did eventually start to warm up to Alfie - being a Repair Shop fan helped immensely - but it was a rough start.

Mabel’s internal dialog is … a lot. She goes from zero to worst case scenario in no time flat. She seems to have good friends that would be supportive but she shuts them out more than she should. And for someone who claimed to be self confident, the sheer volume of self doubting thoughts didn’t back it up.

When it comes to Alfie and Mabel together, between her letting her thoughts run rampant and his acting much more quickly than he can think, it is very easy for even small things to get blown out of proportion. Throw in paparazzi and oof. Still it came across too overblown for me, and I missed when they were trying to actually write (but in the end the book was probably much better for how it was written, I admit)

Now for the things I liked - His tending for her (the hair, the furniture, ‘defending her honor’). Her tenacity, determination that he make a more enjoyable life for himself instead of the cold version he’d been living. The banter was good once they got going. The flirting while desperately trying not to flirt was entertaining. The concert and after were 🔥

I’ve heard this book has Ted Lasso vibes, and fans of the show seem to like it much more. I haven’t watched, so I’m thinking maybe there’s some layers here that I’m missing out on?

There were things I really liked, and things I disliked just as much. In the end it averaged out to an okay read.

Thanks to NetGalley and st martins press for the arc

Thank you to Netgalley and then publisher for an advanced electronic copy of this book. All thoughts are reflective of my personal experience.

I really, really wanted to love this book. I was incredibly excited to see it was one of my favorite tropes and a fat main character. The cover of this is adorable, too.

I have to admit though, I couldn't make it through this one. I only read about 40% of it before I finally couldn't push through anymore and DNF'd it.

The concept is interesting and arguably cute. But what really gets me is these characters and the writing style.

The banter is exhausting. I say that as a person who -loves- banter between characters. It just felt like way too much focus was on trying to create banter here. It took away from the point of the conversations at times and supported the miscommunication between them. Then alongside that, the formatting of sentences and paragraphs had such a stop-and-go effect that contradicted with the run on flow of the banter. It made it very exhausting to read.

I commend the author for putting together this book and all the work involved, but this just wasnt it for me. I think there is definitely room for growth if they do choose.

I also note that the style of writing may be representative of more neurodivergent thought processing. I personally am neurodivergent and so I recognized the pattern as similar to how my brain at times WANTS to write, but ultimately that isn't always the most effective.

I think this book will still find some people who will enjoy it though. I just personally won't be recommending this one.

I ended up DNFing this book at around 47%. The main character was no way the sunshine in the grumpy and sunshine trope. They were both just grumpy. I also had a major issue with how Mabel made every single aspect of her life and her conversations into something about her weight. She couldn't even have a guy touching her stomach without thinking that the guy has probably never realized a stomach can be anything other than flat. It was just distracting and annoying.