I didn’t love this. It was super hard to get through. I didn’t love all of the inner thoughts. The writing style was not for me.

Ok... this book started out really funny, and really cute. I told one of my friends "oh this one is going to be so good about 15% into the story... but I lost it at some point. I was sitting at 85% with just over an hour left to go in the book... and I just can't get myself to keep reading, I keep getting distracted by things around the house.

This is the second Grumpy/ Sunshine trope I've read and didn't care for in the end... maybe that's just not my thing. In so sorry to the author, it's well written... I just lost it in the end.

I was provided both an audio and ebook ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This was supposed to be a grumpy-sunshine romcom, but I didn't find the male lead to be very grumpy or the female lead to be very sunshiny. I found them both to be very immature average people. The characters are in their 30s however they act and speak as though they are much younger than that. I don't know if the British humor missed the mark with me or what but I also didn't find it to be as hilarious as promised either.

I feel that the main characters are supposed to be a take on Ted Lasso's Roy Kent and Keeley Jones. I loved Ted Lasso, and Roy is one of my favorite grumps, he reminds me of my own husband with his gruff take no prisoners attitude. Keeley is the epitome of sunshine with her bright, fun wardrobe and wacky personality. The reason they work as a couple is at heart of it they are both kind and care about the people they really let get to know them. Mabel is our Keeley in this story, but instead of a model she is a quirky, curvy writer with self-confidence problems. She constantly worries what other people think about her and what their opinions of her are. She doesn't feel worthy of love and affection from anyone. I'm not a fan of the self-depreciation trope and the constant inner monologues she has with herself about how unworthy she is. She’s a bit of a contradiction. Our Roy is played by Alfie, who was more of a mash up of Roy and Jamie Tartt. He damaged, and is terrible with people and emotions, but he knows what he likes. What he likes isn't what the public expects of him and he's gotten pretty good at putting on a show and hiding the real Alfie. Hanging out with Mabel working on his memoir, brings him out of his shell a bit and he gets more confident about letting the world see who he really is now that he’s retired.

If you haven't seen Ted Lasso, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. It’s a great show!

Anyway...this book had so much potential, but it missed the mark for me. Both characters had such good back stories to explore that brought them a kinship when it came to their issues with emotions and affection. This topic was kind of glossed over. I think this was a missed opportunity for them to really connect on more than a superficial level. They never talk about the things they need to talk about, and good communication is something I look forward to in a romance. These two failed at good communication. The writing style felt all over the place and I often felt like I missed something. This felt like more of a stream of consciousness style of writing with much of it told from Mabel’s perspective, and I'm not the biggest fan of that style. It felt like the characters were rambling and not making much sense at times. The dialogue between them is dare I say cringey. I love good banter between characters, but I didn’t feel the chemistry between the two and I didn’t understand the humor. Again, it felt very immature to me. This has quite a few steamy scenes, which I'm no stranger to; however the dirty talk was over the top in my opinion. I was not a fan of the choice of language used, but everyone has their thresholds when it comes to those types of scenes.

Overall I think this was supposed to be whimsical and quirky, but for me it fell more into the nonsensical zone. I didn't enjoy the writing style or the characters. I feel like had I been able to connect with Mabel I would have loved this. I think this had so much potential and perhaps it will hit the mark with other readers. As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, I don’t think I got the humor so perhaps someone who understands British humor will absolutely love this.

I was really excited for this book because my favorite trope is grumpy x sunshine, however this one fell short for me; it was hard to get through. I realize other people will love this book, so I will be recommending it to patrons via reader's advisory. It was a cute idea, but wasn't executed to my liking!

This was not good. Super corny generic romance, book. I didn’t like this. The characters were annoying. And this book did not seem very original.

Oh my, how to review this one!

Grumpy/sunshine is my absolute favorite romance trope, so I was so excited to start this book. There was a lot to like, and there were a few things that just got in the way of full on enjoyment of this book.

What I loved:
*Grumpy/sunshine
*Hilarious interchanges between the couple
*Super spicy stash/steamy
*Just look at that gorgeous cover!

What really could’ve been better:
*In certain places in the story I couldn’t for the life of me figure out who was speaking. There is a lot of dialogue. I consider it a dialogue instead of banter, because banter is witty and snappy – a series of quick back-and-forth between two characters.
*This is related to my previous point, but deserves its own bullet point. There was so much inner dialogue/monologue that the main character’s “brain“ was involved in the discussion. Her brain is mentioned over 40 times in the book: her brain is yelling, her brain is telling her, her brain is sneering, etc.
*I also lost track of where the couple was physically located – at one point I thought they were in their car, but then all of a sudden they’re in the house. Did the car ever move?

Were you looking for Ted Lasso fanfic? Here it is! If you fell in love with the character of Roy you will absolutely love the grumpy MC that is Alfie Harding.

Overall, the book is cute. It’s exactly what you expect it to be from the premise. The banter between the MCs is good although some of the dialogue comes across as a little immature. Grumpy/Sunshine will always be my favorite romance trope and the book does deliver on that.

While this book may not have been the best fit for me, I would be interested in reading more work from this author in the future.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press (St. Martin’s Griffin)!

Rating: 4/5
I received an eARC for my honest opinion.

This book is about an ex-footballer and a cute ghostwriter that will get to tell his story, but it's full of banter, fake dating, forced proximity, and opposites attract.

I thought this book was cute, it wasn’t one of my favorites and I don’t know exactly what it was because I loved the storyline. I don’t know if it was how Alfie came across or what, but I did like the story enough to finish it and to see the happy ending that came from it.

I thought the characters were cute, alone, and together. I loved that they were two totally different people but still managed to make things work. The banter between the characters and how Alfie always made it so that Mabel was put in the most interesting situations. I found myself laughing out loud at a few of them, my favorite was when he picked her up and when they were trying to get into the car… when you read the book you will know the part that I am talking about. I can understand where Mabel came from with her fears of not being good enough, skinny enough, pretty enough for a guy like Alfie and I know a lot of people said that they didn’t like that about the book. For me I could relate to her feelings, and I enjoyed getting to see a character so smart, sexy, and curvy like her to have those normal feelings. I do wish that she might have seen the true way that Alfie was looking at her and stopped judging herself, but I wouldn’t have changed anything about the book.

I loved that this was a cute British romcom, with a great rep for curvy women.

I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to review this book..

This was sweet, funny, and spicy and an overall enjoyable book. Miscommunication and lack of communication play a huge part, so be warned if they are not your thing.

Alfie is described as a "grumpy Roy Kent" and he totally was and he made me smile but he was hiding his true self and was unsure how to communicate what he wants. Mabel, the female main character in many ways was Alfie's opposite, sunny and happy, but much like Alfie she lacked confidence in expressing what she truly wants. Mabel is a ghost writer that is going to work on Alfie's memoir, but a series of miscommunications and mishaps starts the partnership off in unexpected and very public ways. The more time they spend together the more they learn about themselves and each other but can they find a way to communicate with each other?

This is unfortunately a dnf for me. The premise sounded interesting, but I do not like this writing style. It's a lot of telling, and paragraphs of description and inner thoughts. The complete opposite of what I like.
From the part that I read, I liked the MMC's character. I'm not sure if he was really a grumpy person. To me it seemed liked he was socially awkward, or wouldn't say the right things always, which was kinda charming. I liked that part of him.
This still wasn't enough to keep me reading. I found myself skipping big chunks of the story, which took all the fun out of it for me.

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Ex-football star Alfie Harding and his ghostwriter Mabel Willicker couldn’t be more different. Alfie is the grumpiest of grumps, and Mabel is a curvy, cheerful ray of sunshine. When they end up pretending to date, the feelings end up more real than either of them bargained for.

Mabel is an adorable character, and her plus-size body positivity with a dash of insecurity feels very authentic. Her quirky, stream-of-consciousness inner monologue forms the backbone of the narration. She and Alfie have great chemistry and the later part of the book gets pretty spicy!

Read this one if you like:
- grumpy x sunshine (obviously!)
- opposites attract
- fake dating
- one bed
- banter (lots of witty banter and flirting!)
- plus size representation

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me an advance copy of this book.

DNF @ 15%

I struggled to get into this so badly. The writing style is unfortunately not for me, I found it clunky, and for that reason I decided to DNF.

*I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Grumpy verses sunshine is one of my favorite rom com tropes, so when I read the title of this book, I was very excited to read it. A book title that tells me immediately that my favorite trope is a central plot? Sign me up!

Mabel is a ghostwriter assigned to help write the memoirs of ex-footballer Alfie. From the offset, things do not go well. Within minutes of meeting each other, Alfie insults Millie and she storms out of the meeting even though she knows she won’t get the book deal now. Despite everything, the two find themselves still working together. As their relationship progresses, Alfie finds himself opening up to Mabel in a way that he never has before, and Mabel is completely surprised by the new Alfie. When the paparazzi gets a photo of the duo, the two have to pretend to be dating in order to protect the upcoming memoir’s contents. With their feelings growing, will the lines in the working relationship remain or become more and more blurred?

By and large, I enjoyed this book. I thought the banter between the two was funny and entertaining to read, and I felt like it grew from banter to flirting well. Millie made a good main character, and I related to her inner thoughts well. There is definitely some spice in this book, though it comes much later on. I do have to say, it does get a slow near the end, but overall I still liked reading this one!

I love the grumpy/sunshine trope and the cover, along with the description, so I figured it’d be right up my alley. I love a plus sized FMC and the MMC comes off as Roy from Ted Lasso and I love Roy, so I should love this right? Well…I was disappointed.

I was very frustrated, for the most part, for multiple reasons. It could have (should have) been shorter. Most of the articles/tweets at the end of every chapter are superfluous. I can only think of one or two that added to the story. It just felt like throwaway pages. The characters are in forced proximity for the majority of the book, and they can’t communicate. SO much miscommunication. They both kept convincing themselves the other isn’t into them, excuse after excuse, and it just got tiresome. And if you’re looking for body positivity because she’s plus sized, the mark was missed. It was very much “why would he be into me; I don’t look like any of the supermodels he’s dated” a lot of the book and ALL of her self-doubt.

The biggest plus for me was the banter back and forth, but it wasn’t enough to save the lack of enjoyment of the rest of the book for me. I also really wish we could have had his POV.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley. I voluntarily read an early copy of this book.

I love a good grumpy/sunshine trope and Alfie here definitely was giving off Roy Kent vibes.

However, I found this book hard to follow - the banter was confusing, it was written with a third person POV which is hard to get into, there are epic amounts of miscommunication, and I never quite understood the attraction between Alfie and Mabel. It just happened all of a sudden? Mabel's self-doubting was hard to get over, too.

I didn't love this and I didn't hate it.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

This was such a fun read.

I always feel like I need to go on and on in these reviews but for this book, id prefer to keep it as light and enjoyable as the story itself.

If you like a good romance that wears its trope on its sleeve (cover), you should give this one a go.

I DNF'd at 17%. I tried to listen to the audio and read the psychical book but I couldn't get into either. Might try this again at a different time.

I enjoyed this book thoroughly. It was fast paced, energetic, adorable and witty. I read it in a day. I've never read anything by Charlotte Stein before, but I was disappointed that this was my first.
The characters were well developed. Grumpy Alfie is perplexed about electronics, moody about life and seemingly living in the stone age. Selina is bright and bubbly but awkward and unsure of herself in relationships.
It's a typical grumpy meets sunshine love story.
I loved it. I was enthralled with the whole book and read it quickly. I will totally recommend this to anyone!

Thank you to the author, Netgalley, and St Martins Press for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

This book just wasn’t for me which sucks because I had such high hopes for it. I couldn’t connect with the main character at all and the banter was, dare I say, overkill? Now don’t get me wrong, I’m ALLLLL about the bantering but this was just a little extreme for me personally.

Sadly, I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style either. Just because this book didn’t work for me, doesn’t mean it won’t work for you! If you’re interested in picking this one up, it releases on February 6th!

Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the e-arc!

The grumpy/sunshine trope is one of my favorites so I couldn’t resist a book with that trope right in the title, as well as being a shoutout to one of my all time favorite romcoms, When Harry Met Sally. As if that wasn’t enough, as soon as Alfie, an intimidatingly grumpy former football (soccer) player was introduced it was obvious he was modeled on Roy Kent, everybody’s favorite curmudgeon soccer star from Ted Lasso..

Sadly, this early promise was not fulfilled. I found the book hard to follow. It had pages of supposedly “cute” banter between Alfie and Mabel, the FMC, interrupted by endless pages of Mabel’s inner, self-doubting monologue, then, you’d suddenly drop right back into the same banter session, but by then you’d completely lost the thread of the conversation and couldn’t even tell whether it was Alfie or Mabel talking. A fake dating situation drove the plot but it was overwhelmed by the banter and inner monologues. There’s also lots of miscommunication, another turn-off for me. All in all, I’m sorry to say the book didn’t work for me, but I’m sure the banter and the characters will appeal to other readers. My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.