If you want immature banter that went over the top and dialogue that dragged then I would recommend this. I also dislike the time skip here and the excessive swearing and that after the 60% mark it becomes all spice. I would recommend another round of edits here!

This book had so much promise but really fell flat. When Grumpy Met Sunshine is a cute title, but only sort of describes the trope in this book - dollar store Roy Kent was definitely grumpy, but the female MC Mabel was hardly full of sunshine. She made cupcakes once and that makes her a woodland sprite? The characters spoke to each other like they were in middle school, except for the smutty parts (thank goodness), meanwhile they’re in their mid 30s. The romance was barely developed but also there was barely a plot? Also I think the author simply forgot Mabel had a job for the middle of the book. Sometimes there is such thing as too much cursing and too much banter. This book was a miss.

I do not think I would have given this book the chance it deserved without the audio book version. I was lucky enough to get both versions from NetGalley to read(or listen) and review and the first few chapters of the book were hard to get through. The writing and plot building felt very disjointed and I was having a hard time connecting to the story. The trigger warnings in the beginning are highly necessary and should not be missed. It was very hard for me to read for very similar things I went through as a kid/teen and still suffer because of now.

I think the plot was good but over all not "great" and it went between tough life scenarios to raunchy sex scenes and it did seem to fit most of the time. The ending was wrapped up fairly well and like I said I did not hate it but I felt overwhelmingly meh or triggered by a lot of the book.

Solid 3 stars. There were things that I enjoyed, but the execution wasn't for me.

When Grumpy Meets Sunshine centers on Mabel, a sunshiney ghostwriter, and Alfie, a Roy Kent-esque retired footballer. Mabel is assigned to write Alfie's memoir, and they have a meet-disaster at their first interaction. After which Alfie basically follows her around (weird!) to try and apologize. Eventually, Mabel lets Alfie in (after another meet-disaster) and he grumpily opens up. This was something that I enjoyed -- getting to see Alfie not as a burly macho man that his PR people want you to see, but as a burly softie who is actually kindhearted, even though his buffoonery sometimes gets in the way. After paparazzi catch Mabel and Alfie together and start speculating, they agree to a fake-dating scheme.

I liked the silliness of the book. There were long and kind of ridiculous chapter titles (like And Now The Sequel To Only One Back Seat Of A Car), which kind of fit the vibe of the whole book. But the actual execution was off for me. It was very stream-of-consciousness, while also being in 3rd person, which just felt off to me. Both Mabel and Alfie also rambled quite a lot, and there were huge blocks of text that had a lot of inner monologue and a decent amount of dialogue, so it was hard to follow actual conversations (I had to page back several times just to follow the conversation).

There was not only so much miscommunication (Mabel not telling Alfie how she felt), but so much willful ignoring of communication (Mabel not believing Alfie when he says he's attracted to her), and that was extremely frustrating. The end was also not satisfying. The last chapter -- which is not the epilogue -- is titled "One Year Later," to give you a sense of the extent of the third act break-up.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an eARC of When Grumpy Met Sunshine in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Whew, this was not at all what I wanted it to be. The premise sounds so cute - a sunshiney ghost writer falling in love with her grumpy, football (or soccer) playing client who needs help writing a book about his life story. But... this was so bad. I can't even decide where to begin. I set this down around 40% and genuinely had 0 desire to ever pick it back up.

Ex-footballer Archie Harding is tasked with writing a memoir. The only problem? He is notoriously a man of few words. Radio stations have even started declining him interviews because they don't want to deal with 30 minutes of straight dead air. Enter ghostwrite Mabel Willicker, who is a breath of sunshine and creativity, ready to help Alfie tell his story. And as with all grumpy-sunshine stories, they learn that opposites maybe really do attract.

I was surprised to learn that this is not the author's first book. In fact, she has many judging by her GoodReads. I was getting early-level author looking to make a name for herself, and that was not the case.

The biggest issue I had with this is the dialogue is TOO MUCH. There are an insane amount of details given about every single tiny interaction. I mean, did we really need several pages dedicated to Mabel's internal monologue about Alfie catching her from tripping? NO.

The amount of insane details and dense adjectives describing everything made this unbearable. Where was the plot? Where was Alfie sharing his life story with Mabel? Absolutely non-existent because we have to listen to these two drone on and on about every moment ad nauseum.

I unfortunately cannot recommend this one in good conscience, unless you are a fan of rambling monologues with no clear plot.

Two tropes in one for Alfie and Mabel. She's meant to be writing the ex-footballer's book but he's soooo cranky. In fact, he's so cranky that I tired of him and wondered how Mabel put up with him especially once they were forced into the fake dating thing, There's a lot of banter but also miscommunication. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This was a miss for me (too much talking) but I'm sure others will enjoy it.

DNF

I was excited for this one based on the cover and the plot, but at 30% in, I felt like the story was going absolutely nowhere.
The entire book by the time I stopped reading was just conversations between Mabel and Alfie, which involved over the top banter. I love funny banter and I never thought it was possible to have too much of it, but I was proven wrong here 🥴
If the story picked up and I felt we were moving somewhere, I probably would have kept reading, but I just didn’t get the feeling we were going to be making progress anytime soon 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Charlotte Stein for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you @netgally for this book. This was DNF at 25%, I had a hard time getting into the story..

The male character had total Roy from Ted Lasso vibes.

I am normally a huge fan of fake dating tales and often a fan of Grumpy/Sunshine --- but this book was not the best example of either, sadly. I wanted to like this book so much based on the synopsis, the tropes, and the utterly adorable cover! Alas, it was just kind of meh, for me. And I didn't like how the MMC at times seemed more "mean" than "grumpy". I am sure this book will appeal to many readers, but it was not for me. Out of respect for the author I will not be sharing my review outside of Netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity to read this advance copy. All opinions are my own.

True rating: 2.75

The grumpy/sunshine trope is one of my favorites and there were great moments of banter between the characters. This was a very cute book concept and I absolutely love the cover!

This story's premise is strong and I believe it could be a great book. There was just something about the writing style that often confused me. The characters didn't feel fully realistic, almost as if they were characters of themselves. I also felt almost trapped, there wasn't much interaction with other people other than Alfie and Mabel together.

I couldn't get into this one when I tried, must've hit at a bad time. 4 stars for what I wanted the book to be.

Thanks for the ARC, Netgalley and St. Martin's Press.

This one is going to be a DNF. I am not a fan of third person written romance. I also was struggling to keep up with what was going on - whether that be because of the way it was written, the way the story begins by just throwing you right into the thick of things, the netgalley arc format, or the slang that is not from my country. I was having a hard time getting into the story. And for a book written to be a grumpy sunshine romance based on the title, then the mmc being just mean and/or skittish when dealing with the fmc it was odd. He was hiding behind a plant.

I appreciate the arc for review but unfortunately I think my review would be more hurtful than helpful to this author.

I think I must be in a romance slump, cause I do usually like a grumpy sunshine pair and banter. But something about how the story was told just wasn’t working for me. It was a bit confusing and didn’t seem like it was finished.

I think this will work for a lot of people, but just not for me at this time.

I had a little trouble initially getting into this book because it’s incredibly British and that can be a bit of a turn off for me. Once I powered through the first few chapters, I really enjoyed the bantering between Mabel and Alfie. Obviously it’s a grumpy x sunshine trope but it’s done so well! Their dynamic is so good and they’re clearly two sides of the same coin. The wait for the spice was long (and worth it) but also, I felt like they weren’t really advancing the plot by sleeping together either. The ending fell apart a bit and the 1 year later chapter wasn’t as satisfying as I’d hoped. Overall a 3 star book & I’d likely read more from this author, but I wish this book had gone a little differently.

Fantastic book. I laughed out loud, felt empathy for both main characters and thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel. The main male character, Alfie, was a somewhat dysfunctional English football player, who hated the game. He was uncomfortable around others and didn't appear to fit in well in any crowd. The female main character, Mabel, was a plump energetic woman who was confident in herself and her abilities but berated for her size. Fat shaming occurs frequently and it was handled well in this book. I'm not a fan of rom coms but I enjoyed this book. I would recommend it and read other books by Charlotte Stein.

This wasn't really for me. The characters felt more like caricatures than anything else. While I don't mind swearing, I found the gratuitous use of the f word showed up the poor writing at the start of the book. The plot felt a bit like the plot was trying to be The Wall of Winnipeg and Me but without the heart. Instead, it added humor, and some of the jokes were amusing. But they were stuck in an overall text that I found far too absurd. As the story continued, it added tons of romance tropes in a way that felt mocking of the genre.

DNFing at the start of Chapter 9 (~22%)

I had such high hopes for this based off of the cover and description and this just wasn’t for me. The extreme-ness of our main characters respective grumpy and sunniness was almost off putting. I can see where things are going with Mabel pulling Alfie out of the persona/shell he’s forced himself into but I don’t think I have the patience to get there. Mabel’s thoughts and just the non-dialogue pieces feel super conflated and extra. A lot of (what I feel is) unnecessary descriptions or thoughts swirling about a conversation or situation Alfie and Mabel are having.

Although I’m DNFing this one, I would be willing to pick up something else by Stein in the future. This one just missed the mark for me.

2.5⭐️
Thank you to netgalley and St. Martins Press for a copy.

🤍Grumpy/Sunshine
🤍Plus Size FMC
🤍Spice
🤍Banter
🤍Miscommunication

This book is great for those who love the grumpy sunshine trope but do not mind miscommunication and lengthy inner dialogues.
I really loved the concept of this book but it fell flat for me. A lot of the conversations were repetitive and very lengthy. It also seemed a bit immature for people in their 30s. The miscommunication was also very prominent throughout.
But it was still cute and don’t let my review stop you from reading it if you like these tropes.

DNF

This wasn't for me for a few reasons. I didn't like the dialogue. It was very lengthy and the words they used were just not everyday words that someone would use in a conversation. I guess this would make them quirky which works in some books, but not for this one. Although I do enjoy a good grumpyxsunshine I didn't find myself caring about these characters. I didn't find myself wanting to see what would happen next.

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted copy!

Let’s start with the good. I really enjoyed the narration of this book. Once I started it kept my attention. I actually enjoyed some of Alvie and Mabel’s conversations and that they talked things through. I also appreciated the plus size representation.
I’m not sure much of anything happened during this book other than Mabel and Alfie talking. I didn’t really understand how they went from her just being his ghostwriter to “fake” dating. This book was very steamy but there didn’t seem to be much plot. There was also a lot of miscommunication for people who talk about other things. A whole year apart seemed a little much. Then he wrote the whole book basically? It was a little strange to do that, but he never tried to reach out in over a year?