2⭐
Genre ~ romantic comedy
Setting ~ England I think
Publication date ~ February 6, 2024
Est page Count ~ 329 (27 long titled chapters + one year later)
Audio length ~ 9 hours 17 minutes
Narrator ~ Emily Spowage
POV ~ single 3rd
Featuring ~ characters in their 30's, ex soccer player, plus size woman, fake relationship, opposites attract, slow burn, some steamage, EXCESSIVE swearing, no communication

*possible spoilers ahead*

Content warning from the author ~ brief references to parental abuse, childhood poverty, and alcoholism, and an incident that includes fat-phobia, plus brief mentions at a few points of the effects that fat-phobia can have.

Mabel & Alfie
Mable is ghostwriting Alfie's memoir, but then they find themselves in a fake relationship and obviously fall for each other.

Have you watched Ted Lasso? If not, here's your chance to meet one of the characters, Roy Kent, because I totally believe Aflie is based on him and you can't tell me otherwise. I didn't really find him to be overly grumpy though. I liked how he defended Mabel right from the start when people were talking about her weight.

But...Mabel, really? I'm kind of tired of the whole 'he'll never love me because I'm fat' crap. I could see he was genuine all the way over here in the USA, so open your eyes girl! Yeah fine you're in a fake relationship, so you think he's faking it, but for the love of all that is holy why can't grown adults communicate?! They are in their 30's for Pete's, not F's, sake!!

Okay, so listen, I've been known to swear a time or two or 16, but for the F word to be used 253 times is just overly excessive to me for a 329 page book. Over excessive even if it was a 1,329 or 3,290 page book. It just really turned me off. I did primarily listen to it, so maybe it wouldn't have been as noticeable to me if I had read it.

There were some funny bits, but even the banter got to be too much and I didn't really care for it. There was too much inner monologue and the repeating of phrases was really annoying ~ 'and she laughed, she did laugh,' 'like he had said he would, like he had told her,' 'even though he wasn't, he wasn't at all'...just to name a few.
The whole grand gesture was fine I suppose, but one year later....nah, too far in the future.

In conclusion, I wasn't a super big fan if you couldn't tell.

I had both a kindle and an audio copy to review.
Narration notes:
I guess she was okay, but again when someone is swearing in your ear a bunch you tend to get bugged with them.

Side bar ~ the cover is super cute.

I DNF'd this book at 22%...it was so hard to follow and the writing style was not for me at all! It felt so choppy and I could not get in to it. The diolague was cringy banter. I definitely don't recommend.

1 star rating, thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy for my honest review.

The cover is adorable; I absolutely love it and it's by far the best thing about this book, which is otherwise a bit of a mess of word vomit and overly long descriptions and it's just not it.

This is the type of book I usually eat up, but something just didn’t work for me. Too much dialogue that was supposed to be witty banter, but honestly felt forced and was a pain to get to. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t get into this book because I couldn’t make myself care about any of the characters, so sadly, a DNF for me.

Not a fan of this one. To me, there was too much banter and not enough true character depth. There was a good amount of spice, but it seemed to be just stuck in there. The last 30-40% of the book did pick up a bit but I was still just completely not invested in the characters.

I had such high hopes 🥲
Despite the title this was not the classic grumpy/sunshine trope I was anticipating as within the first few chapters the "grump" had to turn around to hide his smile/laughter. At the halfway point I still had not learned anything that felt meaningful about the characters and the plot was slow and kind of at a stand still. I unfortunately can't recommend this book.

While I have spent a lot of time reading & loving previous titles from St. Martin's Press and Wednesday Books, I must side with my BIPOC friends & family members in the current controversy surrounding your marketing team. One of your employees made a negative public statement about people in the BIPOC community. This is someone that regularly works with BIPOC creators on ARC and marketing campaigns. I sure hope this has been dealt with behind the scenes but the reading community is requesting you make a public statement about the situation and how you've moved forward or will be moving forward. I will not be talking about this book or any others under the St. Martin's Press / Wednesday Books imprint until the BIPOC reading community hears a satisfiable response from your company.

Pick up WHEN GRUMPY MET SUNSHINE for:
Forced proximity
Fake dating
Scruffy gruff softie MMC
Soft adorkable FMC
He falls first
Grand gesture
Dialogue driven
Explicit sexual content
Hot bedroom talk

The story is mostly Mabel & Alfie talking. Dialogue heavy. So much dialogue. So much so, even the sexual content is mostly them talking.

The synopsis promises a forced proximity working relationship that shifts to a fake dating ruse. Pairing a ghostwriter & a celebrity ex-footballer served only to create the kind of tensions usually found in royal/commoner romance stories.

I had a difficult time reading the first 40% of the book. I may have had a good idea about who these characters were/are (because all that information was dumped during the one and only true work meeting) but absolutely no grasp as what they wanted to achieve.

It wasn't until their sexual relationship sparked that I was engaged in their story. The explicit content is very well written.

Later dialogue and misunderstandings were repetitive and tanked the improvements seen mid book.

I hope this book finds a readership because Mabel is a fat FMC getting her flowers. She is worshiped and loved. Alfie also suffers none of her negative self-talk. He takes her body anxieties and celebrates her instead. Lusts after her something so fierce its panty melting.

Thank you Netgalley & St. Martins Press for this advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was a cute story. Mabel is a ghost writer who is considering taking on ghost writing a book for a famous footballer Alfie. Alfie is a famous, rich, notoriously grumpy and secretive ex football star. When the two first meet it does not go well, Mabel feels insulted and storms out of the meeting. Normally that would be the end of things, yet they keep running into each other and eventually they agree to work together to write his story. People are fascinated by secretive Alfie, and so instantly decide Mabel and Alfie are dating, and a fake dating scheme begins, since her job as a ghost writer must remain a secret. This had the potential to be such a great story, but it just slightly missed the mark for me. The book had too much explaining situations, too much miscommunication between characters, and the time jump at the end made the ending feel disjointed and rushed. That being said I did really enjoy the characters and was invested in their getting their happily ever after. I received an ARC, and this is my honest review.

🖊️eARC Book Review🖊️

“Even when she was at her most confident, ‘pretty’ and ‘fat’ felt like polar opposites. She could look killer, fierce, hot, cute, whatever. Anything but pretty.”

When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein
Pub Date: February 6, 2024
Rating: 🌟🌟(2/5)
Spice: 🌶🌶🌶🫑(3.5/5)

Review:

After meeting with a bunch of ghost writers soccer star Alfie Harding meets with Mabel Willicker. He knows immediately she’s the writer for him. However their first meeting ends with Mabel walking out in the middle. Alfie is known to be grumpy but really he’s just a misunderstood golden retriever. Mabel and Alfie venture into the writing process together and then some.

SPOILERS

I enjoyed that this book started with a trigger warning about self hatred and self sabatoging. I didn’t realize how much I dislike it. I got the ick so hard from Mabel. Our plus size heroine never really learns to love herself or trust herself in this story and that’s heartbreaking to me. Even by the end she couldn’t believe she deserved alfies love.

Further, for the first half I couldn’t even track a timeline of the relationship. I have no idea how long they were going back and forth before actually working together. No concept of time movement in this story. Also, Lots of dirty talk but not until after the 50% mark.

If you like:
- Celebrity Memoir
- Grumpy/Sunshine
- Sandra Bullock
- British slang

QOTD: what is your favorite celebrity memoir?

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martins Press for proving me with an eARC of this novel.

This book was not for me. I found the sentence structure extremely lengthy, yet somehow choppy. There were so many incomplete sentences that it was hard follow some times. From the first chapter, I found it difficult to fully immerse myself in what was happening on the page due to the author withholding information that would ease confusion. I think this could have benefited from some more extensive editing before going to readers. I would not recommend this book to a friend.

First off, thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for granting me access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

OUTLIER ALERT!! 🎶It's me!🎶 The synopsis for this book sounded incredible and I was super excited to read it. I mean who doesn't love a grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity, opposites attract and fake dating tropes!?! Plus the cover is so cute!!! Unfortunately, it makes me very sad to admit that this one did not work for me at all. Ugh, I kept reading hoping it would get better but that never happened. So what were my issues with the story? The extremely lengthy dialogues that just seemed to drag on for forever and ever, immature banter that was over the top and hard to follow (legit 95% of the book) and the dreadful and constant miscommunication. Honestly, I do not recommend this book.

✨I know many people will love this book so please do not base your decision to read this book solely on my review.✨

*2.5 stars rounded up to 3*

3.5 Stars. Mabel is a ghostwriter who is assigned to write the memoir of England’s favorite grumpy former footballer, Alfie Harding. The two have a few bad encounters before finally agreeing to work together. Mabel’s sunny demeanor is able to break through Alfie’s walls to get the material for the book. Mabel is spotted by the paps and the speculation leads the pair to fake dating so they can be seen in public together without Mabel’s status as a ghostwriter being found out, which with all fake dating leads to real feelings.

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. I loved that Mabel is a plus-sized girl and Alfie is absolutely obsessed with her body. I do wish the book was dual POV so I could have gotten more of Alfie’s feeling (like his inspiration Roy Kent he has one) for Mabel rather having to rely on his limit words. Like I said, Alfie is inspired by Roy Kent but he isn’t a carbon copy which I appreciate.

Now to the rough bit. I get tweets from the author on my feed and the info she’s been using to advertise the book is that early reviewers say there is too much sex. The way the book is structured results in there being too much sex. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like a steamy book and am no stranger to erotica that is mostly sex, but the scenes structurally work to tell the story. The first 60% of the book is literally the pair talking with no heat or tension, the next 30% is just sex that feels like it comes out of no where, the remaining 10% is a one year later chapter that wraps the story. It’s like the publisher told the author she wasn’t allowed to have a sex scene in the first 60% because that’s the norm for trade paperbacks and she took that instruction literally out of spite. I never skim read steamy scenes but I found myself skimming. If the scenes had been peppered throughout the book, it would have worked for me, but alas. I know the author has self-published for years and has a fan-base so I would be interested to see how the mechanics of this book compare to those she has more control over.

I was given the opportunity to listen to the audiobook and really enjoyed Emily Spowage’s narration. She has a thick english accent that does take some time to get used to but keeps the story moving. I will not that the chapters all end in an interstitial containing things like tweets, news articles, text threads, etc. which didn’t really flow as well in the audiobook. In the eBook these moments were delineated by different spacing, italics, or boxes that don’t come across in the audiobook, but I know an audiobook needs to convey what is written on the page so I don’t know that there’s really a solution to this small issue and I did get used to them being there.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for the ALC and ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am a huge Ted Lasso fan because Roy Kent is my ultimate grump ideal. I just love everything about him so when the synopsis of this book was a Roy Kent like character, I was all over it. I loved the idea of the perky, curvy and sunshine lovely ghostwriter Mable having to sit down and get nontalking, angry, blunt Alfie to complete his memoir. It was the perfect set up to get this two opposite attract loves together. They had wonderful hilarious banter and the first 1/3 of this book was seriously laugh out loud funny. The whole section where she thought he was following her. I was so excited to when the fake dating trope came in. I was all for it.
The 2nd half of the book got off track. We spent some much time getting them together and pulled them through some many funny moments and it just dropped off to almost tedious amounts of..."he could never love me" miscommunication. It was so obvious that he was in love with her, probably from the very beginning and she could get out of her own way. As that was the ONLY plot of the book was it really was a tough slog.
I also found the banter wonderful, but they were sometime too long and too complicated. I got lost multiple time in the book and couldn't figure out when we had moved from one location to another. I felt it could have used a little cleaning up with regards to scenes.
I also found the side characters almost pointless. There were the chats with her friends but we never really met them, his assistant Daisy who we saw like one time and then gone, and the whole things with the agent switch...I was so confused by that whole story line.
Overall it had lots of potential but the lack of communication throughout the story as the only plot point makes a little hard to read. I would recommend to someone that is looking for a quick, slow burn, grumpy sunshine book.

I had to dnf this book at 15% because this book was just not for me. I love a good grumpy/sunshine trope but Mabel and Alfie were not cute and the banter was just TOO much. Mabels thoughts were so long and winded I couldn’t follow half of what she was saying. I was excited for this book but unfortunately it fell flat for me. Thank you SMP and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

A steamy, opposites-attract romance with undeniable chemistry between a grumpy retired footballer and his fabulous and very sunshine-y ghostwriter.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love me a good grump, but the line between being a grump and being and asshole is very thin... I don't think this one was for me. 30% in, I couldn't even tell you what the story was about. I constantly had to make a conscious effort to bring my attention back to the book. I have read many good reviews about it, so maybe it will be more for you than it was for me.
I received an advance review copy of this book for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book fell a short for me. It seemed to be missing something and I think I just disliked the way the dialogue was written. . Grumpy/Sunshine and fake-dating are just the most obvious reasons for wanting to read this. What I didn't see coming was the care the author took to portray these characters and their supposed flaws.

An ex-footballer, Alfie, needs a ghostwriter to help write his memoir. Mabel wants to work on bigger and better projects, and this just might be the ticket. Her wit and sass and their banter make this such an entertaining enemies-to-lovers rom-com with a bit of spice, and when they are mistaken as a couple, add in some fake dating trope. I found it a little slow to get really involved with the story, but once invested, it's an adorable rom-com with some great LOL moments. Thanks so much to Charlotte Stein, St. Martin's Griffin, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this e-arc!

Alfie, a grumpy ex-footballer, needs a ghostwriter for his memoir and Mabel, a vivacious, colorful writer, is the 16th or 17th ghostwriter his publisher has had him meet. Alfie's less than stellar demeanor, ability to alienate just about everyone, and near-refusal to share any details of his life make it difficult for Mabel to gather the information they need to bring this memoir to fruition.

Sunny, cheerful, sassy Mabel finds the right tactics to get Alfie to share his stories before he even realizes what he's doing. That said, Alfie's poor communication skills make the two spend a lot of time bickering and misunderstanding/misinterpreting which causes the attraction to build. Of course, we know when attraction builds so do conflicts, denials, and intrusion by the ever-present paparazzi who interpret this as a "Cinderella" romance and the rumors begin to fly at super-sonic speed.

To tame the social media rumors Alfie and Mabel decide to have a fake romance which backfires on them as the media attention and attraction grows out of control. How do they handle this? Can they fight the attraction? Charlotte Stein delivers a modern day Cinderella rom-com filled with humor, steamy encounters, and a football field full of humor while at the same time addressing tough issues like body shaming and fat-phobia, child abuse/neglect, alcoholism, and childhood poverty which is dealt with in a tasteful, caring, understanding manner.

When a bubbly ghostwriter is hired to ghost write a grumpy footballer's memoir the last them either of them expects is to fall for each other. Alfie Harding is a retired footballer who is known for being grumpy, intimidating, and being extremely private. Mabel Willicker is a curvy, cheery, and sweet ghost writer who is tasked with helping Alfie complete his memoir. They are polar opposites and bicker and banter every chance they get. Yet the more time they spend together the more they begin to fall for each other... and it doesn't help that the media thinks that they are dating each other. While faking a relationship to keep the media off their backs as they try and complete Alfie's memoir... the pretend is starting to feel very real and the feelings between the both of them is growing. Yet can a relationship work between two opposites who come from different worlds... or are they exactly perfect for each other? This was the cutest rom com ever, Alfie was giving strong Roy Kent vibes (and I absolutely love Roy so so much) and Mabel was such a sassy and funny protagonist. they were both so perfect for each other and i adored their friendship and growing relationship so much. This book was just so sweet and fun and will have you feeling so happy while reading it! I absolutely would recommend this for any fans of a cute and funny rom com with a couple who has so much chemistry!!!

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*