When Grumpy Met Sunshine gave me exactly what I was expecting. It was sweet, cute, and a slow-burn with a bit of spice in the last 25-30% of the book.

If you like rom-coms, you’ll enjoy this. Alfie and Mabel are relatable for the same and yet entirely different reasons. I honestly feel like this book could have been longer, and dug deeper into both of them as characters.

Overall, I enjoyed the book.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for a review.

Overall: 2.75 rounded up to 3.

This book was NOT my cup of tea. I’m not sure if I’m just not into British RomComs or if I missed out on the character inspiration because I’ve never watched Ted Lasso.

The spice was great, the scenes were well written. But the banter between the two characters was honestly too much. I kept losing track of what they were even talking about. And then they broke up for a YEAR because of a miscommunication, their whole relationship was weird miscommunication.

This might be the book for you, but it was not the book for me.

A perfect cute romance

This was my first read from this amazing author and no ma’am she did not disappoint one bit. This read was everything and much more. The tension, chemistry and relationship between Alfie and Mabel was addictive and quite interesting.

I saw myself in Mabel a whole lot and l absolutely fell in love with her. She was every bit cherry, curvy and beautiful whereas Alfie was a big grump but a very handsome, grump who was a teddy bear at heart.

This book was steamy and banter filled and l couldn’t place it down. Ladies it’s definitely a page turner that will have you hooked.

This author did such an amazing job with bringing these characters to life, as well as the whole story itself. The plot was well written to a T.

Their bickering had me laughing a whole lot. Those two captured my heart in more ways than one.

So we have some fake dating, close proximity and a whole lot of laughter and swooning.

Tropes

💕Plus size FMC
💕He falls first
💕Ghostwriter x ex- football player
💕Meet cute
💕Shy & Protective MMC

I liked this book. But it was the ending of the story that redeemed the issues I had throughout the book.

I always enjoy banter between characters, but there was so much banter and little else for the first third of the book. It got to be too much and too repetitive. I was also very confused with the end of each chapter, with headlines, emails and text messages. I found that it didn't really add anything to the story for me, and just seemed to be unnecessary.

I found the book dragged a bit and just wasn't for me. There was nothing wrong with it, I just didn't connect with it like I do with other books. That being said, the ending was very cute and definitely brought my rating up a star!

3/5 stars for this one.

I loved the thought of a book with a Roy Kent like character, but the writing style didn't work for me.

Between that title and that cover (that adorable, wonderful cover) I couldn't request this book fast enough!

I think timing might be playing a role in my experience reading this book. For starters, I'm feeling greedy and anxious to fall into a story and fall in love with a romance. The third person narrative automatically requires me to take a little longer to feel on the "inside" of a story, and the writing on this one seemed to hold me back even more.

I ADORE a good grumpy sunshine romance, but this was wrong book, wrong writing style, wrong time for me. I may circle back to this someday to see if it hits different. But it was a swing and a miss for me.

I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to read and review.

The cover of this book is so cute! I’m a big fan of the grumpy/sunshine trope. So I knew I had to read this book. Sadly, this was a miss for me. The whole draw to the grumpy/sunshine trope is the banter. The banter between Alice and Mabel was so awkward and stilted. It just didn’t feel real to me. I couldn’t buy into the chemistry between them. The book gets spicy towards the end, but then that’s all that really happens. The spice wasn’t bad, but the whole thing just seemed very juvenile to me.

Sadly, this just wasn’t the right book for me.

A great steamy rom-com full of fun. While the ending may have been predictable, isn't that kind of why you read rom-coms? You know where they will end up, but the journey to get there was so much fun.
This review collected as part of a Netgalley promotion

A famous footballer (soccer player) from the UK is writing a memoir and our plus size heroine is hired as his ghostwriter under an NDA. So when people think she's the new woman in his life, things get complicated...

The reviews on this seem mixed but I really enjoyed it! I think my biggest complaint is just that the title suggests this grumpy/sunshine dynamic which wasn't adequately established at the start of the book. From the get go he's not actually all that grumpy and she is perfectly willing to stand up for herself.

That aside, I enjoyed the banter and development of their relationship. It was very sweet and then startlingly steamy. Like very sexy. And there are some hilarious moments that had me quite literally laughing out loud.

She doesn't think they make sense because he's been known to date thin models and she's fat and very much a normal person. But he's so clearly into her from the very beginning and I loved that. There seems to be some criticism of the fact that she continues to think she's not for him despite the clear attraction, but honestly in context that makes a lot of sense to me. There absolutely are people who might privately be attracted to larger bodies but won't publicly be in relationships with them because of the way they might be perceived in an all-too-often fatphobic world. So her wariness isn't stupid. But he is delightful and horrified at how the press has been talking about her.

While I think this book could have done with an extra chapter or two at the beginning to really set the stage for who these characters are or are perceived to be, I generally really liked it and would suggest it to fans of Olivia Dade. It does a fairly good job of showing attraction, desire, and sexual enjoyment in a way that doesn't weirdly fetishize fatness but also doesn't ignore the physicality of the characters actual bodies. The audio narration is great and you really get the Britishness of this rom-com. I received an audio review copy via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

A slow starter for me as I adjusted to how dialogue heavy the writing was in this romance. Thoroughly enjoyed it once I got going, and I appreciated the flashes of profound tucked in the story. I’ll definitely be picking up this author again.

~BEWARE: SPOILERS INCLUDED~

This book was 4 stars for me until they started having sex... In the beginning, I thought it was really fun and silly and I was really enjoying Mabel getting Alfie to open up more and Alfie obviously (to me, clearly not to Mabel) being a simp for her. Don't get me wrong, the spicy scenes were really good, it just felt like once that started, that's all it was about... The miscommunication/misunderstanding was just frustrating and the conflict and resolution felt quite rushed. Even though for the characters, it was NOT! I was so shocked when I saw on the last chapter, "One year later". Like, what?? That's such a long time... it just felt jarring.

This book fell very flat for me. I love Alfie and I like Mabel as individual characters, but I did not feel the chemistry between them. Everything felt very surface level, and while there was good banter that was not enough for me to truly enjoy the book. The plot sort of got lost in the middle as well.

This book was about an ex-football player (soccer for us Americans) who is reluctantly searching for a ghost writer for his autobiography. After rejecting several in comes Mable. She is cheery, dressed in fun clothes and anything but grumpy. They begin to work together and due to sightings together his fans and the local media believe they are in a relationship. In order to preserve the secrecy of her writing his memoir they pretend to be a couple.
In most rom-coms you have a good idea of the ending. The interesting part is how you get there. And that just didn’t work for me. Their bantering was enjoyable but was over done. The sexual tension was very juvenile. And how they got to their ending just didn’t seem to make sense.

This is fast read with some of my favorite tropes. Set in England, Alfie is a grumpy, retired professional football player and Mabel is a sweet and curvy writer hired to ghost write his memoir. The paparazzi sees her leaving his house after a work session leading people to wonder who the mystery woman is? And you know what that means… they start fake dating as a cover for her being his ghost writer.

I love the banter between Mabel and Alfie. I laughed out loud several times as I was reading this, they were bonkers in the best way possible. The ending had me tearing up. Read this if you enjoy:

💙 Grumpy x sunshine
💙 Fake dating
💙 Only one bed
💙 Plus size heroine
💙 Open door romance

I DNF'ed at 25%.

I'd had hope for this. I like grumpy/sunshine. I'd liked the emotional intensity and spice of the couple of Charlotte Stein books I'd read before. But by 25%, it seemed like there was something still missing. I had very little insight into the FMC (who's perspective this is from) and less into the MMC, except that he seems to be another Roy Kent character. It all felt very surface level.

There was a lot of entertaining banter, and an amusing accidental stalking incident, but I just kept waiting to feel something while I was reading. And all I was starting to feel was annoyed.

Probably entertaining. Seems harmless. But a miss for me.

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 for giving me the opportunity to be an ARC reader on this story!

Sunshine ghost writer Mabel is given an assignment to write a memoir for grumpy national football star Alfie Harding. But what happens when a love confession leads them to fake dating to please the media?

I adored this grumpy sunshine, fake dating romance! Alfie was SUCH A GRUMP it was absolutely cracking me up half the time! I loved seeing him and Mabel constantly try to ignore their feelings for each other but ultimately not being able to! The banter was so great between them and I loved seeing Mabel slowly start to break down Alfie’s walls.

The only things that I wasn’t necessarily a fan of was the time jump at the end of the story (iykyk) and some of the pacing in the plot. Some parts felt like it was moving a little too quickly for me!

If you’re a fan of the grumpy sunshine trope and fake dating I would definitely recommend this story!!

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me, and not for lack of trying... 69% into it and I said ENOUGH! I love the grumpy-to-happy trope and the fun/funny banter that usually comes with it. However, I found this story to be equal parts too much and not enough; entirely too much banter/internal dialogue and not enough plot. Also, the narration didn't do much to keep me interested, so I tried reading it instead... yeah, nope! Thank you to Charlotte Stein, St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for this ARC/ALC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I dnf'd this book. I just could not really get into it, personally. It felt as if there was too much internal dialogue, even though it is in 3rd person p.o.v., and I could not stay focused on the plot. Was not for me.

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me at 30% in. I just could not get into this one. Didn't care for the writing, the dialogue, the banter.

I have tried to read this a few times and I think it's time to admit it's not working for me. I love the cover and the grumpy/sunshine trope but the banter is somehow too over the top for me. This is surprising as I am someone who adores banter! The characters were also reading much younger than the thirty years olds they are supposed to be.