This book dragged for me. I love the grumpy-sunshine trope. Some if the banter was funny, but overall the book fell short for me. This was a DNF for me (which is rare). I made it almost 50% through before leaving it incomplete. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for the ARC of this book.

I decided to give this a second shot after not being able to get past the opening pages over the summer and despite making it to a whopping 24%, it is clear this book isn't for me. I found the narration very difficult to get into and the dialogue was more cringe and very unbelievable to me. The author's humor and mine certainly do not mesh, so reading this wasn't my cup of tea.

I dnf'd this book at 20%. I love a good romance book and a nice grumpy/sunshine trope but I did not like these characters at all. Also, the writing was all over the place. And the banter that was supposed to come off as "witty" was just plain annoying.

Thank you to St Martins Press and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

I will happily leave a review for this when the racist remarks by one of their employees is addressed. I want to support the author, but also want to know they don’t support this behavior.

Ugh, I wanted to like this so bad, grumpy x sunshine is one of my favourite tropes. Unfortunately I just couldn’t get into When Grumpy Met Sunshine no matter how hard I tried.

Release date: February 6th, 2024
Where do leven start with this one?
As someone who has grown up with an obsession with Bridget Jones Diary and Pride and Prejudice
(2005), I can say this book fulfilled all of my fantasies.
A strong English man who can literally toss around the plus-size FMC? And he does hair?
And caters to her wishes? And changes his house to make it more comfortable for HER? And the BANTER? Imagine love island banter ×10.
I loved everything about this book. I'll be honest, a few of the phrases threw me for a loop. I'm not necessarily up to date on how people in England talk. I found myself giggling at things just because of how silly it all sounded. That being said, it added to the story rather than taking from
Let's talk characters-
Alfie is the literal definition of a man written by a woman, and let me tell you 
I ATE THAT SHIZ UP

Ex-football (soccer) star? Yes
Accent? Yes
Tall and beefy? Yes
Could charm the pants off your nan? Yes
king of consent? Yes
Grumpy? Yes
Funny without being mean? Yes

And what's a good MMC without a strong female?
Mabel is funny, witty, and described by Alfie himself as something similar to a human cupcake.
Her and Alfie, when they can learn how to communicate, are the dream.
Literally such a sweet story. So glad I stumbled across this one!

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for providing this ARC for my voluntary and honest review!

When Grumpy Met Sunshine is a fake dating/opposites attract story, jam packed with miscommunication and healing past traumas. Characters were sweet and likable; however, their personalities were usually taken to such an extreme (two people cannot realistically be THAT aloof) that the story felt hyperbolic. The story was constructed in a fun and modern way though, with some pretty decent spice.

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

*thank you to netgalley and publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review*

i absolute love the inclusion of a plus-sized character. the fmc was made to feel very relatable; real, raw and beautiful!

i did tend to find the banter to be overdone and hard to get through at some points of the story. the storyline didn’t grab me as much as i thought it was going to though. the mmc was a tad insufferable.

overall, the characters weren’t as well rounded as i wished and the tropes fell flat for me.

I tried my best to navigate through this book without getting caught in another never-ending banter session. Grumpy-meets-sunshine, a trope I adore, comes to life as Alfie Harding and Mabel Willicker.
However, the excessive and lengthy dialogues felt like they were dragging on for what feels like ages. Unfortunately, they persist, causing frustration and hindering the enjoyment of the reading experience. With repetitive dialogues and a lack of action or progress, I found myself skimming through some parts just to reach the end.

•Fake Dating
•Curvy Girl
•Forced Proximity
•Grumpy x Sunshine

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

When grumpy ex-footballer Alfie Harding gets badgered into selling his memoirs, he knows he’s never going to be able to write them. He hates revealing a single thing about himself, is allergic to most emotions, and can’t imagine doing a good job of putting pen to paper.

And so in walks curvy, cheery, cute as heck ghostwriter Mabel Willicker, who knows just how to sunshine and sass her way into getting every little detail out of Alfie. They banter and bicker their way to writing his life story, both of them sure they’ll never be anything other than at odds.

But after their business arrangement is mistaken for a budding romance, the pair have to pretend to be an item for a public who’s ravenous for more of this Cinderella story.

THOUGHTS
First, I HATE rating books low. But I nearly DNF’d this book multiple times, I was really struggling with the first half. I did really enjoy Alfie & Mabel but I feel like their story is underdeveloped. The excessive banter was cute at first but felt extremely repetitive. It didn’t feel like the story was progressing and I often felt lost. Unfortunately, I found myself skimming sections. It shocked me that I didn’t feel like I missed any world building. It could really use more back story from the characters and even maybe a dual POV. I LOVED Alfie. He pulled at my heartstrings. He was a great character. I would have loved his perspective.

Now, the spice. I can say that Charlotte knows how to write fantastic spice. When Mabel & Alfie finally hooked up, OMG! The dirty talk and foreplay. Brilliant. Well done.

Overall, it was a miss for me.

This book was not easy to get into so that's the reason for the lower rating because I don't care for those very often. The story once it picked up was very cute and the ending was great as well.

I adored this book by Charlotte Stein. I felt completely immersed in the world of these two people and I couldnt put it down. If you liked Ted Lasso, You are going to love this.

This is such a great slow burn! There are not too many slow burn books that I like but Charlotte stein definitely knows how to do it right! Love the curvy girl representation! Great fake dating turns into spicy not able to control their feelings for each other! Great read!

I love me some opposites attract and this didn’t disappoint!
Plus I love that the main character was plus sized. Plus the banter in this book was amazing! Also this reminded me a little of Ted Lasso character Roy Kent!
When grumpy ex-footballer Alfie Harding gets bothered into selling his memoirs, he knows he will never be able to write them. He hates revealing a single thing about himself, especially personal information and he is allergic to most emotions, and he can’t imagine writing anything about himself. Enter the curvy, cheery and cute ghostwriter Mabel Willicker, she knows just how to sunshine and sass her way into getting every little detail out of Alfie. Plus she can serve back any banter he throws at her. But when their work arrangement is soon mistaken for a budding romance, the pair are told to pretend to be an item for the public who’s starving for more of this Cinderella story. It feels like it’s pretend―until each slow burn step in their fake relationship sparks a heat neither can control. Could this possibly end in a fairytale ending?

Thank you so much to the publisher and author for giving me an early arc of this read!

At the beginning, I won’t lie, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to finish the book. There was a lot of banter which I wasn’t sure I liked at first, but ended up loving in the end. I really liked the story and I loooooved Mabel and Alfie’s relationship. It was frustrating at times because I wanted to yell at them both for being dumb and hiding their feelings, but it made for a much better ending because they both hid their feelings from one another, if that makes sense. The tension build up was 10/10 and I’d def read it again!

Absolutely fantastic banter, character development, and spice level. Genuinely funny and sharp with a gentle core.

I know know there is such a thing as "too much banter". I almost DNF'd due to this. I was really hoping to love this book due to a plus sized heroine.

This is the first book I have DNFd this year. I made it to 10%, tried to get back into it several times, but it just wasnt working for me at all..

4.5/5 stars!
This book was super cute!
Alfie and Mabel are the definition of Grumpy/Sunshine!
They just do it right!
I love any book where the sunshine girl gets the grumpy guy to open up little by little, and this book was exactly what I love to see!
Not to mention it was hilarious, but wasn’t afraid to get serious at times! Everybody should read this!!

I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn't get through the endless banter and talking in circles. The concept of this story is great: it has the classic tropes of a contemporary romance: grumpy-sunshine, celebrity fake relationship. But both adult characters (in mid- to late thirties) felt incredibly immature - they couldn't have a serious conversation and discuss their feelings like adults and it was maddening.

And I love good banter, but there is a limit. I don't want to be skimming the pages just to find out if anything the author has written is actually progressing the plot. A lot of the dialogue felt like needless back and forth, which again, was quite frustrating. I felt like a lot more could have been done with the plot and with character development.

Star Rating:
⭐️⭐️ / ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Spice Rating:
🌶🌶.5 / 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶