A lovely and funny romance. I was so pleasantly surprised by this book. Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced read.

I loved it! Mabel and Alfie are absolutely it! I loved having the FMC not be a tiny little stick for once because hello being skinny doesn’t make you pretty! Just enjoyed that it broke a beauty standard norm! But either way, this was so so so funny! Mabel had me cracking up through the whole book and Alfie, jeez what a cinnamon roll once you get to know him. I loved reading their love story! Definitely a new favorite that I will be recommending!

I haven't read good banter in like a year, thank goodness for this book!

This book is wish fulfillment on two levels: Roy Kent stand-in and that reticent dude you dated turning out to NOT be a jerk who desperately needs therapy.

My first Charlotte Stein book, but won't be my last.

Absolutely delightful! One of my top romcoms of the year. Give me Ted Lasso-inspired characters, quick banter, super steamy spice and dirty talk, and laugh-out-loud moments, and I'll be singing your praises forever. I really can't say enough about how much I enjoyed this book so I'll rein it in and just say: read it.

This book has great banter and great representation of different size bodies that we don't see often enough in romance novel. Mabel's sunny personality helps her to get along with everyone she is even able to turn Alfie's grumpy personality around. The tension and banter is strong they are both able to pretend to date and the sparks fly. I liked the way Charlotte Stein was able to write a contemporary romance with plus size which was real, raw and exposed all Mabel's insecurities well.

Thank you Net Galley for the ARC of When Grumpy Met Sunshine. Alfie is a grump and Mabel is bowl of sunshine. Alfie is looking for a ghost writer and with his personality it is a difficult task.
Unfortunately the 3rd Person POV writing style made it difficult to push through this novel.

Unfortunately, I ended up dnfing this book. The mc seemed way too childish for my liking.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I have such mixed feelings about the book. On the one hand, the writing is good. Some of the scenes are laugh-out-loud funny, and I generally enjoyed the characters' banter.

On the other hand--it makes no sense. Alfie is so antisocial at the beginning, it doesn't make any sense that he would want to publish a memoir (he doesn't need the money) or that anyone would want to read it. The descriptions of his behavior are so over-the-top grumpy that it makes him look like a cartoon character, not a romantic hero.

Then there's the fact that Alfie and Mabel have to be the dumbest people alive. They have multiple (excruciatingly dull) conversations about needing to masturbate because they're so turned on...yet each refuses to even consider the possibility that the other finds them attractive. It takes 300 pages for them to have an honest conversation about anything.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine is a smart and quirky rom-com! I love a rom-com that engages my mind as well as my heart and this one fit the bill. The dialogue between the main characters is witty and I really enjoyed how their personalities developed and were revealed over the course of the book. If you enjoy your steam with a serving of angst then you will probably enjoy this book too.

I sped through this book in a just a few sittings and found the storyline engrossing.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love the premise of the book, and I wish I could say it was great, however for me the execution just did not do it for me I thought the female main character was dull and the banter forced and faked, I feel the male lead was not interesting, i love a good rom com and iit sounded so good unfortunately it maybe a favorite for someone else but it was not it for me

This book looked promising and while it did have bits and pieces that were good the overall book was just not it for me. During about 75% of the book I was confused and the writing style just wasn’t doing it for me. I enjoyed the tropes but I feel that the focus of the MC was just all over the place. Thank you netgalley and Charlotte Stein for giving my honest opinion on this book!

I was so so excited to read this book! The blurb sounded great and even the title listed it as one of my favourite tropes. It was cute, feel good, had me laughing out loud and a plus size FMC as a bonus.

The characters were lovable, and I loved watching their relationship grow. Their banter was great and had me snickering at times however some parts I admittedly had to skim through because there was just a bit too much.. which is something I didn't think was possible until this book. While the plot remained engaging, I feel like parts were just stretched out a bit too much with unnecessary banter between the characters. Some readers may enjoy that, I'm just very much a 'time and place and situation' reader.

Overall I enjoyed this book! It was a good quick read that gives all the happy feels. 3.5 rating for me but rounded up to 4.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for giving me an opportunity to read an advanced copy of WHEN GRUMPY MEETS SUNSHINE by Charlotte Stein.

This is a Steamy romance about a grumpy retired footballer (soccer to Americans) and a Ghostwriter with a sunshine outlook. This is a story about Opposites attract romance.

Though I loved the characters and the story, I had to give a lower star rating because there were too Many F*bombs in the reading.

Recommended for fans of ripping romances.

DNF

When Grumpy Met Sunshine is best described if Roy Kent from Ted Lasso retired and a Keely-type was assigned to be his ghostwriter. This was written like two extremes who are caricatures of themselves fall into instalove with way too much dialogue and overthinking. I am usually very much into dialogue-heavy books, but the number of backtracks the dialogue took to get somewhere became exhausting. I hope the author/editor can take this feedback and edit down the dialogue to be a lot more straightforward. Not only does it get tiring to read as a reader, but it undermines the female MC and makes her seem even more insecure than she already is.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the free eGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to love this book, I really did. It has a lot of my favorite tropes/themes (grumpy sunshine, one bed, fake dating, curvy FMC), but the writing style did not do it for me. The banter was fun but there wasn't enough meat to the story to pull me in. Also, I really don't like miscommunication tropes and that was basically the entire premise of this story. I am still giving in 2 stars because I did enjoy the ending, but it was hard for me to push through this story.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital copy prior to release.

Unfortunately for me it was a DNF at 40%. The banter was too much, and I'm a gal who's always down for the best banter. It made me want to skip chunks just to get back to the main plot

It took me a while to get into the story, but when I did OH how I loved it! I laughed out loud many times and hugged the book when it was done.
THIS is how grumpy-sunshine and fake dating trope is done!
My copy was pretty rough, editing-wise, which is obviously to be expected for an unedited galley. Too many F words, the first few chapters need a little tweaking, and some cleanup is needed here and there. I cannot wait to see the finished, polished edition!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. Ghostwriter Mabel Willicker is tasked with helping notorious football brute Alfie Harding write his memoirs. Neither's outward facing facade tells the whole story. I read this with Brett Goldstein and Nicola Coughlan in mind, and the narrator as Emma Thompson. I enjoyed the banter, humor and the friendship between Alfie and Mabel a lot, but their road to romance was riddled with SO much miscommunication, denial and self doubt. The narrative was a series of short witty conversations followed by PAGES of disecting the meaning behind the conversations. It made it difficult to accurately track the passage of time. I wish more time was spent with H and h in their regular lives with the side characters, rather than so much internal debate and reflection. As an American reader, I did get a bit lost in the British-isms and slang (and my kindle definitions were of little help). The bones of this story are fantastic, but details need some fleshing out.

I tried to like this book. On the surface it had so many qualities that I usually enjoy, but it fell short and dragged on.
It definitely took me awhile to get used to the way it was written and I'm sure that some of the UK slang went over my head.

The book is about Alfie, a misunderstood and very private retired footballer looking for a ghostwriter for his memoir and bubbly Mablel, the writer he chooses. They move from grumpy/sunshine to fake dating to a lust filled workplace romance in this opposites-attract cliché filled story. There was so much banter and somehow also not enough because by the end of the book I was not convinced these two had formed any sort of lasting connection.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The cover and title drew my eye to this book. I started reading it and it took me a bit, but then I was invested in the characters. It was a cute funny romance, for a bit. And then, I got really tired of the main character's low self esteem. She kept saying there was no way that this footballer (soccer player to Americans) could like her since she was a curvier woman and unlike previous girlfriends. I get that mentality at the beginning perhaps, but he went out of his way to show her he didn't care about her size and still it was an issue for pretty much the whole book. No patience for that. So 2 stars for me.

I received this advanced reader copy from the publisher for my honest review.