I want to start off by saying thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Mabel is a ghostwriter who has been set up to help a famous, grumpy ex soccer player (think Roy Kent) write his memoirs. Because he's so grumpy and private, when the public sees them together, they assume that they two are dating and the couple goes along with the plan to keep the fact that she is ghostwriting for him a secret.
What follows is a somewhat short and complicated succession of events between the two as they navigate their fake relationship, their half-truth writing of his past, and their true feelings for each other.

This book hit a lot of tropes on my fave list: grumpy/sunshine, fake dating, soccer. With that being said, I just couldn't do it. I tried so hard to connect with this book and it just fell flat for me. I couldn't get into the writing style or the way that the main character would always think and say things in threes, (i.e. "He did it. He did it. He really just did it."). I didn't feel any chemistry between the two main characters - mostly just because I didn't feel like anything really happened in this book. Overall, it just wasn't for me.

I really tried to enjoy this! Usually, I quite enjoy this trope and I don't think this book had any necessarily glaring issues but I think the delivery wasn't as on point as I thought it would be.

It felt like Mabel and Alfie struggled to be actualized characters beyond a surface-level understanding of banter and squabbling. I wanted them to feel a little deeper, a little more rooted, but it seemed like any time we made progress on a character level, it would revert back to quippy banter. It was, however, a well-written book - in that I can tell the author has a strong and perhaps unique writing voice, it just didn't sell to me the way I'd hoped it would!

The smutty aspects of it were quite fun, but I think contemporary romances have to straddle that line between the dynamic between characters and the plot progressing not outpacing one another.

Thank you, Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of when Grumpy Met Sunshine in exchange of my honest opinion.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine is the story of Mabel, a ghostwriter that gets a job to write a memoir of this famous, but retired soccer player (or footballer as they say constantly in the book). He is a grumpy and stoic guy that doesn’t get along with people and honestly, don’t want to really open himself for others in this book. So you can see how they will argue and bicker with each other but the force proximity will work in our favor.

I really enjoyed this book but, I will be honest, I almost DNF’ed at 10%, but don’t get me wrong it was a good and fun book.
What I liked about the book: the story was super fun, I loved the chemistry between the characters, more importantly I loved their personality. Mabel was funny, witty and she had what I think it was a great point for discussion that is this struggle of being confident and accepting herself but and at the same time being self-conscious. Because honestly, who doesn’t?! I also loved her representation as a fat person that is happy with her body. For once the story here was not about her struggles with being fat and her acceptance of her body. No! She likes the way she is, her self-conscious parts comes whenever she compares herself with her crush exes (and again.. who doesn’t?).
Alfie, on the other hand, was also adorable… he also had his insecurities and I love the combo: stoic on the outside but a true cinnamon roll on the inside. His interactions with Mabel was hilarious and you can see that they are truly friends, but my God.. he sounds so sexy when he starts to dirty talk to her.

Now, the thing that really made me struggle and I almost DNF’ed was the writing. As a non-native speaker that lives in the US, this book was hard to grasp because of the amount of British slang terms used. Overall this book is written in a super coloquial manner to the point that I realized I would have to let it go to understand some sentences because they did not make sense to me. In fact.. I felt the language barrier for me was so big in the beginning that it was taking me off the story. However, I decided to push through and after a while you start getting used to it. It’s like getting used to a different accent.
Anyway.. I had a lot of fun with this book and I am in love with Alfie and Mabel!

I’m sorry to say that this book just wasn’t for me. The main characters were over the top, exaggerated I thought. It all seemed disjointed. It did not flow.

This was such a fun book to read. I loved the banter- it helped build tension and their relationship. I loved that Mabel was a confident plus-size FMC and she was unapologetically herself. ALFIE, yessss! We love a consent king! I was impressed with how many ways there is to describe someone as grumpy without repeating words constantly
Their backstories helped to show why they turned out the way they were.
Great twist- I really didn't see it coming that he wanted to be a writer.

This was a Grumpy/Sunshine book that had everything I didn’t know I wanted. Normally the Grumpy character is just an asshole, and then it turns out he had reasons or something for why he did what he did. But not my boy Alfie. He was such a sweet and caring guy towards the MC always, and rough around the edges to everyone else. And Mabel was so relatable with her insecurities and general Sunshine demeanor, it just worked so well together.

Which is great, because the characters were what really saved this book. The grammar and writing style needs quite a few adjustments for me to increase my rating. I felt like every few pages I was seeing a list with a) and b) or random colon punctuation, to the point it got jarring. It could also get confusing on the transitions when there was a lot of banter, because suddenly the characters would be in a completely different place and I had no idea how they got there. But, this was an ARC I received, so hopefully these few things are changed before printing.

Yes the title of this book SPOKE TO ME as it is my own relationship in trope form.

Alfie Harding is a former soccer star who is very private about her personal life. So much so that he’s been labeled grumpy. When his Suzy sunshine potential ghostwriter comes into his life, his awkwardness comes out in full play. Mabel is a curvy and outgoing and sassy and with a fake dating plot in place she ends up bringing his story out of him with lots of banter. Spicy scenes were pretty well done. I ended up loving Alfie but the banter ended up being…too much? Or close to it. Where it almost took away from the story. Overall it was a cute book and I’m not sad I read it.

If this book is an example of what Charlotte Stein can do, then she's just become an instant buy author for me. The banter in this book is next level! The spice is *chef's kiss*. This book has everything I want in a rom-com. Yes, it was silly and extremely unlikely and over the top but it was also WONDERFUL. If you love 90's romcoms then this book is for you.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine offers readers a totally bonkers, theater-of-the-absurd romp with layers of emotional depth, charm and so many laughs in this meta homage to romance movies and tropes. Also, snark as foreplay that delivers, eventually.

This passage from chapter thirteen about the appeal of rom-coms sums up the emotional core of Mabel and Alfie's love story:
"I like them because sometimes things are really bad in them. Things are bad and wrong and so lonely your heart could crack in two over it. But even when they are, you know all of it is gonna turn out all right... deeply loved in a way that just never happens in real life."

Fingers crossed that someone adapts this into a movie.

[Observations that don't detract from overall reading satisfaction: The f-word and its variations are used a lot. The emotional maturity of both MCs seems more consistent with YA/NA characters than with thirty-somethings.]

2.5/5 ★

First before this review I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this book and gifting me my first eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

With that being said, my honest opinion is I honestly didn't click with this book for a few reasons.

First being the writing style, it took some getting used to and once I did understand it, it made it easier to comprehend but it still wasn't my favorite in getting the story across.

Second, the cliches. I understand the whole book is a cliche hence the title but I don't know, something about the constant repetition of him being hairy (?) kind of threw me off a bit. Just something I wasn't the biggest fan of.

Last is the plot. The plot of this book and their origin story and how they meet is her being his ghostwriter, which I was interested in because I've only seen this in a book once before in Business or Pleasure and it was super interesting, but that was something this book lacked. The ghostwriting was mentioned in the first like tid bit of the book, the introduction of characters and the reasoning for them being paired, it was never mentioned again after that. Maybe one or two interview scenes. And while it sounds silly to type and talk about, it adds realism to the characters and I think it would've benefited.

Now onto what I did enjoy. First being a plus-size FMC, I will always enjoy a plus size mc especially when I can find myself relating to their thought process and insecurity, but I'm happy her whole character was not her being insecure or sensitive to comments.

I also really enjoyed Alfie, I thought he was a cutie .

It also amused me and entertained me that they used like UK slang because I didn't understand it as I'm from the United States but it was still fun to include.

Thank you again for allowing me to read this book before it's released. When Grumpy Met Sunshine is released on February 6, 2024 !!

Classic Charlotte Stein. If you love banter, misunderstanding, longing in a book, this one is for you.

I'm so sorry, but I had to DNF at 30%. I just couldn't connect with the narrative voice. Also, total sidebar, I'm kind of sick of seeing Kaufman's covers everywhere.

While I really wanted to love this based on the description, I did not. I found it hard to stick with and was definitely not a good read.

My first ever DNF. Which makes me so sad. I had high hopes…. However I DNF after 5 chapters I could not get past the writing style, I hope others love this however I did not get far.

She typed away, fingers flying across the keys, the sounds of a coffee shop fueling her aesthetic backdrop. She paused and took a sip of her latte, careful not to burn her tongue like she did a few moments ago. Her phone dinged with a notification and she stopped herself from rolling her eyes too hard… it was him again.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine follows Mabel, a ghostwriter, and Alfie, an ex-soccer star. Mabel is hired to write Alfie’s memoir, but things are mistaken and people thing they’re dating, so now they must pretend to be together… but they’re complete opposites and Alfie is an A+ grump.

I think this book suffered for me because I read Business or Pleasure right before this and it also dealt with a ghostwriter and celebrity falling in love and that book did it so much better. I couldn’t connect with the characters in this one and found them to be so immature at times. I also love good banter, but the banter in this story was too over the top for me. I think this book can be loved by many, I just read it at the wrong time.

If you love grumpy/sunshine, fake dating, slow burn, celebrity romances, and books about writers… then you may enjoy this story!

LOVEEEE that our main female character is plus size!!!! It’s a super cute book with amazing spice ;). I will say though there were times where I caught myself getting bored and not fully enjoying the story. The writing style was good so I don’t think it was that! I did enjoy a good chunk of this book. Also I know Alfie is suppose to the the grumpy one but I felt like Mabel was too in some ways. I will for sure read this book again knowing what I know now and I’m sure I will enjoy it more.

I really liked the premise of this book, it started strong, to me, got lost in the middle, but I loved the way the epilogue wrapped the story up. I just wish there was more about the ghost writing part weaved in. The main characters were great - I kept picturing Roy from Ted Lasso as Alfie! The story and dialogues became redundant and boring at times and I found myself rolling my eyes and skimming through some parts just to reach the conclusion. Overall, I didn't hate the book and am still rating it a solid 3 stars, but it had a lot of potential to be more!

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a cute little romance book. It definitely made me want to keep reading it. I definitely felt for Mabel with how she felt about her body. I don't think there is enough books out there that actually show how woman really feel about themselves in a real light about themselves, and to see that the guy also had the same kind of flaws was also nice as well. in all I am giving this book 4 stars because I didn't completely love the ending. i thought there could have been more to it.

"When Grumpy Met Sunshine" is about a grumpy former football player who is collaborating with a curvy sunshine-y ghost writer. They're spotted together and the paparazzi jumps to conclusions, which leads to some fairly intense fake dating. By the end, I was fully on board, but this was not a quick read for me. The female lead character suffers from some fairly intense self-criticism, and the taciturn male lead made for a good chunk of the book being about her disbelief that he'd possibly, in any universe, be interested in someone like her.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free copy.

I really started off this book loving it. Cute banter, fluffy romance, a fun scenario of sunshine-ghostwriter and grumpy soccer player. I liked the plus-sized MC and how it handled that topic...until it really didn't. There was hardly any conflict or real plot in this story. It quickly became ALL banter and fluff, with nothing memorable happening with other characters or subplots whatsoever. It was just the two MCs falling in love with each other.
There was so, so much flirting/banter dialogue. And I mean pages and pages of it for one scene, where it could've been reduced to a few lines or even paragraphs. It was painful at times, because the story didn't follow anything else. It was so truly odd to me that there was hardly any external conflict besides Alfie's fans criticizing their fake relationship.
I think this had a lot of potential based on the two main characters and the premise, but it fell short of having an actual plot or backbone.