3.75/5
I found this book to be an okay read. The characters were good and I did enjoy some of the banters and their playful arguments but at times I felt like it was all too much. Loved the ending and character development and twists. Thank you for giving me a chance to read this! :)

As a Ted Lasso fan, I had high hopes for this light hearted romcom about Mabel the memoir ghostwriter for retired famous footballer Alfie. While this book ate up the grumpy/ sunshine, fake dating, and one bed tropes, I just couldn't connect with the two main characters as I had hoped. Their story is full of comedic banter and teasing, but I just wanted more depth and a little less insta-love. I also could not stop picturing Alfie as Roy Kent from Ted Lasso - and come to think of it, Beck (editor) as Ted himself. These truly are not issues, just personal preferences. Nonetheless, there were quite a few things I liked about this book:
• A curvy girl as our FMC. Yes we need more of this!
Self discovery and pursing your dreams theme. Despite the romance as the main focus of the story, there is some appetizing character development
The general mood and ending was uplifting. I love a good happy ending
This book releases Feb 6th 2024, and I totally recommend you check it out for a fun, uplifting read!
Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for an eARC in exchange for this honest review

I don't have any words at this moment to talk about how good this book is. I cackled so much and also cried towards the end.

Mabel is my precious angel. She literally was so funny. She had some lines that were GOLDEN. Normally, I hate the third person narration, but it worked really well for this book. I still felt like I was in her head. And what a fun place to be. She was so sure of herself and knew what she wanted, even if she didn't follow through. I just love her. SO MUCH.

Their banter was SO GOOD. They literally clicked so fast, and their chemistry was other worldly. I genuinely gasped so many times throughout this book.

Alfie made me want to cry multiple times. He's definitely making the list of top-tier book boyfriends, but not for just the popular reasons. He was so attentive and patient, and he knew Mabel so well. His whole plot and story were entertaining and moving, and sweet. I loved watching him find himself and be okay with who he was.

Overall, I loved how fun this book was. There weren't many side characters, but the ones we did have were so good. I was immensely entertained. I will be absolutely recommending this to literally everyone.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. This is my honest review.

I was so intrigued by the premise. I enjoy a grumpy vs sunshine trope, as well as forced proximity and only one bed tropes too.

This was an opposites attract, grumpy/sunshine romance with a HEA. Alfie is a superstar footballer with a reputation as a total brute and Mabel is the writer who's picked to ghost write his memoirs. They don't hit it off at first sight.

I enjoyed the start of the book. Alfie is definitely grumpy and also a bit of a knob, but his character arc and what he slowly reveals to Mabel about himself was great. He's funny and vulnerable, caring and observant, clever and quite lyrical when he chooses to actually speak. I loved getting to slowly see this other side of him, the one he's had to keep hidden for so long.

Mabel is the sunshine, which is a bit of a cover for her own back story and vulnerable nature as well.

Their initial interactions were a bit the worst of both of them and Alfie certainly didn't come off looking so great but as the layers peel back we see a lot more depth to both of them. Their banter is enjoyable and funny. The progression as they start getting to know each other and work on the book to the progressive flirting and ratcheting sexual tension worked well.

I've seen some reviews be a bit negative about the banter. Yes, there's a lot of it, but I found it entertaining and fun.

The smut scenes to me were the weakest part of the book. They were explicit (and I do read explicit romances, so this was not a first for me) but they were somewhat cringe inducing and felt somewhat out of place in the story. I don't know what else to say other than they didn't work for me. They may well work for others.

I thought the ending was sweet and the big reveal was as well.

It was great to see physical representation that is outside the typical--a huge, hairy, grumpy MMC and a curvy, short, happily-dressing-in-fun-ways FMC.

Overall I'd say I enjoyed the idea of the story and the banter and progressive intimacy and vulnerability the two characters exhibited but I could have done with less as far as the sex scenes.

(2.5★)

In Charlotte Stein's opposites attract novel When Grumpy Met Sunshine, former football star Alfie Harding and ghostwriter Mabel Willicker are the main characters.

A grumpy hero and a hero who’s a dick are completely different things, and Alfie was definitely a dick, at least in the beginning. Although his character arc was amazing, such as the fact that he called Mable "love" or how funny he actually was. I also really admired Mabel's independence and her refusal to accept crap from anyone.

Also, he LITERALLY WROTE A BOOK PROCLAIMING HIS LOVE FOR HER!!!! Instead of writing his memoir, Alfie wrote a book about her.

The smut scenes, however, were a bit awkward, but only because of the description. The dirty talk was a lot better to the actual smut. Since it is a romance book, please simply be crude, unless of course you want a closed-door romance.

Overall, I have a love-hate relationship with this book since the first half was filled with the characters being a dick or nothing happening, while the second half was AMAZING and incredibly wholesome.

*Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and to the author, Charlotte Stein, for providing me with this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.*

When I picked up this book, I figured by the title it was going to be just that, a grumpy/sunshine romance. I was pleasantly surprised to laugh out loud in the first few chapters several times due to the antics of the grumpy Alfie and the reaction of bubbly Mabel. I had no trouble tearing through this book due to the easy going read and sparks between the characters. It’s nice to read about characters that aren’t cookie cutter skinny or handsome. Having a curvy ingenue and a big hairy bear of a man was refreshing, as they look like your average person. My biggest criticism would be that while we got to see Alphie’s perspective and thoughts from the clips at the end of chapters through old interviews and other mediums, I would much rather to have had whole chapters from his perspective so that we could have seen the whole of Alphie’s character flushed out more completely. Even without it, the story was still a fun rom-com. This book was full of a lot of the tropes rom-coms use often, but they work for a reason and in this book, were used nicely. I would recommend taking this book for a spin, I know I plan a re-read and looking forward to see what else that Charlotte Stein has to offer.

Thank you NetGalley for an Advance reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

3.5 ⭐
I enjoyed this book, and while there were a lot of complaints about the amount of banter, I really love banter! I'll admit that it was a bit overdone for me personally, but the book wasn't bad. The writing style was good, the character development was nice and the overall theme were all good and I LOVE the cover of this book!
I just reviewed When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein. #NetGalley

Mabel is hired to write grumpy Alfie's memoir. I enjoyed the story, very different from what I usually read, but overall a good story,

Thank You NetGalley for an advance copy of When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein in exchange of an honest review.
I recently read the book 'When Grumpy Met Sunshine' by Charlotte Stein and I was so impressed by it! It is a heartwarming story about two people who are complete opposites, but somehow manage to find a way to make things work between them. The main character, Grumpy, is an introverted man with a dark past that has left him scarred and jaded. He meets Sunshine, a lively and optimistic woman with a bright future ahead of her. Despite their differences, they are drawn to each other and learn to accept and even love each other.

The story is told in an engaging way, with alternating perspectives from both characters. It is easy to sympathize with both Grumpy and Sunshine and the journey they take together. The characters and their relationships are believable and realistic. The plot moves along at a steady pace, and the ending is satisfying and believable.

Overall, I was very impressed with the book. It was a pleasure to read and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a sweet and enjoyable romance story.

I could not get through this. I loved the premise, of sunshine-y Mabel working to write grumpy Alfie's memoir, but, to me, the execution was lacking. Overall, I think this was just poorly written and could be salvaged with a lot of editing, as most of it was boring or repetitive or both. It was also too long, which works for some books, but this story was just filled with a lot of useless info dumping or attempts at character building that just fell flat.

This is probably my new favorite rom-com! The banter was super funny, and the characters were easy to relate to. Both Alfie and Mabel had a lot of character development, and I enjoyed reading about how they both got more confident in themselves. I also liked the articles, text messages, etc. at the end of each chapter. The reason this book is not a five star is because I personally felt like some of the conversations between Alfie and Mabel were too long sometimes.

Overall, this was a fun book. I would definitely recommend it!

What a book.

Alfie and Mabel, what a pair. I started this book off with zero expectations and finished it with happy tears. Charlotte did such a good job with this book.

When I first met Alfie I really did not like him, his grumpiness really made me want to reach into the book and punch him in the face. But Mabel warmed my heart, she was a breath of curvy fresh air.

I loved how the dynamic worked through the pages, between Mabel pushes him to talk about the deep details of his life to him

**********spoiler*************

professing his love to the paparazzi. They made a good team. I continues through the book wondering what was the plan for them, how their relationship would evolve and how it work work out.

HEA was great, I really loved all the small and big details of the characters, their story and how it ended.

While there was some cute banter and sweet moments, I struggled with believing in these two characters. I wanted to so bad too. Like look at how fucking cute the cover is!

Let me start with the good. The spicy scenes are spicy. Our MMC has a potty mouth too, so wowza. And when he is saying lovely things about our main lady Mabel, the words are eloquent and GRAND GESTURE worthy.

But here are my not so good thoughts:
*There happened to be a lot of tropes that are popular, and it sometimes felt like those were forced for the readers. Grumpy/sunshine, fake dating, only one bed, hates everyone but her, miscommunication, etc.
*The writing was sometimes hard to follow. I’d have to reread the dialogue 2-3 times sometimes just to figure out who said what. And because they are I think from Norway, the author writes them with the accent in some of the dialogue. That usually doesn’t bother me, but there were parts where I didn’t follow the words and had to look things up for it to make sense.
*Theres such small mention of the side characters and friends that I felt like they either needed to be in the story a little more or not at all. It kinda felt like how lacroix tastes…blah with a hiiiint of flavor.
*I didn’t enjoy the 3rd act breakup/resolution because it felt so rushed and like…we skipped over a year. Literally?

Lastly, as a fellow fat girl, I fucking love books where fat babes find love. What I don’t enjoy is a fat main character that loves herself and thinks she’s great while simultaneously thinking she’s so ridiculously undeserving of love from this beautiful ex-football/soccer player. Especially when there are clearly signs of his feelings that’s she just writes off as “impossible” …for months?

What I got from this book is what the blurb details: Mabel is hired to write Alfie's memoirs, they banter and learn about each other, they enter into a fake relationship, and steaminess ensues.

I can't accurately rate or review this book as the writing style was not for me and I ended up skimming a lot of it. There is too much internalization/thinking/explaining for my liking, but I'm currently listening to 'Get a Life, Chloe Brown' and it sounds similar, so if you like that style, then you might enjoy this.

From what I read:
I ADORE Alfie. He's misunderstood, selfless, and caring.
Both characters don't think the other could possibly like the other, even when they are clearly horny for each other and enjoy steamy moments.
The chapter titles are fun and I enjoyed the snippets at the end of the chapters.
I enjoyed the memoir reveal and snippets from it.
These two were just so cute and perfect for each other. They helped heal each other and grow into the version of themselves they wanted to be.

I was intrigued by this book's cover and description so I was excited to receive an egalley of "When Grumpy Met Sunshine" by Charlotte Stein. Football, Britain, and a very Roy Kent (ala Ted Lasso) MMC was an easy hook for this reader. I was also excited to see a woman with curves as the FMC.

While there were certainly amusing and heartfelt parts of this story, I desperately wanted to love it and enjoy it more than I actually did. I found the pacing and stuttered sentences from the FMC's POV to be really distracting. The amount of thinking that sometimes happened in the middle of dialogue was sometimes so confusing that I completely lost the plot. I'd have to re-read to follow dialogue and figure out who the speaker was as the voices were not clearly distinct from one another. Despite reading and watching a lot of British books and television, this book was really hard to follow at times simply due to the reference points that as an American, weren't accessible. So, this one didn't quite work for me. Hopefully it will find its audience with others.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this! I haven’t read anything from this author before, but I definitely will be looking up more stories from Charlotte Stein! There were parts where I simply couldn’t stop laughing and other parts where I couldn’t stop reading to see what happened next. It’s a very wholesome feel good book that is so so British. There were a few bits that felt a little too forced and a bit too cheesy and predictable for my liking, but then again, I’ve read my fair share of cheesy romance novels.
I loved this book. Beginning middle and end were all amazing!

This was a cute and good read. The characters are well developed. The workplace romance is good.. a little wordy but overall a good book.

This was cute and cozy and very character driven. The set-up felt a bit abrupt as we met these characters and slid into their interaction with little to no build up or exposition.

DNF at 28%. The story was cute but not grabbing me, and I didn't love the writing. Something about the style just didn't work for me. But there's definitely a lot there for people to love: fun characters, the end of chapter articles and interviews and such were fun, and some good banter.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book!

There were a few positives in the book - both characters felt fully developed (albeit slightly insufferable) and the tropes that I expected was fulfilled (workplace romance, opposites attract), but I think the book is at least 50 pages longer than it needs to be in the current state. There is a lot of dialogue that isn’t necessary to the plot and belabors the same points, although I do understand the Brits enjoy banter much more than us Americans so it might be up to personal taste.

Although they were fully developed with friends/jobs/motivations, the main two characters also speak like no one I’ve ever met. I usually do alright suspending disbelief, but some of the things they said were way out there and the premise of some of the “sexier” scenes was just too unbelievable for me. I think this book is probably just not for everyone and I did get through it quickly in spite of it being longer than I felt was necessary so that’s a positive. I also think the actual writing structure was well-done so props to the author for that (didn’t feel repetitive in structure, only in plot points).