Unfortunately this book just didn't work for me-- it's not because I don't ADORE charlotte stein, though. She's such an incredible writer, but I feel like this book suffers from a self-conscious kind of anxiety. the glimmers of her talent are poorly edited and shaped, and there are whole beats that just don't hit for me (the ending??) and dialogue that feels a bit tightly strung and overly considered.

I love a grumpy/sunshine dynamic and this book perfectly fit the bill (obviously, based on the title alone). The author did a really good job of showing how absolutely perfect these two were for each other; as in there is no one else who would ever get them the way they got each other. I loved those moments when you could feel them connecting over something, like when they were talking about their childhoods and truly could understand what the other felt. And what I really loved about grumpy Alfie and sunshine-y Mabel is how fully comfortable they were with each other; they both had times where they let their guard down and were able to be a little lighthearted (Alfie) and melancholy (Mabel).

It was obvious early on that these two were so far gone for each other but neither were great about communicating clearly. I did really appreciate that moment when both Mabel and Alfie revealed their true feelings - it was really quite beautiful. They just adored each other so much. And a special shoutout to those extra swoony moments that really helped make the romance for me - hair brushing, tender touches, holding hands just because. This was a really solid read.

I received an ARC of this book. I'll be honest, the first three chapters of this book had me concerned that I wouldn't like it. But I stuck through and I'm glad I did. Alfie and Mabel's relationship is really sweet, and I really like watching how Alfie's character was fleshed out as the book moved forward. One thing. Clearly this is very much based on Roy Kent. Even the cover image resembles him. I decided to just lean into it and picture Roy Kent as the lead, and it worked out for me.

I really wanted to love this but it just fell short for me ☹️

Mabel is our FMC— she is pure sunshine. She is a ghostwriter who is set to work with Alfie, the grumpiest ex-football player known to man who is looking for someone to help write his memoir. Their banter was a bit too much and seemed a bit too juvenile for 30 something’s. There were a few times it made me laugh, but I really wanted more plot with the bantering. It seemed like there were times that I had no idea what was going on & it was a little hard to get through at times. I did love that Mabel was a curvy lady, and seemed very relatable in so many ways. I really did appreciate that and the ending was sweet!

Thanks as always to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press & the author for this ARC to review 🫶🏻

Upbeat and happy Mabel is forced to team up with ex-football player, Alfie, to ghostwrite his memoirs. Alfie is the complete opposite of Mabel - grumpy, rich, and unapproachable. But as their business relationship grows, it appears Alfie’s first impression is not indicative of who he actually is. And now that business relationship might very well be turning into something more.

Unfortunately I couldn’t finish this one, no matter how hard I tried. I really wanted to like this book and I was excited to dig into it. I’m not quite sure what it was, but I just really struggled to follow along as I was reading. The words and sentences just didn’t flow together. It sometimes seemed like there were extra words in there just to fill up the pages.

I do feel that if everything flowed together better, this would have made for a great read. I always love a good grumpy billionaire story, and Alfie was indeed grumpy. His hatred for technology and his apparent inability to show emotion definitely provided some comic relief in what I had read. And I can imagine it likely continued to get funnier throughout. But unfortunately the small bouts of humor just wasn’t enough to keep my interest.

I’ll be honest, I had an extremely hard time finishing this book. I stuck with it though and enjoyed the last quarter or so of the book. In my opinion, there was just too much back and forth banter in the beginning of the book and it took entirely too much time to get to any real meaning. Allie starts out as being a real curmudgeon and doesn’t really gain any personality until toward the end of the book. Mabel is a very likeable character, but she can’t really carry the plot by herself until Allie comes alive. I sincerely believe f this book was tweaked a little bit more and encapsulated a little more action that it would make for an enjoyable read

Thank you to the publisher and author for the arc,

Really cute use and had lots of potential. I really enjoyed the grumpy vs sunshine trope. Mabel was supposed to be the sunshine but she was snarky. I liked it though and it played into the dynamic. Alfie was just a big cinnamon roll and I wanted to see more of his side of things. The author touches on the reasons they do the things they do but I felt like I needed more feeling and depth to get there with the characters. The long inner dialogues and narrative style did lose me a bit but the banter kept me reading. Thank you!

I enjoyed the characters and premise of this book, but I felt that the dialogue was excessive and lengthy. The banter between the main characters, Alfie and Mabel, was often funny, but it also felt like it went on for too long. This made the plot feel slow-moving and bogged down.

There were a few exciting moments, but for the most part, the story was just about the characters getting to know each other and falling in love. Overall, I would recommend this book to fans of opposites-attract romances. However, I would advise them to be prepared for a lot of dialogue and vibes.

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

When Grumpy Met Sunshine is about Mabel, a ghostwriter for celebrities, and Alfie, a famous former soccer player. He hires her to ghostwrite his story.

And that’s not the real story. Most of the book shelved his memoir in favor of a fake relationship. I’m not opposed to that trope and often enjoy it.

The writing was sometimes a struggle to get through. First off, the amount of f-word was excessive. That’s a me problem, and I realize that. Secondly, 93 percent of this book is dialogue. We barely get proper descriptions of places or people. I wanted more. Though the banter was entertaining most of the time, I wanted something deeper. Like maybe any words about his book?

It’s obvious that this book was written for Tiktok. From around 50 percent to 90 percent was basic porn. I’m not the target audience for that.

The ending read too much like a satire rom-com. I hated that. It was too corny.

The book is funny for the most part. The protagonists were perfect for each other. It was obvious that this book is written by a British author, and I read the whole book in an accent in my head. Loved it.

I’m not sure if I’d recommend this book. It was so light and funny for the first half. Then it turned into something else. And for how much these protagonists talked, they rarely communicated. The author obviously has talent and writes great characters, though I still had a hard time picturing these two.

I was given this book by Netgalley for my honest review.

This was a grumpy/sunshine, fake dating, slow burn trope, but sadly was a miss for me.

After the second chapter our MMC, Alfie, was no longer a grump. More like misunderstood. Mable, our FMC and sunshine, was too self deprecating about her weight. She's curvy and wanted to be what other curvy women look up to. Yet she was constantly beating herself up because of her weight (like every other sentence) and putting Alfie on a pedestal. I understand the warning in the beginning about the story including "fat phobia", but it was a little much.

You also get zero character descriptions in the beginning of the book. I had a hard time visualizing the characters because of this. Every couple of chapters you get a little piece (black hair, hairy, big eyebrow, etc.), but by then it was a little too late.

This was just okay for me.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for this free eArc in exchange for my honest review.

This is an honest review in exchange for a free ARC from NetGalley and the publisher.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine is about a footballer (soccer, not American football, and I will not admit the hilarious & embarrassing amount of time it took me to work THAT out, I think Mabel's agent being based out of NY threw me off), Alfie Harding, who is famously difficult to work with and unlikeable hiring a ghostwriter, Mabel Williker, to write his memoir. Except Mabel is the seventeenth writer he's interviewed and he insults her and she walks out of the meeting. And then he awkwardly acts like a stalker which goes about as well as you'd think. When the paparazzi starts getting pics of Mabel and Alfie together, rumors start swirling and the two are lost as to what to do - and eventually they decide to lean into the assumptions about a romance between them, because they can't exactly let folks know she's a ghostwriter, now, can they? After all, what could go wrong?

In addition to the grumpy/sunshine trope, there's also fake dating and what I like to refer to as fight-fight-fight-kiss-kiss-kiss (where the two bicker until they realize oops! All love!). I enjoyed it, so much. The banter is fun and honest and sometimes painful in the heart wrenching good god I feel very seen right now kind of way.

This is also so steamy, good golly. I was trying to read it while waiting for an oil change & I do not recommend reading it in public. It has the hottest mutual masturbation scene I've ever read (though in retrospect I don't think I've ever read one before), and the build up from oh guess we'd better kiss to make sure it's realistic to god please I need you is as torturous to the reader as to the characters, I'm sure.

It definitely could use another pass by an editor & I hope it does before publication. There were sections that it was difficult to follow who was saying what during banter, where things got out of order and I had to read back through to check who was saying what. There were a few grammar bits too, but I'm not sure if it's a British English vs American English difference so I'm ok with letting that slide, but the rapid-fire banter does need a little cleaning up to make sure it's clearer on who's speaking. It may have been a stylistic choice based on their interactions and it definitely does convey that rapid banter, it's just difficult as a reader to follow and I'd like to see that cleaned up a bit before final publication.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book. The book was slow to start for me, but once it found its stride, I really liked it. It was quite steamy!

I was a little worried in the first chapter that I might not love this book, the way I originally thought I would, but then I quickly fell into the story and the characters. This felt like reading a cross between Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade (one of my favorite books, with a plus size FMC who ends up with a celebrity crush) and Ted Lasso (because Alfie immediately made me think of Roy Kent and I'm pretty sure Beck was Ted Lasso). I love the grumpy sunshine trope, along with a bit of the fake dating trope. I was worried about the pacing for a bit before I realized that actually the tension was building perfectly and I didn't even realize when I became so invested in the story. I loved the way Alfie and Mabel fell for each other. This is my first read from this author and will definitely check out more in the future!

The premise of the book is cute but I felt like I was reading a Roy Kent fanfic. I think some readers might really enjoy this book but I couldn’t get into it, so I DNF’d at 8%.

This wasn't my favourite. I didn't feel the story really fit that grumpy sunshine genre at all, and I found the characters to be really annoying with each other. I didn't like the pick-me energy of the main female character either. I would definitely try this author again, but this one just wasn't it for me.

I had been looking forward to reading this book since I saw the cover and read the premise months ago. Unfortunately, I couldn’t force myself to finish reading it.

I didn’t feel like the MMC, the “grump” or the FMC, the “sunshine” really filled those roles. They both had “not like other girls” energy in their own way, and I felt like I was reading more of a miscommunication trope than a true grumpy/sunshine.

Each of their first handful of interactions seemed like they were trying to hard to be unique or quirky that I couldn’t really follow what was supposed to be happening in any of them.

The thing that was the biggest dealbreaker for me was that the MMC clarified that he did not mean what he said during their first meeting in the way that the FMC interpreted it, and she continues to go on thinking he was talking poorly about her weight. As a fat woman myself, I get that she assumed the comment he made was in reference to her weight, but once he said it wasn’t and he doesn’t think like that, there’s no reason to put her burden of fat phobia onto him.

I have mixed feelings about this one. It was frustrating to watch Alfie and Mabel circle around their problems over and over again, and the resolution wasn't that rewarding. And I wasn't sold on the one year later bit. Why would either of them wait a year to see each other? A month, I would believe. But a year? No. And after a year's absence from one another's lives, how could they resolve the problems that plagued their relationship in about thirty second's time? It just wasn't believable and made the book feel lopsided. That being said, I did enjoy the banter and the British-isms in the dialogue. I'm just not sure if I liked it enough to recommend it to others.

This book is a must-read for anyone who loves the grumpy/sunshine, enemies to lovers, or fake dating tropes.

3-3.5 stars

This was an ok read for me. I liked the banter between Alfie and Mabel, but it went on too long before they got anywhere. This moved slowly for me and was a bit too wordy for my liking. It was laugh out loud funny in some parts and had it not moved so slowly I would have rated it higher because I did enjoy it.

Grumpy meets Sunshine. She’s his new ghostwriter and you’ll never believe what happens next! Just kidding! You will but that’s one of the reasons we love romance novel. The comfy familiarness of them. We want to be entertained, but we know what’s coming. The journey needs to be fun because we know the destination.

This book’s journey fell a little flat for me. It was just a little too much in every way. I didn’t dislike it, but neither character was a favorite. The spice scenes were good, but the rest of the story didn’t grab me as much as it should’ve.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.