As I read this book I felt like nothing was happening, and it was way too long. The miscommunication trope became annoying and over done. It felt like a poor fanfiction of Ted Lasso, in that Alfie reminded me a lot of Roy Kent. But other characters fell flat, without much development or personality. This book was not up my ally at all.

The narrator, Emily Spowage, was good. She was able to Bring Alfie and Mabel to life. I would listento another of her narrations.

I want to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin for an ARC of this book and Macmillan Audio for an advanced listening copy of the audiobook.

Okay, first things first, I took a break from social media because my brain just couldn’t juggle everything!!

So I am catching up on reviews and getting back into my books and blogging.

I was sent both the audio and ebook to #WhenGrumpyMetSunshine by @charlotte.stein and @netgalley !

I bounced back and forth between the audio and the ebook, because you know, life! Both versions were easy to follow!

This book had a lot of the tropes and mini tropes I look for in a book, obviously a #grumpyshunshine , but it was also: #sportsromance (MMC is a retired pro footballer ⚽️), #forcedproximity, #oppositesattract and even #fakedating. I laughed several times during the book, but the couple of lulls got me. Alfie did make up for it, he and Mabel were hilarious; they both got into some seriously hilarious and questionable positions!

When Grumpy met Sunshine has a super cuter cover. I had a hard time following along with the story in this book. It took me a long to read this story. The flow of the story just was not there. I requested an early copy as it sounded like a great read and the cover was cute.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in turn for an honest review.
#whengrumpymetsunshine, #charlottestein, #netgalley

I laughed so hard reading this book! You need to read this today!! You will not be disappointed! Pick it up today!

I laughed so many times while reading it, like most rom coms you think they won’t end up but don’t. I could tell the ending at the beginning it’s a light hearted happy go lucky book!

When Grumpy Met Sunshine
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: Charlotte Stein

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: 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. Or at least, it feels like it’s pretend—until each slow burn step in their fake relationship sparks a heat neither can control. Now they just have to is this sizzling chemistry just for show? Or something so real it might just give them their fairytale ending?

My Thoughts: This was a cute story that I enjoyed. It took a little bit to get into but when the story really begins to meld, it is explosive. Ex football legend gets roped into selling his story. He does not exposing his flaws for the world to see and does not believe he could do it justice so he wants to hire a ghostwriter. Enter Mabel who loves life and is the has a positive outlook on everything. When their business relationship is mistaken for a romantic relationship by a noisy paparazzi, they have to pretend to be in a relationship to keep his visibility in contact. But does it feel like a fake relationship when the chemistry is off the charts? Or is it something real that could be a fairytale ending? This follows the tropes of grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity, opposites attract, miscommunication, and fake dating.

This is narrated by Mabel, solely in her POV. I think the story would have evolved more if we had a dual narration. We just did not get enough of Mabel’s backstory to appreciate what she has been through; there is definitely some type of trauma there. Mabel is presented as a cheery, full of life character that exemplifies sunshine. Alfie is a grumpy exterior, but a softie once you get to know him. The characters were portrayed with witty banter, dark humor, and chemistry. The author’s writing style was complex, steamy, spicy, and intriguing. The dialogues were drawn out and often repetitive hurting the overall premise of the story. I think if we trimmed off some of the repetitiveness, and shorten some of the dialogues, even at the expense of cutting pages, it would really elevate this story to the next level. The bones are definitely there, it just needed some fat trimmed.

This sweet story between a ghostwriter and an ex-football star holds no bar with explosive steamy scenes encapsulated with sweet heartfelt moments. I had the pleasure of having the digital and audio versions. I really struggled with the digital version, but was able to listen to the audio version. The narrator(s) were awesome, had excellent voice variation with character distinction. The pitch and flow worked well and I was able to listen at 2x with no issues following along. My main issue with the book is some of the banter was a bit immature and at times, while the narrator was great, it was hard to follow the dialogue sequence. There was a fair amount of miscommunication as well, even more so than for a typical miscommunication trope. The narrators moved this from a 2.5 ⭐️ to a 3 ⭐️ read for me and I was able to push through some of the parts due to them.

I did not finish this book at 50%. I alternated between the physical and audio versions to see if I could make it through but was unable to. I considered DNF at around 20% but wanted to give the book a fair shot.

I love a grumpy/sunshine trope and was really excited about the ghost writing aspect.

There were some funny parts. I appreciated the Pretty Woman reference, and there were some tender moments, but I found myself overwhelmed by the dialogue.

Reasons I did not finish this book/couldn't get into it.
The dialogues were lengthy and dragged on.
There was a lot of internal dialogue mixed in.
It was often hard to follow the conversations, I thought switching to the E-ARC might help with this, and it made it more clear, but still dragged on.
It was hard to identify thoughts, what was out loud, what was dialogue with a single narrator.
The internal dialogue felt excessive and forced. Like the reader must know every single thought Mabel was feeling.
I recognize that this was told from Mabel's POV but would have appreciated distinction in voice for Alfie.

Since I did not finish this book I will not be reviewing it on Goodreads, and have provided a 2 star rating for the purpose of this feedback, but will not be posting this on my platforms.

I sadly could not get into this book because I couldn’t relate to the characters and there was a moment within the book that felt extremely distasteful and offensive.

2.5 ⭐️ This one was just okay to me. The writing is certainly witty, which I appreciated, but everything felt a bit over the top to the point of not being realistic/relatable. I got a little over 1/3 of the way through before deciding to DNF. I might have enjoyed this one more if I read a physical copy rather than the audiobook. While the narrator did a good job, her voice didn’t at all match the POV of the main character in my opinion, making it hard to get into it.

I think some audiences will LOVE this book; it’s a lighthearted, fluffy, easy to read romance, filled with humor and a lot of the slow burn elements of many romances, but it just wasn’t the right fit for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Charlotte Stein, and Macmillan Audio for the free audio-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love that authors are blowing the top off ghostwriters lately. This was a really cute romance. I do love curvy girl characters especially when they are sunshine. Plus she’s a writer, obviously a bombshell of a character. Add a steamy ex-football player …this one is very enjoyable.

🌀Synopsis
Alfie is somehow going to sell his memoirs. The problem? He can’t write and he doesn’t want to share any details about himself to anyone else. Only, that’s not necessarily true. He has always wanted to write but he played football instead. He still opts for a ghostwriter and that’s how Mabel enters his life. She’s curvy, she’s sassy, and she’s cute but he still doesn’t want to share his life with her.
She manages to wriggle some details out though and they are getting along until their arrangement leads to people thinking they’re in a relationship. When a fake romance turns into a real one, the personal and work lives also collide.

3.5 stars
I enjoyed both the narration and the characters in this story. Mabel and Alfie are quirky and cute together! The premise of the famous grumpy footballer and the gregarious ghost-writer fake dating plot was spot-on. I wish that Mabel hadn’t been as negative about her prospects with sporty stud but I get that it was part of her growth arc. All in all, there was some witty banter and super swoony moments. Recommend!

Content warning from the author ~ brief references to parental abuse, childhood poverty, and alcoholism, and an incident that includes fat-phobia, plus brief mentions at a few points of the effects that fat-phobia can have

Well based on the title, I bet you can guess the main romance trope here, right? I enjoy this trope, the cover of this book is really cute, it's a British rom-com, and the main character is curvy, so I had some high hopes for this one.

I've never even seen Ted Lasso, but I felt like the male lead, Alfie, was basically Roy Kent made over. The female lead, Mabel, was a little Bridget Jones-esque maybe? She had way too much inner monologue that made the spicy scenes particularly harder to get through and got rather annoying to me. FYI, those scenes are pretty explicit if that's not your thing.

Regarding the trope, the grump loses his grumpiness pretty quickly, and I feel like that could have been developed a bit more at the beginning of the book. It just felt like he went from grumpy to not almost immediately.

Some parts were really funny, and there was some entertaining banter between to the two lead (basically only) characters.

I enjoyed the narration - the narrator did a great job with comedic timing and separating out the character voices.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this free ARC in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.

I started out really enjoying this because I'm here for banter and thats basically 90% of what this story consists of. And it's mostly actually funny not the "banter" that falls flat. At least at first.

However, as the story progressed... or didn't progress... I felt like we really needed some substance to go with the banter. And I don't mean the rest of it should be sex, as it is here.

I just cared less and less about the characters the more focused on sex it became. And the banter stopped being funny and began to feel stale because it wasn't really evolving. Also there was way too much miscommunication and I kept getting more and more annoyed at it because it kept getting more and more ridiculous.

Alfie and Mabel both have a lot of issues holding them back that clearly stem from trauma but I wanted to see that trauma brought to light and actually talked about and dealt with not just alluded to between lusting after each other.

The audiobook narrator did a good job bringing Alfie and Mabel to life and giving them distinct voices, although it was occasionally a little difficult for me to catch what she was saying. I would recommend reading it via audio if you choose to read it because the voices she uses for them and the way she speaks the lines make them funnier.

*Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Macmillan Audio for providing an early copy for review.

This book was so lovely and so charming. The main characters were beautiful people who fell in a beautiful love. I cannot express how much I enjoyed reading about two emotionally scarred and slightly insecure people being vulnerable and real with each other. We need more books like this! Extra bonus points for the curvy heroine <3

I so wanted to love this one. The synopsis had me so excited for this one and the cover is so cute. Unfortunately, I struggled with it. The audio made it a little better but the writing wasn’t great, the banter was so immature and all the miscommunication was ANNOYING. Just couldn’t get on board with this one.

The narrator is really good for this one. I think it could have had five stars just for the narrator!

"When Grumpy Met Sunshine" by Charlotte Stein presents an intriguing premise: the unlikely relationship between a professional soccer player and a "chubby" writer. It took me a little bit to get into the story, but once I did I found myself rooting for our main characters throughout the novel. There were some good instances of chemistry, though I felt like it took a bit to get into those moments. I loved the glimpses of what life was really like for Alfie, and the ending was unexpected but really well done.

I had a bit of a hard time connecting with this book but overall enjoyed it. I listened to the audiobook version and really loved the narration but I think something was lost at times with the way it was written. There were these emails or advertisements at the end of some of the chapters that felt out of place but maybe it read better in the paperback version.

I do love a good grumpy x sunshine combo and did love both Alfie and Mabel, especially together. Their banter was delightful and funny. I found Mabel more prickly at times than previous books' sunny characters as she was more guarded from her past experiences. I appreciated the curvy girl aspect to her as well but it was a bit hard on the head at times because she was so down on herself and saw herself as unworthy of love. Although likely realistic, it was hard to read the parts where people were commenting on her body or her worthiness as well. Alfie definitely felt strongly about it too as we see in the book!

The story itself seemed to play out kind of slowly up until the end where everything happened quite quickly and without much explanation. I did enjoy the ending though and thought it the perfect way to wrap up this love story. I kind of hope we get another in the same world and get to revisit these characters in the future as I'd like to follow up with what happened next for them.

I received an early audiobook edition of this book through NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for my honest review.

It was cute, but not my favorite. The spice was 🤌🏻, but it just made me so sad to read this story about a chunky girl who couldn’t believe that a professional athlete would even consider liking her romantically. It took away from it. The relationship IS cute and sweet though. He was so protective of her! But it took a beat to get there and then the insecurity took me out of it.

I really want authors to have original ideas. I was so looking forward to a Roy Kent-Esq MMC but I’ve learned that no one and nothing can compare to the original. Overall I was disappointed in this story and felt like I couldn’t connect to or enjoy any of it. The audio is the only reason I was able to finish this one.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine seemed like it would be a sweet rom-com and there were elements that I really enjoyed about it. However, I'm a clean romance reader, and this had a spice level all its own!

That said, the banter was wonderful and I really enjoyed the characters who each felt unseen for different reasons. One was a famous footballer who hated the sport, and the other was the ghostwriter of his upcoming autobiography, sworn to secrecy by the very nature of her profession. While their lives seemed like polar opposites, as they started to get to know one another, they found all sorts of connections and similarities that drew them closer into each other's confidence.

Thanks to Charlotte Stein, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advance review copy.