I love a good grumpy x sunshine trope and sadly this one was a miss for me.

Mabel is hired as a ghostwriter to write a memoir for retired football player, Alfie. They don't meet on the best of terms, Mabel is quirky and Alfie is grumpy but they decide to work together. After paps catch Mabel leaving Alfie's apartment they fake date and then fall in love.

This had all the tropes I like to see in a story and the slow burn was perfect but the humor and chaotic characters made it hard to get into. My biggest issue was with the dialogue and the banter between the MC's. There was just so much banter that it came across as juvenile. I'm sure the author was going for fun, witty, and comical but it was over the top. I almost forgot these characters were supposed to be in their thirties.

Thank you Netgalley, St Martin's Press and Charlotte Stein for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I love Charlotte Stein's other work but When Grumpy Met Sunshine was not for me.
1. This is very obviously Roy Kent fanfic.
2. The banter hit you like a battering ram but not in a good way.

What did work is the chemistry between the two characters. That scene in the limo after the Beyonce concert will stay with me.

I'm so bummed that I didn't enjoy this. This book had two things going for it: the characters and the premise. This had a fun premise--something I would 100% enjoy--but I did not like the writing style.

Alfie was so funny without trying because he was just a weird individual. He is clueless about technology and is overall like an old man in a young body. He was grumpy, but it was more that he just didn't know how to interact with people, so it made for some funny situations. He was the main reason I kept reading, thinking maybe I can change my mind. But the characters can't themselves prop up a book. The writing was severely lacking. It felt, I don't know, unfinished? Like there's something missing to connect the scenes to make the story flow. Charlotte Stein was telling, rather than showing.

This could've been such a fun romcom--I found potential in the pairing as well as the situation that threw them together, but it lacked the drive to make the reader immerse themselves in the story seamlessly.

i've been debating what i wanted to say about this book since i finished it yesterday.

i really enjoyed this book, took me a bit to get used to the writing style but once i did i could not stop turning pages. i laughed and i cried and really what else could you want from a book?!

i loved mabel and alfie so much. love love loved the pride and prejudice and pretty woman references.

i had a bit of trouble following some of the dialogue but it didn't really take away from the story for me.

so so good

thank you to netgalley for the opportunity to love this book

Unfortunately, this book was just not for me. The writing style was very chaotic and hard to follow. I often found myself skipping around to the dialogue just to keep myself going.

I didn’t really find anything relatable about the characters. Alfie was so randomly chaotic, but not in a way that made sense to me, and Mabel just wasn’t really that interesting.

I couldn’t get myself invested in their story. I’m sure this is a great book for someone, but the writing style just didn’t work for me.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the copy of this book. Yikes. Unfortunately this book just wasn't for me. All I kept thinking was who knew banter could be so annoying and over the top. I was not a fan though I had high hopes because of the cover and plot.

There was a lot of good things happening in this book - fake dating, grumpy/sunshine, awesome banter. I loved every time the main characters were interacting with each other. I can't wait until February to get a physical copy for my collection! It was also really interesting having the heroine be a ghostwriter - I really enjoyed that.

It was such a cute Rom com read! Thank you for letting me have this ARC and truly enjoy the characters. The characters were lovable, the story was adorable. My biggest complain would have to be pacing

Unfortunately this one just wasn't for me. Though I appreciated that the two characters had a shared background that made a perfect starting connection point for their romance, that was the highlight. The prose is very British, as in I really was clueless on a lot of the lingo and had to infer from the context. Which is fine really, just not my cup of tea, and British readers won't have that issue.

The big drawback for me was that this story relies *very* strongly on the miscommunication trope and it's my least favorite thing in romance. It was driving me absolutely batty. I understood intellectually why it would be the case for these two characters but that didn't make it more enjoyable to read so I struggled to get to the end of it. All in all, it was fine but it won't make my list of contemporary romances I recommend to friends.

Note: I received a free electronic edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for the honest review above. I would like to thank them, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to do so.

"When Grumpy Met Sunshine" is the first book I've read from Charlotte Stein. The title caught my eye, as I love a good "grumpy vs sunshine" trope. This book centers around Mabel, an author who has been contracted to be the ghostwriter for Alfie. Alfie is a recently retired athlete who has been convinced to write his memoir. While Mabel has heard about his famously grumpy attitude, she's unprepared for just how curt he can actually be. When their business partnership is mistaken for a personal relationship, they lean into it in order to boost sales for their future book.

While I understood what the author was going for with this storyline, the "grump" was actually flat-out rude and I just couldn't root for him. Overall, the chemistry between Mabel and Alfie fell flat and I found myself skimming through the rest of the book. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

I had a really hard time getting through this book. The MMC definitely gave me Roy Kent vibes which I was all for. But the banter was really weird and juvenile to me. It was a cute book but I just couldn’t really get into it, the plot seemed like it changed quickly from the ghost writer into being all about the fake relationship.I receive this book and am ARC in exchange for a honestly review.

This book was a miss for me. The characters fell flat, the dialogue between the 30-something leads felt immature, and the narrative style removed me from the story. This was a struggle to read, and the last 40% reads like a completely different book which didn’t help.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

These two were absolute magic! They had me giggling right away, I guffawed, and had burst of laughter at what they said and did. They also had ridiculous chemistry, and a slow burn that takes most of the story to ignite. Wow, make plans for some “time outs” when reading, you’ll need them once things do take off, because it is scorching hot! While all this is happening, you get to know them, you get to see beyond what they present, and you fall so deeply in love with them, they break your heart, while filling you with hope. That ending, oh, that epilogue, it was everything and the perfect ending to their love story <3

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this book and I was pleasantly surprised! I have never read anything by the author but found the style to be amusing and relatable. Alfie is just dryly hilarious and so quirky and out there but at the same time endearing and boy does he have a way with words—especially the dirty ones! Holy heck! And then we have our leading lady Mabel—so sweet and so oblivious in a completely understandable way. The banter was so fun, the steam was so hot, and the tropes were so right! What a fun and times frustrating (in a good way—like hellooooo why don’t you see what’s happening?!) read! And the end. The end was just so sweet and surprising and adorable and so Alfie and Mabel like, I just ate it up! Plus, who else doesn’t adore the fact that it has total Roy Kent and Kelley Jones from Ted Lasso vibes?!

This book was very repetitive, I felt like some chapters were the exact same as ones before it made it very hard to stay engaged with the writing.I found the characters to be very annoying and the banter between the main characters to be annoying as well.
The random articles and tweets at the end of each chapter were strangely laid out and most of them added nothing to the story, those could probably all be removed and it would improve the book. Overall I wouldn’t recommend this book or the writing style.

thanks to NetGalley for the eARC

(I know, I know, I've been a critic of the gigantic-grumpy-man/sweetheart-sunshine-woman trope in the past, but!! in my defense!! the cover was cute)

⭐️=2.25 | 😘=5 | 🤬=5 | 18+

Summary: she’s a sunshine ghost writer assigned to write the memoir of a infamously grumpy ex-footballer and then a fake dating scheme happens and oops they fall in love

Thoughts: this was weird—like, there were no other significant characters except for the two MCs?? not a singular strong established female friendship. there were no motivations (at least, not really any compelling motivations I was invested in) aside from “let’s fall in love” and SPEAKING of love the love interest says she’s the love of his life after they meet like four times?? and barely speak?? admittedly there were a few cute, swoony moments, but overall this feels like a draft that needed a lotttttt of fleshing out.

(also the love interest—dark-haired bearded ex-footballer who swears a lot—gives sooo much Roy Kent energy and convinces me that this is Ted Lasso fanfiction, so there's that.)

I really wanted to like this book. The description sounded right up my alley and (even though you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover) I'll admit I'm a sucker for a good cover and this one drew me in. But sadly, I've made it through 30% of the book and finally have to just DNF it. Even though Mabel's inner dialogue and the banter between Mabel and Alfie had me laughing I felt bored as I was reading this and couldn't connect with the main characters.

Have you ever read a romance and wished there was more time for the... romance? This book delivers a-plot payload, to the point that I almost felt guilty for getting to enjoy so much of the good stuff. Total comfort read and delightfully steamy. I look forward to re-reading the published version.

This book was wonderfully hilarious, spicy, and incredibly sweet. It made me laugh so hard at times I had to put it down, it also pulled on my heartstrings until tears emerged as well. I really enjoyed the characters of Alfie and Mabel, the absurdity of some of the interactions made me snort with laughter.

The only thing that threw me off slightly was that when the spice began, the banter and hilarity dropped off (which I was loving so much). Overall, I was highly entertained by the story and enjoyed it thoroughly.

I was so excited to read this and I went in with high hopes. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book.

I was expecting a grumpy MMC and I feel like we didn’t get that. Like he was slightly grumpy or gave off the vibe he was but he talked a lot especially in the beginning. (I thought grumpy characters were supposed to keep to themselves a lot for a good amount of the book?)
Of course, Mabel definitely exuded sunshine vibes.

There was also way too much banter, which I now know is a thing. I love some good banter as much as the next person, but I feel like there was too much in this.

Basically, it did not meet my expectations or exceed them.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.