this was SO cute! i wanted to pick this up because of that adorable cover, and it did not disapoint. i've been obsessed with opposites-attract romances for a while now, and alfie and mabel were clearly meant for eachother. this book was funny, sweet, steamy and i wanted to speed through it but also savor it at the same time.

The beginning made me laugh, the end made me smile, but I almost quit multiple times in the middle.

I am a fan of the grumpy/sunshine trope, but this did not really feel like that. I realize that it’s in bedded in the title, but I think that was a little bit of artistic license. The male main character was clearly not grumpy toward the female main character! At times, the plot got a bit raunchy, which I don’t always hate, but it felt out of place in the narrative.

Thanks to NetGalley for the digital advanced copy.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine is a cute, banter-filled read that definitely delivers on the trope of choice here. The overall concept was fun, but I will admit that the beginning of this really confused me for a while. There was an energy I felt I couldn't wrap my head around. That aside, the male main character Alfie, was comically grumpy, almost in a Roy Kent kind of way. I love the representation we got here with Mabel and I think fans of this trope will enjoy the light vibes this provides.

Grumpy sunshine!!?? Plus size female MC!!!?? LOVE! Already had me hooked by looking at the cover and the writing and the story made it even better! I really enjoyed this! I loved the banter and the connections and the ROMANCE OF COURSE!! This story had me really invested and I overall had a great time reading this!

Mabel is a ghostwriter assigned to write an autobiography about the grumpiest footballer in Britain. Over time, he starts to peel back the layers of his grumpiness to reveal his true self to Mabel. While writing the book, Mabel and Alfie are seen in public together, and are forced to fake a relationship, but in the end, that relationship may not be so fake after all.
This book was the perfect embodiment of the grumpy/sunshine trope. It was fun, flirty and a little spicy, all while diving into harder topics of childhood poverty and fatphobia. If you are not from Britain, some of the language may be hard to understand; I had to look up some of the slang used in the book. Overall, it was such a fun read and I give it 4 stars!

ARC REVIEW: This book is 5 out of 5 stars. I will be taking no notes or criticism. The point of view and writing style is absolutely wonderful. The way that I cannot relate to anything more than I do to Mabel's stream of rambling, awkward thoughts is so refreshing and fun. Alfie is scrumptious and had me swooning at pretty much every corner. He really knows how to make a girl feel like the only person in the room. OR ALIVE EVEN. He truly had some of my all time favorite quotes. AND THE BANTER! Oh god, the banter. These two crazy kids had me snorting on more than one occasion. The dialogue is genuinely witty and funny, not just cheesy... even if it was I would eat it up, no hesitation cause I just love these two that much! I can't wait for you to read this and hopefully fall in love just as much.

Who isn't a sucker for a grumpy/sunshine tale? This will be a great comfort read for many. I think it has some good moments and potential, but could have benefited from more editing. The banter felt like it went on too long and I lost track of what was being communicated. The narration also read like stream of consciousness, which I didn't feel fit with the story.

Thanks to Stein, the publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC!

I had some mixed feelings about this book. Some of it was SO good- the banter between the characters especially made me happy. You could really see the chemistry between them, even though there was a bit of a “insta-love” angle. But there were elements that felt a little disjointed to me, especially in the romance scenes. It could have benefitted from additional editing I think. I also always have a hard time when the main character is so blatantly ignoring the feelings/actions of the love interest out due to their own insecurity, particularly in the case of a fat main character. Like “he couldn’t POSSIBLY be interested in ME,” even though he’s said as much like 20x in the book. However, I loved the love interest character in the book- very quirky, loveable and definitely giving Roy Kent vibes. I would recommend it overall! Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-arc.

This book made me laugh so much! I loved the banter between Mabel and Alfie! Super cute rom com. I think it would be even better as an audiobook!

Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy for my honest review.

I need to stop thinking cute covers = only a tiny bit of spice. Don’t let the cover fool you there is definitely spice to read. The characters are relatable and I love the fact the main character is plus sized! But I’m not sure if I would really give it the sunshine and grumpy trope.

This book reads like fanfic in the absolute best possible way. Fans of Ted Lasso's Roy Kent will find Alfie to be an absolutely pitch-perfect avatar of him as he navigates falling in love with his ghostwriter. And Mabel is absolutely adorable - insecure in the most relatable way, while still being a fantastic writer and friend.

I love a good grumpy x sunshine trope, and I LOVE fake dating, and this delivered on both fronts. When Grumpy Met Sunshine has a simple enough premise - bubbly ghostwriter Mabel Willicker is hired for her toughest job yet - to help surly, taciturn ex-footballer Alfie Harding write his memoir. Over the course of their first few sessions, they discover they both have similar backgrounds, having been raised in poverty by alcoholic fathers.

Things take a turn when paparazzi snap photos of Mabel exiting Alfie's apartment. To cover up the fact that she's his ghostwriter, the publisher hatches a plan for the pair to have a fake relationship, only until the writing is done. As you can imagine, their fake feelings slowly turn into something more, and eventually their undeniable chemistry bubbles over.

This book is horny af and not a bit ashamed about it. It was a bit more spice than I usually read, but the beauty of this book is that the connection between Mabel and Alfie is so strong, you buy into the absolutely bonkers bedroom antics.

4 stars - a real delight to read. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's for the ARC.

Mabel Willicker, ghostwriter, has been assigned to help footballer Alfie Harding write his story. But since Alfie is the grumpiest man to ever live, she doesn't think it will work out, especially after he calls her a cupcake (which she takes as a dig about her weight). He persists, though, saying that Mabel is the only one who can really get him to talk, and the more they work together, the more they begin to understand each other.

Unfortunately, when Mabel is spotted leaving Alfie's apartment, touching his hand, the paparazzi go wild, and their "relationship" goes viral -- especially after Alfie is caught brawling in defense of the lady's honor. So what else can they do but lean into it and fake their relationship?

After publishing a number of erotic romance novels through indie presses, Stein presents this as her first mainstream romance novel. And while it has the down-and-dirty steaminess of her other books, it somehow feels like a first book or an early draft instead of something more polished. The banter between them is almost ferociously aggressive, and it's written in such a way that feels unedited, with a serious lack of punctuation at times. And despite that, there was a distinct gap in communication all the way to the end.

The general plot of the book intrigued me -- sunshine has to help grump write a book -- but that part of the plot seemed to get dropped almost as soon as the fake dating started. I didn't enjoy some of Alfie's abrasiveness but I appreciated learning about the WHY behind it and seeing his sensitivity as well. Mabel should have been a relatable character, given her similar working-class background, but I really got tired of her getting down on herself about her size and her unworthiness to be with Alfie. I also found it really difficult to believe that a woman who had those feelings of unworthiness could suddenly have the confidence during sexual situations to talk really dirty with her partner.

And a nitpick: I couldn't understand why Mabel's agent was British but based in New York when the entire book took place in England. Why that jumped out at me, I don't know, but it took me a long time to get past that confusion.

Overall, I really wanted to like this much more, but dang, these two needed to work on themselves a little more. 2.5 stars rounded up.

Thank you, St Martin's Griffin and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book. Opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for giving me an ARC of this.

One of the things that I loved about this book was Alfie. I feel that too often a lot of the grumpy love interests are just major assholes that don’t always have such redeeming qualities but Alfie didn’t feel like that. He also had so much depth and warmth to him. While he was grumpy, he was still kind and thoughtful. This was something that I appreciated about him. He felt so well-rounded.

I could also really feel the tenderness and care that went into crafting this book. However, I felt some parts of it were under explored or glossed over. Maybe this is just me but I felt like there was too much banter? And perhaps that sounds wild to say! I love thoughtful and funny dialogue. More often than not the dialogue was this.

And lastly…that ending ruined things for me. It felt anti-climatic and it wasn’t even resolved in a regular chapter but the epilogue? God.

Anyways..tldr; loved Alfie and Mabel. Didn’t love the execution of the ending.

I definitely tried powering through this book. I got through about 120/300 of the pages, but the book didn't seem to click for me. Although the characters are very British (which is fine), the conversations seemed forced. This might benefit from a dual POV. The third person writing makes it hard to connect to the characters, and although they do have some heart to hearts so far (a conversation about the characters' fathers), it seems very superficial. The banter seems as if they're just stating facts at each other, rather than having a conversation that flows.

Really loved this book! As a plus size girlie I love to see big girls repped in books! The grump x sunshine is one of my top tropes as well so this book was a real chefs kiss for me!

This book sounded like it was right up my alley.
1.) grumpy ex sports star
2.) shy/awkward woman who must interact with him for with
3.) fake relationship
4.) slow burn
However, this book did not work for me. It had moments where the banter was great. Moments where I was fully engaged in this story.
Then it just kept going and going and instead of growth they just stay static for a long time.

I tried my best to navigate through this book without getting caught in another never-ending banter session. Grumpy-meets-sunshine, a trope I adore, comes to life in the main character, Alfie Harding, who resembles the hottest version of Roy Kent, complete with a golden heart but plagued by social ineptness and anger management issues. Mabel Willicker, the quick-witted and observant ghostwriter, also shines without any reservations.

However, the excessive and lengthy dialogues feel reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino's films, dragging on for what feels like ages. Unfortunately, they persist, causing frustration and hindering the enjoyment of the reading experience.

With repetitive dialogues and a lack of action or progress, I found myself rolling my eyes and, admittedly, skimming through some parts just to reach the conclusion.

Overall, this book holds great potential with its opposites-attract and workplace romance tropes. However, it would benefit greatly from rigorous editing to trim down the lengthy banter and inject more action to drive the plot forward. Consequently, I can only award it three stars, despite my best efforts.

Here's to hoping my next romance read will be more captivating and entertaining.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/St. Martin's Griffin for providing me with a digital review copy, allowing me to share my honest thoughts on the book.

Big fan of Charlotte Stein and have been anticipating this book for a while! So thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's for the ARC.

This might be the horniest book of 2024, so all the stars for that. Where Stein excels, she really excels (intimacy--both emotional and physical), and when I imagined the hero speaking like Roy Kent, everything just worked.

But not quite sure this checks the romantic comedy box, and I found myself confused (often due to the interiority and how plot and character were presented) by certain basic things like setting, timeline, etc. So this was hard to get into, but once their relationship took off, I was hooked!

Alfie’s grumpy nature stems more from him being awkward and lacking the knowledge of social cues.

Mabel is fierce, seeing aside her “quiet” girl next door personality to be spunky and Pushing outside of hers and Alfies comfort zone

However as the book progressed, I did find that the rest of their personalities lacked anything other than their grumpy and sunshine personas. I really liked that heavier topics were touched on as well, but it aside from that, not much else to the characters. I enjoyed the banter and the chaos that seemed to ensue everytime they got together, but it felt off almost forced that made it more difficult to enjoy.

I really loved how the book was formatted with articles of Alfie, emails, and other little written information. It’s refreshing and provides outside perceptive without being multiple POVs which I thought was really cool.

Thank you so much for this arc in exchange for an honest review.