
Member Reviews

I tried my best to navigate through this book without getting caught in another never-ending banter session.

I really enjoyed this! I will say that I was a little confused for a lot of the book just because I was shocked by how British it was LMFAO. Like I had no idea what was being said half the time but I could kind of figure it out with context clues. I really loved the fact that all the chapters had actual titles, that was so fun!!!! The main characters were really fun to read about as well. I loved both of their personalities so much. However, Mabel was killing me......she was second guessing literally every single thing and was just making me go insane tbh. I did like Alfie though. He was pretty clear in what he wanted at least in my opinion. But clearly Mabel couldn't see it. Anyways, I think this is a super fun and easy to read book! I would definitely recommend it!

Thank you for the advanced copy of When Grumpy Met Sunshine.
Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. I could not connect with the characters and the storyline was not enough for me to stick it out until the end.

Tender and heartwarming, and full of relatable characters. This novel is full of witty banter, but only told from Mabel's perspective.

Loved that this book had a curvy female lead, that’s something we need to see more of and I especially loved it because the mmc was a footballer. Swoon city! Overall I did feel this was a really cute book but I did miss a bit of connection with the story.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein tells the story of sunshiny Mabel who has been hired to ghostwrite a memoir for pro soccer star Alfie. This book had a little bit of everything - grumpy/sunshine trope (obviously), fake dating trope, plus size FMC (yay!), respectful MMC (also yay!). I enjoyed the slow-burn workplace romance - it ended up a little spicier than I normally pick up, but that's okay! I also enjoyed the banter between Mabel and Alfie, but it seemed like the dialogue dragged on a little bit too long. Overall, it was a cute and funny romance and I would probably pick up another book by Stein in the future.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Alfie and Mabel meet when she’s hired as a ghostwriter for his memoir. He’s grumpy and hates talking about himself, and she’s very sweet and sassy. When they’re seen spending time together, people assume they’re dating, so they pretend they’re in a relationship for the public.
I love the fake dating and grumpy/sunshine trope, but this didn’t really hit the mark. I think it was because Alfie pretty much yelled that they were together and did a lot of stuff showing he was interested, but Mabel didn’t see it. And there wasn’t much of Alfie falling for Mabel, so I guess I just wanted to see more of that.
Anyway, this was an okay story. If you like miscommunication, grumpy/sunshine, opposites attract romances, this may be for you.

This was such a fun book. I love the FMC and the dynamic she had with the MMC. I can’t wait to read more from this author. This was the perfect romance book for me. The tropes were good.

This book gave me all of the emotions possible! Whenever I thought I knew what the characters were thinking, I was wrong. Mabel and Alfie were literally meant for one another and I am so happy with the ending. The ending definitely had me in tears. Their relationship from the start was adorable, and I loved the he falls first trope.

I have to admit that this was very slow to start. In the beginning I almost DNF it. It just felt like the author wanted to keep drilling in how grumpy the main male character was. But it was too much. Once you get past that though the story becomes absolutely hilarious! And steamy! It was a really great read. Thank you to netgalley for a free copy for review!

Give me ALL the romance tropes. I love every. single. one. And this book has multiple!! Sports romance, grumpy vs sunshine, fake relationship, I'm here for all of it.
When ex-football player Alfie Harding finally agrees to write a memoir, he realizes he needs help. Enter Mabel, the sunshine and sass to his grumpy and sarcastic. She's everything he isn't, and they're constantly at odds. But when their working relationship gets mistaken for love, what do they do? FAKE RELATIONSHIP. Duh.
I loved this book. It wasn't blow-me-away epic, but it was enjoyable and fun. I would recommend for sure!

Mabel Willicker is an author and ghostwriter and gets assigned to write the memoir of surly football player Alfie Harding. Alfie has a grumpy, monosyllabic, footballer reputation and Mabel is the complete opposite: a bright-color-wearing, happy person.
They do hit it off, bonding over shared childhood trauma and the gossip mill starts churning when fans spot the pair together. So, they go along with the rumors and fake-date.
I LOVED this book. Honestly, I never get tired of the cartoon character romance cover books. And it has my favorite tropes: grumpy/sunshine, fake dating, and one bed.
The banter was hilarious, I found myself laughing out loud in spots. I also thought the characters worked well together.
Thank you to NetGalley and Griffin for the ARC!

This was such a fun read! I love to see a plus size woman be adored! Great banter and spice! For fans of real or tv football.

This was an adorable romance with just the right amount of spice. I’m always gonna be obsessed with literally anything Ted Lasso related.

2.5 stars
Grumpy/Sunshine is one of my favorite romance tropes and I was left a bit disappointed by this.
Let's share the good - these two definitely fulfill the requirements for the title. She's the sunshiney ghost writer to his surly former footballer. These are characters in their 30s (yay for adults!) who are fake dating and falling for each other along the way, another trope I love. The banter between Alfie & Mabel was charming and kept you hooked at times. And we get some really excellent plus size representation to boot. It has all the bones for a great romance story.
However, with the good there's also some bad. While they are technically fake dating it was obvious to anyone with or without eyeballs that this man was down hard. Yet Mabel was your typical plus size female character who refuses to believe this gorgeous footballer could possibly like her and of course she was constantly comparing herself to the "skinny" models he's dated. There's nothing wrong with a skinny model. There's nothing wrong with a plus size heroine. What is frustrating is her insecurity about it, I wish she would've just believed what this man was saying to her. Mabel would also play her cards to close to her chest and not communicate anything to him. He would assume she found him "ugly and the worst thing ever" and she would just say "that's not what I said" and not communicate anything at all.
The ending was the nail in the coffin for me. While I'm not a fan of a third act breakup, like most romance readers, this one was a doozy. The grand gesture did not make up for an entire year of not speaking to each other.
Thank you to St Martin's Press, SMP Romance, and NetGalley for the arc!

She’s a cupcake and he’s a hairy ex footballer. She’s sunshine in human form and he’s a grump. Sounds like the perfect romcom in the making. Sadly this did not work for me. I found the writing to be too predictable and quippy. I found the focus to be too much in the differences in the characters rather than what made them great. The characters felt a little bit too much like caricatures than fully fleshed out people.

This book took me awhile to get into, but once I got halfway I was cruising! The narrator did a good job. Very clear and easy to understand. I didn’t like how the main character talked about herself sometimes, but I do understand people feel that way and/or go through that. Overall, it has solid bones and I would love to read her next book! Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read in exchange for a review!

I'm sad to report this was a DNF at 40%. The inner monologues was excessive and the plot was told, not explained. I'm so sad because based on the description, this book is right up my alley.

This book was PERFECT. It had everything you could want from a fluffy yet surprisingly steamy rom com.
From the title, I had high expectations for the grumpy sunshine trope--and it was so well executed.
I though this book was funny and swoon worthy and everything I wanted. As a Ted Lasso fan, this book had me living my readerxRoy Kent fantasy.
I loved Mabel. Plus size rep is so important to me and Mabel didn't disappoint. She was funny and bubbly, absolutely adorable, and I loved being able to see myself in her character.
I think the plot line moved well and I was completely sucked in for the first 60ish% of the book. It felt a little slow near the end, like I was sort of waiting for things to keep moving, but the end left me satisfied and grinning from ear-to-ear. Great book!

The way I wanted to love this book. I love the grumpy sunshine trope and I love romance books with fat MC's. It should have been perfect. Unfortunately I feel like either half of this book wasn't written or half of it was edited out because so much is missing. And it's not like a specific chunk is missing it's like they went in every 5% and took out 15 pages. It's a consistent issue throughout the entire book where you feel like you're missing something.
So essentially we have this ghostwriter who is hired to go straight this book of this famous athlete who is known for being grumpy as hell. And then all of a sudden they're kind of friends and then they're mutually horny but also so mutually unaware that it's exhausting to continue listening to. Like neither one of them thinks that the other one would possibly be attracted to them and that gets old very quick. Maybe if it had started with that and they figured it out sooner than it would be okay but the fact that it goes to the very end of the book drove me nuts.
then we have the fact that there's way too much sex in this book. I like sex and books just as much of the next person but it feels like it took the place of actual conversations about them getting closer and bonding and for me personally, sexual intimacy does not replace emotional intimacy and if you're going to try and have both you really need to have both but emotional intimacy is so much more important for me and I wanted to see that more than I wanted to see the sex scenes.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Don't even get me fucking started on the ending of this goddamn book. You're telling me they go a full freaking fracking year without talking and then she somehow skims an entire book and a release party and realizes that he wrote the book for her and declared his love? I just don't buy it. The idea is cute. The premise is nice. It would have been much more successful had they had their little sodact break up which I'm not a fan of anyway, and then she went back to the agency and they're like oh yeah everything's great and she said okay well let me just run through it one more time or they sent her the final copy or something where she had time to read the whole thing through process it and then go declare her own feelings within a timely manner. It didn't make sense for me to have them have an entire year apart and then for her to somehow be able to read the entire book in just 10 minutes and then be surprised? I don't know. Again, the idea is cute The execution was very flawed.
Overall this is probably like a 2 to 3 star for me because there's nothing really problematic in it I just didn't like it. It usually save my one and two star ratings for like openly problematic books So maybe let's go with a solid two and a half.