I really loved this book just as much as I thought I would! The characters, the misadventure, the drama--obsessed! I wish it had been a bit longer because I hated saying goodbye to the characters. Alfie mirrors the gruff exterior and unexpected charm of Roy Kent from Ted Lasso and that. is my ideal man, honestly. Both Alfie and Roy share a complexity that makes readers want to know more as you dive into their pasts and get down to the layers of vulnerability and authenticity that make you fall in love with them. The way Mabel and Alfie found a kindred spirit in one another made my heart feel so full!

Charlotte Stein's writing had such wit and charm. Her ability to balance humor and heart is commendable, making the story a captivating and uplifting journey. Her storytelling prowess ensures that this novel stands out as a heartwarming and thoroughly enjoyable read for anyone seeking a delightful escape into the world of love, laughter, and unexpected sunshine. If you love rom-coms, Ted Lasso, and men who worship their women, I'd highly recommend giving this a shot!

Thank you to Charlotte Stein, NetGalley, and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my review!

This was so cute. First off, I love reading romances with plus size heroines. There is not nearly enough fat FMCs in romance novels. I appreciated that Mabel's character was confident in her size and would stand up for herself against the hero, and others.

The dynamic in this was very fun. Some of the banter made me laugh out loud and I was giddy from their first interaction. Fake dating is one of my favourite tropes because it really forces the couple together and perform in ways that bring out true romance and feelings. Charlotte Stein really excelled in that area.

I was swooning and kicking my feet at Alfie! He was really devoted to Mabel, despite what the press and public were saying about her and sticking up for her.

4/5!

1.75⭐️

A bit late on my review of this book, but that's kind of a testament to how hard it was for me to get through. The cover art, title, and description of this book was so cute! I can see where this was meant to go, but overall I think the novel did not live up to what it could have been.

The writing style was very difficult for me to get through; there was a lot of distracting dialogue, and it felt like it was 95% between the two main characters only. I also felt like it was all talk and no show of what Mabel and Alfie's personalities actually were, and him "opening up" to her was rushed, yet also somehow took forever??

Along with there being minimal to no side characters, there was also minimal plot. The whole point was that Mabel is hired to ghostwrite his memoirs, and that became ignored for most of the story! The 'chemistry' mostly contained dirty talk??? and other actions and conversations that seemed almost immature for their age..

The timing of the ending, and even the entire novel was a bit all over the place and frankly dragged out. There were some funny moments and cute aspects of the book, but overall it just didn't work for me personally.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5
Spice: 🌶️🌶️

My initial intrigue for When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein came from its beautiful cover art. Once I read the synopsis, I instantly knew this would be one of my most anticipated reads of the year with its promising blend of tropes such as grumpy x sunshine, forced proximity, and fake dating. Polar opposites, Mabel (a curvy, bubbly and ‘cupcake’ sweet ghostwriter) and Alfie (a grumpy, blunt, and social recluse ex-footballer), don’t make sense being together but somehow find themselves drawn to one another while they work on Alfie’s memoir and pretend to be in a relationship to please the media. The book included banter, spice, and humour, all ingredients for a great story but unfortunately the book still fell short of my expectations.

Charlotte Stein is a new-to-me author and her writing style was nothing like anything I've read before. And although I thoroughly enjoyed the story that unfolded throughout the pages, I couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. I believe the story’s impact and overall delivery of the storyline presented could have benefitted from a more of a dual pov delivery. Alfie being as gruff and reserved as he is, I would have loved to have been able to get a glimpse inside of his mind to know what his thoughts and opinions were throughout the progression of the story. I’m quite sure my opinion has been skewed by the fact that my majority of the books I have read since the start of the year have been dual pov. ALSO!! The miscommunication/lack of communication trope is not my favourite and so that impacted my overall reading experience as well. With that being said, I do strongly believe that this review will likely be an outlier and that other readers will find the book to be a 4 and/or 5 star read.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine was an enjoyable read with its attention to both dialogue and plot. In addition, I really enjoyed the type of characters that were included, what their backgrounds were and what they represented. I am grateful to both St.Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to receive and review this Advanced Reader Copy. I look forward to seeing and reading what Charlotte writes next!

I struggled to get into this book, which is a real bummer because the premise sounded so cute and the cover is absolutely adorable! It might just not be the book for me right now, I'll definitely try it again later.

Three and a half stars

WHEN GRUMPY MET SUNSHINE by Charlotte Stein is an entertaining contemporary romance about a retired athlete and the ghostwriter assigned to help him write his memoir.

Alfie Harding is well known to be the grumpiest man in existence. Mabel Willicker is the ghost writer assigned to help this buttoned up ex-footballer write his life story.

Honestly, Alfie from the start is described as a truly fearsome man whose own teammates describe as terrifying and irritating and dangerous. However, this reader’s perception of him is more that he’s an enormous marshmallow in a giant footballer suit.

And Mabel is apparently the ghost-writing equivalent of Mary Poppins, and has Alfie hiding smiles and almost cooperative from the get-go... She is a mix of supposedly incredible professional who is also full of self doubt and certain that others, including and especially Alfie, cannot possibly find her interesting or gasp! attractive. (Spoiler--he does.)

Charlotte Stein reveals characters who need desperately to be seen and loved for who they truly are. And to have the courage to let that happen.

Written in third-person deep PoV, solely from Mabel's perspective.

This one is set in England, it follows a football player (soccer for the US) Alfie, and his ghostwriter, Mable. Alfie has a history of being a closed off grumpy and Mable is trying to make it as a writer. I really enjoyed the beginning of this one, it had me turning pages to keep reading. It’s a quick, fake relationship read, with - spoiler alert- a bit of grumpy/sunshine. 😉

Typically I love the grumpy/sunshine troupe, but this one was not it for me. The story was a bit hard to follow and after the 6th eye roll due to the dialogue I had to DNF this at 40%. There's cheeky and silly and then there is just plain ridiculous, this fell into the latter category for me. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC, but this one wasn't a grab for me.

Alfie, a grumpy retired (UK) Football player finally agrees to write his memoir and finally decides to have Mabel, the sunshiny, curvy ghostwriter as his partner in this venture.

There are some laugh out loud moments - like when Mabel uses her pepper spray or when she attempts to get into the car and ends up showing more than she wanted to the buzzing press. These are coupled with witty banter, a tension filled slow burn and some very high-heat open door bedroom scenes.

There are also tender moments and a shared understanding between two people who suffered from having pretty awful fathers. In some of their conversations it seemed like Mabel and Alfie revealed things they never intended to but felt so comfortable with the other person they felt safe in sharing.

I did struggle a lot with the single POV 3rd person narrative, which I think made it hard for me to connect with either character. This was my first book by the author but I would like to try some of her others.

Engaging with cute banter! Love the tropes. Just fell flat to me for some reason, had higher hopes! Very cute cover though! Thanks for the copy in exchange for an honest review

Until the following items are met by the SMP team, I will be withholding any promotion or review of any St. Martin's Press titles (including SMP Romance and Wednesday Book titles):

1. Address and denounce the Islamophobia/racism from your employee.
2. Offer tangible steps for how you're going to mitigate the harm this employee caused.
3. Address how moving forward, you will support and protect your Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab readers, influencers, and authors in addition to your BIPOC readers, influencers, and authors.

Wonderful story, great character development, great writing! Highly recommend this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it

What a cute book! I enjoyed this book and the characters! The character development was great. I had never read this author before but I will for sure be reading it again in the future!

I’m just a sucker for cinderella story, though I think Allie might be as much of the Cinderella in this story as Mabel is.

Mabel an aspiring author has been ghost writing biographies to get experience under her belt. Which makes her, in her editors opinion qualified to write for the notorious bad boy of football, Alfie. Alfie a gruff retired footballer is ready to tell his side of the story, but after a disastrous first meeting it’s unclear if they can ever get on the same page.

After accidentally being photographed together they decide instead of admitting he’s hired a ghost writer to fake date. The only logical conclusion if we are honest. The problem is, Mabel is a little on the curvier side and not in the same tax bracket as Alfie. So while social media is having a meltdown around them, they are trying to navigate their increasing attraction.

True life isn’t a romance novel as Mabel and Alfie unfortunately find out.

Thank you SMP for the chance to read and review this book.

When Grumpy Mets sunshine is a sexy romance with a grumpy football player and an upbeat writer. Former football player Alfie is convinced to sell him memoirs but he doesn't think he can handle writing time. Insert Mabel a ball of sunshine ghost writer. The two of them do not get along well and argue about everything at first. Eventually they realize their chemistry is more than they thought. This story is full sizzling moments and cute dialogue. I did enjoyed this one!

The author couldn't have been more obvious they're a fan of Ted Lasso if they tried. This was clearly a Roy Kent-esque character with very little room for imagination. I DNF.







I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

📚ARC Review 📚

I have been in a book slump for what feels like weeks and this book truly helped bring me out of it. Alfie and Mabel are Grumpy/Sunshine perfection and the title rings 100% true. This book crosses laugh out loud moments with fake dating which I really truly enjoyed.
I recommend picking this up if you need a quick read that makes you laugh!

Thank you to the author, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for the ARC.

I loved this book!! It was fabulous and well done. The characters were on point and I thought the plot was well developed. I would recommend this book to others.

I wanted to love this book! Grumpy/sunshine is one of my favorite tropes but this one didn’t work for me.
The dialogue was all over the place and confusing at times. I love a good steamy book, but I honestly found myself skimming the book by the time we got to that part.
It definitely had potential but it missed the mark for me.

Excellent, hilarious banter + hot fat lady rep + some interesting backstory explanations of why our characters feel compelled to be grumpy/sunshiney AND some **EPIC** smutty business. This book was an utter delight from start to finish* and I need to get to reading Stein's backlist ASAP! Highly recommend!

* except for the requisite third-act breakup, which I hate in ALL romance books.