If you like straight up romance books, one with lots of banter and spicy scenes this might be a better fit for you than it was me. As the title suggests this is a grumpy meets sunshine romance with a fake dating trope mixed in.
Writing was okay and started off fun as hell. Mabel is a great character and honestly I liked her more before she got tangled up with Mr Grumpy. I like a good side plot to go along with my spice and this one lacked the side plot or any real plot at all. The ''ghostwriter'' storyline was minimal. Not a terrible read, an okay story to pass the time. I'm just not a fan of this type of romance.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read and review honestly an advanced digital copy.

This funny, romantic book was such a lovely read.

A famous soccer player, Alfie Harding needs to write a memoir but unable to do so, he gets into a business relationship with ghost writer Mabel Willicker.

It was a joy to read this book and watch the relationship between Alfie and Mabel. I would recommend this book to anyone that loves a romantic comedy.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was the Roy Kent romance of my dreams and I want to read 50 more books about these two.

I am absolutely obsessed. This was so good. The banter between these characters was impeccable. I did a hybrid read and the narrator was fantastic.

I loved this book so much that it’s hard to properly express my feelings about it. It was perfect! Go read it!

Thank you to the publisher
St. Martin’s for an eARC and Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review.

CW: references to parental abuse and alcoholism, fat phobia.

I don’t even know how to talk about this book. One of the things I loved best about it was the way Charlotte Stein used words to illuminate her characters, but I’m reading an advance reader copy so I’m not supposed to quote from it. I’m going to have to share a quote though because otherwise I’m just going to blather a bunch of dumb words at you.

She saw it happen, almost immediately. All in one big rush, like he couldn’t contain it. Her hands made contact, and that was it. Every muscle in his face just seemed to melt. The deep line between his eyebrows dissolved; his tightly pressed together lips parted. And though she could see him fighting to keep his eyes squeezed shut—like this was agony, like it was unbearable, like she was killing him with her fingertips—she could see them started to smooth out.

Alfie and Mabel are two delightful peas in a weirdo pod. They are each so used to being the biggest weirdo in the room that they can’t believe they have met someone who likes them for who they are. And yet some part of them relaxes around the other in a way they never do around others, whether Mabel is cleaning Alfie’s face after she pepper sprays him, or Alfie is braiding Mabel’s hair. Their banter is off the charts good. I cackled so many times. But what clenched this for me as a book I will return to are the deeply emotional moments that Stein gives them. Alfie’s face relaxing against his will the first time Mable touches him is such a beautiful human moment.

Alfie was inspired by Ted Lasso’s Roy Kent. I never watched the show (I stopped being able to process tv shows and movies when the pandemic started and I haven’t recovered that ability. I don’t know why, brains are weird). So I am aware of who Roy Kent is, but I have no attachment to the character.

I liked this so much I bought my own copy, I registered for a virtual author event and I bought a bunch of Charlotte Stein’s backlist.

Content Warnings: abusive alcoholic fathers, fat phobia from strangers.

I received this as an advance reader copy from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.

Firstly, I extend my thanks to NetGalley and Charlotte Stein for granting me the opportunity to delve into this book in exchange for providing an honest review.

The dynamic banter between Mabel and Alfie truly captivates! Although it took me some time to acclimate to the writing style due to the abundance of banter, I found this book remarkably relatable, akin to peering into a mirror reflecting the evolution of a relationship where neither party quite comprehends the other.

Alfie has completely won me over, evoking strong resemblance to Roy Kent from Ted Lasso, a comparison that persisted throughout my reading journey.

While I acknowledge that some may find the banter excessive, I personally found myself thoroughly enjoying the writing style once I became accustomed to it.

I eagerly anticipate delving into another of Charlotte's literary works without hesitation.

I would give this book a 3.5. It was cute, but I think it took too long for them to get together. I did like the social media, notes and text snippets at the end of each chapter. I would definitely read another book by this author.

We start with Alfie Harding a grumpy retired footballer who is being pushed into telling his story through a memoir. In general he tries to stay as far away from the limelight as possible and barely reveals anything about himself to anyone, or expressing any sort of emotion. Which means writing his own memoir is out of the question

Enter in Mabel Willicker, a ghostwriter tasked with getting Alfie out of his shell. She is the perfect candidate, she is vibrant, sassy, and cheery, and even though Alfie has turned down every ghost writing candidate before her, she bypasses his defenses.

What starts out as a purely professional relationship quickly turns into a fake dating arrangement when the public catches wind of Mabel present in Alfie's life. He is a hermit, and the opposite of a people person, so they need an excuse that is easily explainable as to why Mabel is around. The pretending only lasts so long until real feelings and attraction catch them both by surprise.

I wanted to enjoy this one. It had so many elements that I would normally love, but I think the writing style just did not work for me. I could not get behind the romance or the characters, dialogue felt very cringey for me. I just could not relate or like the characters. I do think there were so many important topics and themes covered in this novel, and the author did a lovely job of writing them. This book just overall was not for me.

I must confess that I started this book several times before I really got into it, but once I did, I enjoyed the banter between Alfie and his bubbly ghostwriter Mabel. Alfie is a reclusive former football star who wants everyone to just leave him alone. Other ghostwriters have tried to write for him with no success. Then when Mabel enters the scene, she is not taking no for an answer and keeps pestering him with innumerable questions until he finally starts to answer. The romance is not very believable but the story is humorous and cute. I liked the characters and must say that they were very dynamic and realistic. The plot was straightforward rom-com and easy to read with a moderate pace and a satisfying conclusion.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review, and all opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16th CFR, Part 255, “Guidelines Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

I fell right into the hilarious, heartwarming story about a grumpy footballer and a curvy ghost writer. It took me a few pages to get my bearings but once I started, I didn't want to put When Grumpy Met Sunshine down.
Alfie portrayed such an ice man, that I didn't think I would care one way or another about him, but Mabel's sunny personality and clever wit drew me into the book. Charlotte took her time developing the friendship and revealing the commonalities between their upbringings, giving the reader a better understanding of the whys behind their individual personalities. Alfie is so misunderstood, and he protects the inner man by being reclusive and irritable! Mabel sees herself through society's lenses, knows she doesn't measure up to those standards and refuses to believe that others may value her. A perfect set up for a romance that starts as a fake but ends in attraction and chemistry! Unexpectedly, the physical chemistry parts of the book were off the charts! I have never read a Charlotte Stein book so I thought I might be in a clean closed door rom com. Boy was I wrong! Steam at its highest and very well written!
I wish there was more to the ending of the story. All I know is that they have now found each other. and I am curious about their new lives with each other.
I will admit that once I closed the book, I gave a big sigh. It was a story that pulled at my feelings, twisted and turned each one and then put them in a sweet space. I enjoyed When Grumpy Met Sunshine and reading a new to me author, Charlotte Stein.
I received an Advance Reader Copy and am leaving this review voluntarily based on my personal reading experience.

I don't like giving out 1 star reviews regardless of how I feel about a book because I know it takes a lot of time to write a book. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of a bad review, but not every book is going to hit the mark with every reader. With that said, I tried this in two formats. Digital copy from Netgalley, and then I used an Audible credit (sigh) to preorder for the release today so I could give it another try. I gave it my best effort. I didn't make it through the first chapter on my digital copy, and today, I finally stopped with an hour left of the audio version.

The repetitiveness and lack of chemistry make me not give any care in the world about these characters or their story.

Hopefully, this book will fall into the hands of the right readers, but based on reviews I've seen here on GR (which I do take with a grain of salt most of the time) it's not just me or even a handful of people having the same issue making us all sound repetitive. You win some, and you lose some.

Thank you, Netgalley & St. Martin's Press for the e-ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own!!

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I would like to say for the record, I didn't realize how spicy of a book this was going into it. I typically don't read designated spicy books and I don't recommend them either for that reason. I might read a book that has a dash of spice and the rest is plot, but those do not fall into the romance/spicy category.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine sounded like a sweet rom-com styled book from the summary provided. But once I got into the book, I quickly realized it was not what I was expecting it to be and I just didn't love it. The book is about Mabel, a ghostwriter who has been assigned to write for the grumpy football player, Alfie. Mabel and Alfie end up spending an elongated time together while writing his memoir leading the public to think they are dating. Of course, they aren't but they decide to fake date and thus the story goes on.

The book started with what a good emphasis on the Grumpy and Sunshine trope but that eventually got lost in the midst of the romance. I didn't really see how he was a grumpy person and she was sunshine. Mabel (our main character) also made a lot of comments about how she was expected to be a sunshiney person all the time, but I just didn't see that play out in the book. Alfie was supposed to be grumpy, but the only real indicators that he was were the descriptions of how he was dark, brooding, and hairy. I just wanted there to be more banter between the two of them for the sunshine/grumpy trope to come alive. Instead, it was just super cheesy and instant instead of there being a slow burn.

I also got super lost throughout the story with the transitions and dialogue. I found myself going back several times to see if they were at his house, her house, in the car, etc. The transitions didn't feel natural because there was so much dialogue cutting it up.

I really did love the idea of Mabel being the ghost writer for Alfie as she finds out more about him. I was hoping we would see the romance of the story bloom from how she gets to know him, relates to him, and so on but that just got muddled in the midst of all the spice making it too insta-lovey of a story. Again, I think it had real potential for a slow burn but it was just too quick paced for me personally.

First, I’d like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this as an ARC.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine is a sweet, romcom with some steamy scenes.
Let me start of by saying it did take me a while to really get into the story (30% in), don’t know if it was the writing style. Once I got into it, I couldn’t put it down. You instantly fall in love with Mabel and Alphie, the banter between them was great. They both went through a lot in the past and they don’t know how to express their true feelings for each other. The ending was perfect, the way Alphie basically professed his feelings was amazing. This book might not be for everyone but I definitely recommend checking it out!

A warm, big-hearted body-positive romance so sunshiny for a winter day. I loved the ease and authenticity of the writer's style as well as the wholesome Ted Lasso feels. Readers of Olivia Dade and Chloe Liese will fall hard.

Lighthearted and fun rom-com. Lots of banter and very exaggerated scenes and situations, but makes it more fun. Overall I couldn’t get into it but I think there’s an audience for this book who likes diverse characters, fake dating, and grumpy sunshine tropes :)

Thank you to Charlotte Stein, publishers St. Martin's Griffin, and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC.

Unfortunately this was just not for me. I liked the concept of the plot but that's about all I enjoyed. Dialogue and plot progress very slowly because the fmc's every thought is given. The dialogue is immature for 30 year old working professionals with jobs that are public facing.

This story is trying so hard to encapsulate awkward encounters between opposing personalities that would have worked so well in a visual media because you have body language and facial expressions. Unfortunately it's just weird and cringey in this print medium.

I wanted to love this book so badly, the storyline and tropes are something i normally love. i just didnt connect with the characters and it was hard for me to get into the story. i did still enjoy the book it just wasnt what i was hoping it would be so it just might not have been the book for me personally.

This entire book was a VIBE! I absolutely adore Mabel and Alfie! Their banter was so fun and the unapologetic frankness— even better!! If you’re a fan of grumpy/sunshine… opposites attract… fake dating… or a lovely one bed situation— this is the book for you!!

Everything about this book is rom-com gold.

From the beginning I could relate to our FMC in more ways than I would like to count. And her self expressed unexpected wit and quick comebacks were perfection.

Our MMC is this perceived grumpy jerk but really we all know just a mushy teddy bear who is so flustered he says everything wrong. Definitely got Mr. Darcy vibes off of this one.

Thank you St. Martins Press and Netgalley for this 5 star read!!

I’m not sure what I thought of Stein’s When Grumpy Met Sunshine, except what I thought depended on what part of the romance novel I was reading. Stein’s romance fell into three not-well-meshed parts: an initial and lengthy slow-burn getting-to-know-you romance between retired footballer grump Alfie Harding and sunny ghostwriter Mabel Willicker, a shorter sequence of explicit love scenes when the burn fires up and vrooms away, and a dangling chapter dedicated to the HEA. This is how I experienced the novel as a reader, disjointed, but the blurb will give you the overall picture:

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 decide: is this sizzling chemistry just for show? Or something so real it might just give them their fairytale ending?

I loved every second of Alfie and Mabel’s fake courtship with real feelings. Stein is a great comic writer, so I laughed a lot, but I was also touched, at times heartbroken, especially for blunt, crabby Alfie. The romance began with an emphasis on Mabel and her sunny-sad life of plain, over-weight woman without a boyfriend, uncertain career, and novelist’s side-lined ambitions. Nevertheless, Mabel is irrepressibly energetic, relentlessly cheerful, and resilient. Mabel has bounce back. But the narrative soon gives over to Alfie, broody and vulnerable in surprising ways. This initial first good chunk of Stein’s novel is masterfully balanced between guffaw-worthy humour and building her loveable characters, to the reader and each other.

Mabel and Alfie are brought together by his publisher and her agent. Their meet-cute hilariously sets up Stein’s humour and trope in one Alfie comment: ” ‘…you think I’m a big hairy manimal who’s never gonna be able to work well with this here human cupcake,’ he said. Then just for good measure, he flung a finger in her general direction.” Said human cupcake is a sharp psychologist and has very little ego, which make for a great ghostwriter as she humours and coaxes Alfie into revelations. On the other hand, Alfie is such a lonely figure that Mabel’s sympathetic demeanor, intellectual match to his big-brain (he’s not all brawn, but the brawn is beefy) and common background see her succeed where anyone else would fail. The combination of humour and pathos is nicely summed up in a scene between Alfie (who has a flip phone and hates all tech) and Mabel’s normal person, not-a-Luddite attachment to her cell phone; Alfie is hefting it aloft with his 6′ 1″ reach and Mabel, at 5′ 2″, is hopping:

“Jesus. It’s not a baby, Mabel.”

“Even though I take it everywhere with me.”

“You take lots of things everywhere with you.”

“Yeah, but do I also gently cradle them while staring lovingly at their faces?”

“Oh my god it’s a lump of plastic,” he snorted. “It does not have a face.”

“It does when Oscar Isaac is staring out at me.”

“He is not staring out at you. His image is.” Lord, he was so practical about things. So literal and straight down the line. Like somebody’s grandad from a mining town where everybody was miserable, she thought. But weirdly, not in a way that felt mean. She didn’t hate that about him, apparently. Instead, she had the thought, and then got a little weird bloom of warmth through her. As if she was starting to like him.

Firstly, you can see how droll and adorable these two are: how Mabel is the one who has the upper hand and Alfie who is vulnerable. Scenes like this one follow one upon another so that Mabel liking Alfie makes sense. Because Alfie in love with Mabel is obvious from “first sight”. What tips everything in Alfie’s favour is his willingness to be vulnerable to Mabel. And when, in the most poignant scenes, Mabel and Alfie discover they come from similarly broken childhoods, it’s obvious to everyone except Mabel, they belong to each other and together: “He’s the other kid with you in the assembly, her mind said, about an hour in. And though that was an unsettling thought, she couldn’t deny it was true. It felt to her as if she’d always known him. As if she’d once been friends with him, years ago, and now they’d been reunited somehow.”

All this lovely stuff goes down the explicit love scene rabbit-hole and stays there for pages upon pages. And then, the Big Mis walks into the narrative room and Alfie and Mabel, who’ve talked, don’t talk to clear things up, aren’t honest about their feelings. A long period of dual selves-imposed penance occurs and then, in an awesomely romantic scene, they’re “reunited” and the HEA ensues. I’m not sure the long penance period worked, like at all, for me. But there was still much to enjoy in Stein’s grumpy-sunshine pairing (including one glorious blow at Thatcher and her version of England; much appreciated, Stein). Miss Austen agrees, in When Grumpy Met Sunshine offers “real comfort,” Emma.

Charlotte Stein’s When Grumpy Met Sunshine is published by St. Martin’s Griffin. It releases today, Feb. 6th. I received an e-galley from St. Martin’s Griffin, via Netgalley. This does not impede the free expression of my opinion, which is laid out for you above without the aid of AI.

When asked what my favorite trope is, every single time I will put on a whole TEDtalk on why grumpy/sunshine makes my days better so I leapt at the chance to read this. [Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.]

At first few chapters, I was struck by how freaking ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔯𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔤 this was. It was like walking down the street, and you find a cozy coffee shop with delicious pastries, comfy chairs, free outlets, and affordable coffee. You want to settle in and stay. I'm such a sucker for a British Rom Com. It wasn't till I was like 40% in that I realized what I needed to-

**This opposites atteact romance is PERFECT for anyone who was EVER 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙎𝙇𝙄𝙂𝙃𝙏𝙇𝙔 into Roy Kent of Ted Lasso.**

Alfie, our footballer (soccer player for the US folks) is the most cinnamon roll grizzly bear who falls first and hard for our plus sized ghostwriter heroine, Mabel.

Overall I give it 4/5 🌟 and a strong recommendation for people who want something to read after their Ted Lasso binge.

Available everywhere tomorrow 2/6/24!!

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