I enjoyed this one more than I thought I would. A retired athlete meets his ghost writer only for them to find common ground and a mutual attraction to each other. Their sexual tension was fun and I loved how their professional relationship turned to more quickly. I would say this is a slow burn but it was enjoyable and didn’t drag. I loved Mabel and Alfie’s banter and can I just say how much I love the banter? Somerset of it felt a bit immature including some of the spicy scenes but it was worth it in the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for an e-book ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Alfie Harding, ex-footballer (soccer player) is grumpy, stoic, and serious and known for it. He's also known for his history of hooking up with supermodels.

Mabel Williker, an experienced ghostwriter, is sunshine: optimistic, bright, and colorful.

Mabel is paired with Alfie to write a memoir and, at first glance, they couldn't seem more different. After they are caught by the media at Alfie's house, the internet goes wild about them, not believing that Alfie Harding could be interested in a curvy, brown-haired nobody.

Mabel and Alfie cook up a fake relationship so no one finds out he has a ghostwriter. But spending so much time together and feigning affection puts this grumpy and Sunshine into the fire...with lots of spice!
....

I really enjoyed this story. As Alfie and Mabel get to know each other, confide in each other and become friends, you see these layers peel, and there's a real depth to these two people, including insecurities, self-doubt and childhood traumas.

Alfie felt like a dead ringer to Ted Lasso's Roy Kent, and I was totally ok with that!

Stein writes banter really well. There were heartfelt moments and funny moments. And when the slow-burn flamed into dirty talk, wow!

Although, about ninety percent of the book is one and one interactions between Alfie and Mabel. I wanted to see more of the supporting characters and have more insight to them with their friends and other people in their lives. I did enjoy the outside perspective at the end of each chapter, which included an e-mail, internet blurb, or other snippet of information.

I loved the ending of the book when Alfie's memoir was released. I found that last chapter very touching and perfect. 💕

This book gave me all the feels!

This was super cute! I just loved how british this was, I don't know how to explain it, but I love british humor! I definitely giggled and laughed a few times!

Also, how sweet was Alfie (the MMC)! In the beginning, he definitely gave off grumpy/assh*le-vibes, but then he becomes more open with Mabel and you just can't help but root for them! The banter was top-tier, the tension was hot and the spice was spicy!

It's definitely a bit more of a slow-burn, but I really appreciated how they first become good friends before Mabel realises her feelings for Alfie (this is single POV).

I thought sometimes their banter, while hilarious, lasted too long. Especially in the beginning, I had a bit of hard time getting into the story because of the lengthy banter! But it eventually got better, and I started really looking forward to them!

I really recommed this book!

This book took me a bit to get into. It was a little rambly and not dual pov. It was HOT. It was sweet. I enjoyed it.


I voluntarily read an early copy.

This was just a typical romance. It followed the formula. I enjoyed it when I was reading it but I didn’t remember anything about it when I was done.

Rating: 3.5/5 ⭐

A steamy, opposites-attract romance between a grumpy retired footballer and his sunshine-y ghostwriter...
Of course Alfie and Mabel have a meet disaster, and Alfie goes about trying to fix it in the sweetest ways only for Mabel to be an awkward mess. Once we got past the awkward, I started to enjoy Mabel and Alfie's story, the fake dating to keep her ghostwriting his memoir a secret, them bonding and trusting each other, their banter... then all of the spice hit and I feel like we lost some of the story to fit in hotter scenes (and I mean HOT scenes).

So while I liked most of the story, the miscommunication killed me a little bit (as it always does) but the ending just tugged at my heartstrings and brought me back up again!

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

Give me a grumpy sunshine romance novel any day, and I’ll lap it up. Seeing that I love discovering new authors, I truly wanted to give Stein credit where it was due because the fun banter in When Grumpy Met Sunshine precedes itself. Even though the premise is good, I had a few issues with the narrative flow, which, in my book, is more important than the plot per se. Although I’m also rather partial to fake relationship stories, this was where I thought the author could have gone the distance by giving me a tad less pretending and a little more reality.

That said, Mabel Willicker and Alfie Harding are likeable. But if she’s sunny-side up, he’s hard over easy—his lack of social skills leaning towards snarkiness. However, circumstances throw them together, bringing out the best in him. Regardless of them crossing wires, Stein's touching on some rather heavy subjects sensitively was a tremendous plus to the story. But the weak point was the constant comparison of Alfie with a TV show character. Unfortunately, I couldn’t pick up on that vibe since I have yet to watch the series.

I never expected Alfie to be such a flirt! Observing him come into his own and them overcoming their insecurities made for pleasurable reading. Steaminess abounds, so get your fans out, folks! Narrated from Mabel’s perspective, and believe me, to say she’s chatty would be putting it mildly, I missed Alfie’s point of view.

I wish I could have put my finger on what this opposites-attract workplace romance lacks. The ending was nice, an adjective I’m not too fond of. I think a smidgen more editing would have gone a long way; nonetheless, I’m looking forward to reading more from Stein.

A copy of this book was kindly given to me by St. Martins Press through NetGalley for an honest review.

DNF at 22%

I hate having to DNF an arc, but I seriously cannot continue to finish this one.
The story's biggest issue for me was the lengthy and rambling monologue/dialogue... it was so frustrating when neither was getting to the point, and it just kept on going...

I also don't think that the combo of a grumpy but shy/awkward mmc was for me.

read if you like:
• grumpy x sunshine
• fake dating
• enemies to lovers
• opposites attract
• plus size rep
• ex-football player x ghostwriter

*𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘵. 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯'𝘴 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘤 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸*

I had to stop reading after 10% because I was no longer interested in any the characters. I loved the cover and the grumpy vs Sunshine trope but I could not get with the writing style or any of the characters. I was bored and uninterested and had to stop reading. Life to too short to read uninteresting books in my opinion, sorry this was a DNF for me.

DNF at 30%. The audiobook was very well done and I really liked the voice of the narrator, but this story just isn’t for me. The banter felt forced and I just wasn’t invested in their relationship.

I love a good grumpy sunshine rom com story with great banter and while there was a lot of enjoyable moments in When Grumpy Met Sunshine, overall this one just missed the mark with me some. It might have been the writing style or the chaotic inner dialogue of the main character that made it a tad bit confusing to me. I wanted to like it so much but I just couldn’t get into it like I wanted.


Thank you @stmartinspress and @netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley and I will be honest I was excited to read it when I was sent the book, but by the end of the book, I was indifferent. There were some things that I enjoyed about this book; the setting, the smut, and the "Roy Kent-esq" character (for any Ted Lasso fans). But there are some issues with this book too. Firstly, I felt like the dialogue wasn't as fun and exciting as it could have been. There was a lot of internal monologues from our "sunshine" character, Mabel and just a touch of dialogue between anyone else besides the football super-star Alfie. And if you know me there has to be some pretty important, life altering internal monologues for me to enjoy it. Unfortunately, there wasn't a ton of that in this book. I think this book would have been better if there was dual points of view. (FYI: This book would not have passed the becknell test.) Secondly, there was practically no conversation between anyone besides the male and female main characters (and even those conversations were limited). Thirdly, I felt like the development of the story was poor. It started off as Mabel being a ghostwriter for Alfie, but there was very little work being done before Alfie called her his "one true love" (Kinda intense dude). And then it became fake dating??? And then, immediately after that became "let's break-up but not discuss why we want to break up, ghost each other for a year, and then meet up at a party and confess our real feelings in a very circular conversation." It didn't hit the way it should have. The true saving grace of this book was Alfie calling Mabel "love," which could have been a great callback when they met back after a year. Something like; "I was calling you "love" by the third week we knew each other. How could you not know I care about you more than just a fake girlfriend?" (Like that would have been lovely, but we missed out on that!!)

Overall, "When Grumpy Meets Sunshine" had so much potential, but it did fall flat for me.

Mabel is a ghost writer and gets hired to write a memoir for ex-soccer (footballer since set in England) Alfie. Alfie is the grump to Mabel’s sunshine. This enemy to lovers trope just didn’t score for me and fell flat. There are sparks between Mabel and Alfie and a fake relationship for the public. Will they or won’t they take the fake relationship to real?
Thank you to NetGallery for ARC!

Ghostwriter Mabel and retired pro athlete Alfie are paired up to tackle writing his memoir, which he of course does not want to do. Mabel is a walking ray of curvy sunshine, while Alfie is a very grumpy, very blunt introvert who hates technology and sharing any remotely personal details about himself.

I really wanted to like this one. The synopsis was adorable and sounded right up my alley. Unfortunately, this one just didn’t work for me. While I found Mabel and Alfie to be cute at times, I more often found their dialogue hard to follow and a bit childish. The book started with a plot, and then digressed into almost entirely spicy scenes (which I usually love) that did not seem to advance the story at all. The epilogue was satisfying, but it just wasn’t enough to pull this one together for me. (2.5 rounded up to 3)

Thank you to Charlotte Stein, St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Griffin, and NetGalley for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review. This book is due to be published February 6.

This book is so good. I love the characters and just everything about this book. Great job!! The cover is beautiful. This book really brought the grumpy sunshine trope to life and you can really feel everything

3.75
I loved these two characters together! Their playfulness and banter were perfection! Def 🔥 together.

I am a sucker for angst. Not a huge fan of the break up and the amount of time that took to work out. Along with how down on herself the FMC is. Especially because she is so likable.

If you want immature banter that went over the top and dialogue that dragged then I would recommend this. I also dislike the time skip here and the excessive swearing and that after the 60% mark it becomes all spice. I would recommend another round of edits here!

This book had so much promise but really fell flat. When Grumpy Met Sunshine is a cute title, but only sort of describes the trope in this book - dollar store Roy Kent was definitely grumpy, but the female MC Mabel was hardly full of sunshine. She made cupcakes once and that makes her a woodland sprite? The characters spoke to each other like they were in middle school, except for the smutty parts (thank goodness), meanwhile they’re in their mid 30s. The romance was barely developed but also there was barely a plot? Also I think the author simply forgot Mabel had a job for the middle of the book. Sometimes there is such thing as too much cursing and too much banter. This book was a miss.

I do not think I would have given this book the chance it deserved without the audio book version. I was lucky enough to get both versions from NetGalley to read(or listen) and review and the first few chapters of the book were hard to get through. The writing and plot building felt very disjointed and I was having a hard time connecting to the story. The trigger warnings in the beginning are highly necessary and should not be missed. It was very hard for me to read for very similar things I went through as a kid/teen and still suffer because of now.

I think the plot was good but over all not "great" and it went between tough life scenarios to raunchy sex scenes and it did seem to fit most of the time. The ending was wrapped up fairly well and like I said I did not hate it but I felt overwhelmingly meh or triggered by a lot of the book.

Solid 3 stars. There were things that I enjoyed, but the execution wasn't for me.

When Grumpy Meets Sunshine centers on Mabel, a sunshiney ghostwriter, and Alfie, a Roy Kent-esque retired footballer. Mabel is assigned to write Alfie's memoir, and they have a meet-disaster at their first interaction. After which Alfie basically follows her around (weird!) to try and apologize. Eventually, Mabel lets Alfie in (after another meet-disaster) and he grumpily opens up. This was something that I enjoyed -- getting to see Alfie not as a burly macho man that his PR people want you to see, but as a burly softie who is actually kindhearted, even though his buffoonery sometimes gets in the way. After paparazzi catch Mabel and Alfie together and start speculating, they agree to a fake-dating scheme.

I liked the silliness of the book. There were long and kind of ridiculous chapter titles (like And Now The Sequel To Only One Back Seat Of A Car), which kind of fit the vibe of the whole book. But the actual execution was off for me. It was very stream-of-consciousness, while also being in 3rd person, which just felt off to me. Both Mabel and Alfie also rambled quite a lot, and there were huge blocks of text that had a lot of inner monologue and a decent amount of dialogue, so it was hard to follow actual conversations (I had to page back several times just to follow the conversation).

There was not only so much miscommunication (Mabel not telling Alfie how she felt), but so much willful ignoring of communication (Mabel not believing Alfie when he says he's attracted to her), and that was extremely frustrating. The end was also not satisfying. The last chapter -- which is not the epilogue -- is titled "One Year Later," to give you a sense of the extent of the third act break-up.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an eARC of When Grumpy Met Sunshine in exchange for my honest review.