I already know you'll be as disappointed in me as I am right now because, let's be clear, even writing it feels unfair.
But can you blame me? The cover is super cute, the story is super cute, the characters are relatable in a comedian kind of way, and the side messages are all here… but it all felt wrong to me.

I get what Charlotte Stein was trying to do with “When Grumpy Met Sunshine”, and I was more than ready for a character that finally looks like me, but, at some point, I was tired of convincing myself about it.
Mabel and Alfie’s story is a tender, heartwarming story that fits perfectly the trope, with their insecurities towards themselves and the prospect of being loved by another person.

But the general feeling is that they’re all trying too hard - even the author.
The only aspect that Alfie Harding hasn't in common with Roy Kent is his height, but just because it works on screen it doesn't mean it works on paper. I actually imagined Brett Goldstein as the main lead, which helped, but, as I said, it's too much. Alfie is an ex-footballer with the reputation of being a pain in the ass of everyone, scary and without the ability to talk, but the moment he meets Mabel, he's in love. We then discover that he's funny, charming, clever, loving and very good at dirty talking, with the constant fear of having said something wrong and having made the other person uncomfortable. Like, all the time.
On the other hand, it's clear that Mabel was stung by some past relationship - or life in general - and she tries to protect herself, but it's always in her mind.

This leads me to say that, probably, the reason why I couldn't like it the way I thought I would, is the narration.
We see everything from the POV of Mabel, and she talks all the time about everything - there's an entire monologue even during sex -, but not a word about their feelings and traumas. Especially the latter, since they have in common a bad past with their family.
They talk about things superficially: her father used to hit her, his father was a douche that consider his son a pussy for wanting to be a writer, she doesn't speak anymore with her sister (why?), he has a sister that's just mentioned. Talking about their past relationships, he says the girls he used to date didn't like him for real but never explained what happened with them; she, on the other hand, is uncertain till the end about him actually liking her, but never - not once! - is talked about the difficulty and fear of dating as a plus-size woman.
Also, the narration gets lost in dialogues more often than not, leaving details behind: he buys her a vacuum cleaner, but when he goes to her place he just has clothes and no vacuum; he has a chauffeur, but every time they get in the car and talks the car never moves; and so on, because if I keep thinking about what I didn't like I'll rate it even lower.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

I really liked this book. It was very sweet, funny, and mostly light-hearted. I liked that it also dealt with heavier things in a way that wasn’t overly sad, and that these were the things that Mabel and Alfie began to bond over. As the grumpy and sunshine respectively, Alfie and Mabel had fantastic banter, and were both comically ridiculous. Mabel had all of these strong opinions of herself and how she thought other people saw her, and it was nice that she was still able to be silly and quick witted. It was amazing having a plus sized fmc, especially one that wasn’t fetishized by the mmc. I thought all of Mabel’s apprehensions were valid and her self doubt was not only reasonable but especially relatable.

I loved that the chapters were all titled, and the titles were all so witty and funny! And I also really liked the epistolary bits of at the end of each chapter. They gave us a little extra insight into their world.

I don’t think I’ve ever gone into an epilogue where the conflict isn’t at least mostly resolved, but I thought it was a really beautiful ending.

Arc read, received from NetGalley. I tried very hard to like the writing style in this book, I just think 3rd person POV isn’t for me unfortunately. This has so much potential to be an amazing, cute and cozy rom com. The idea is amazing and I loved that the FMC was on the curvy side makes things much more relatable. The MMC Alfie has a certain charm to him, not necessarily grumpy but he definitely has his moments and seems a bit misunderstood. I didn’t mind the banter, but did find myself skimming through to see how the conversation went on.

The cover art, idea, and plot are all perfect for a rom com and this is definitely going to be eaten up by grumpyXsunshine trope lovers who don’t mind third person POV.

Thank you for this opportunity

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/St. Martin's Griffin for providing me with a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review. When Grumpy met Sunshine has so much potential to be great, it just didn't hit the mark for me. I felt that the chemistry, the banter, and the relationship in general felt forced. I had to skim the book to get to the end, it seemed endless. I had high hopes for this book, but it just wasn't for me!

I saw another reviewer say this book gives Roy/Keeley from Ted Lasso vibes and I have to agree. While I normally prefer a dual POV contemporary romance, I did enjoy staying put in Mabel's all too amusing mind. The book is a little messy, which works as the characters themselves are a bit messy. I could have used a little less emphasis on Mabel's weight, but the dirty talking scenes made up for it.

4.5 stars rounded to 5. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a complimentary ARC of this book. The opinions herein are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was unfortunately a rare DNF for me. I just could not get settled in to the writing style, and the characters and plot were not compelling enough for me to stick it out.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine is an enjoyable book. It hit all the romcom marks for me with a little spice too. My only downside was that at times I felt the banter took away from the storyline. All in all, a good read for romcom lovers.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

First off, thank you NetGalley for my ARC of When Grumpy Met Sunshine.

This story was just fine. A definite "Roy Kent" type of character is getting his memoirs written by a plus sized characteristically opposite ghostwriter, and they form a friendship. Through some emotional outbursts the world thinks they are now an item and they have to 'pretend' while also creating real feelings for each other in the process, but also through that darn miscommunication troupe, they think that the other one is not as into them as they are.
Mabel is cute, but also confusing. She claims to be proud of her body and who she is, but is also so incredibly self-deprecating and down on herself that of course no one like Alfie would ever be into someone like her. (Even though he said it and proved it time and time again) She also has these friends that we know nothing about that she keeps acting like they are so important in her life. And all they want is gossip about Alfie, and then get so incredibly mean when it comes out about everything and mad that she didn't tell them the truth, even though doing that would have caused her to break an NDA. Dumb.
And Alfie was fine, he was an overly grumpy guy who found feelings and sexual urges and gave into them. But the change from the beginning to the end was a big one and I found it slightly unbelievable. But still a sweet ending that I did not see coming, even though you assume it all works out in the end.
And a decent amount of spice, I was not expecting that. But the hallway scene, and then the car scene after the concert?? Whew! In the end it was sweet, but I am happy to be done with it.

Upbeat ghostwriter Mabel Willicker meets her match when she’s hired to write the memoir of cantankerous ex-footballer Alfie Harding. But she soon learns he’s hiding a lot beneath his gruff exterior.

A good story, just way too much banter for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.85 stars overall
This book did such a great job at the fake dating trope, I am SUCH a sucker for the fake dating trope and I LOVED the main characters. The major major thing that is totally irking me though, having just finished this book, is the massive time jump after their separation that occurred in the last 20 or so pages. I genuinely became nauseous after I got to the next chapter and saw that there was a time jump, this is not an exaggeration. It was definitely saved though, I for real almost started crying because Alfie and Mabel are just so perfect together I can't get over it (although I can't believe they had to go through that it is like eating me up inside I cannot deal with it!!!!).

I cannot lie, it did take me a bit to get into this book, but boy am I glad that I kept reading. Everything seemed to move pretty slowly in the beginning and I had a lot of trouble just feeling the flow of everything (and getting used to the dialogue lol I am not from the UK), I was honestly skimming quite a bit in the beginning. As soon as the fake dating concept came in though, I was so on board and everything was flowing so so nicely.

I just can't get over Alfie and Mabel together oh my god just so good. I wish there could be so much more of them together in this book, like after they've come clean and are on the same page with each other (I understand how the author decided to wrap it up the way that they did but GOD I wish I could just see more of them happy together because there was just soooo much uncertainty for pretty much all of the book). The spicy scenes were also so good, they were quite unexpected for me in such a great way. Sometimes spicy scenes just get so boring and repetitive to me, but this was definitely not that! The scenes were handled SO well, and I was so glad to see that they weren't jumping so far ahead in time after them, I liked that it didn't just go right from a spicy moment to a week later and we actually got to see their dynamic after the fact.

The parts of this book that were very very solid to me definitely outweigh the things that bothered me a lot. I will probably reread this in the future.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC!!!

I want to start off by saying thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Mabel is a ghostwriter who has been set up to help a famous, grumpy ex soccer player (think Roy Kent) write his memoirs. Because he's so grumpy and private, when the public sees them together, they assume that they two are dating and the couple goes along with the plan to keep the fact that she is ghostwriting for him a secret.
What follows is a somewhat short and complicated succession of events between the two as they navigate their fake relationship, their half-truth writing of his past, and their true feelings for each other.

This book hit a lot of tropes on my fave list: grumpy/sunshine, fake dating, soccer. With that being said, I just couldn't do it. I tried so hard to connect with this book and it just fell flat for me. I couldn't get into the writing style or the way that the main character would always think and say things in threes, (i.e. "He did it. He did it. He really just did it."). I didn't feel any chemistry between the two main characters - mostly just because I didn't feel like anything really happened in this book. Overall, it just wasn't for me.

I really tried to enjoy this! Usually, I quite enjoy this trope and I don't think this book had any necessarily glaring issues but I think the delivery wasn't as on point as I thought it would be.

It felt like Mabel and Alfie struggled to be actualized characters beyond a surface-level understanding of banter and squabbling. I wanted them to feel a little deeper, a little more rooted, but it seemed like any time we made progress on a character level, it would revert back to quippy banter. It was, however, a well-written book - in that I can tell the author has a strong and perhaps unique writing voice, it just didn't sell to me the way I'd hoped it would!

The smutty aspects of it were quite fun, but I think contemporary romances have to straddle that line between the dynamic between characters and the plot progressing not outpacing one another.

Thank you, Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of when Grumpy Met Sunshine in exchange of my honest opinion.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine is the story of Mabel, a ghostwriter that gets a job to write a memoir of this famous, but retired soccer player (or footballer as they say constantly in the book). He is a grumpy and stoic guy that doesn’t get along with people and honestly, don’t want to really open himself for others in this book. So you can see how they will argue and bicker with each other but the force proximity will work in our favor.

I really enjoyed this book but, I will be honest, I almost DNF’ed at 10%, but don’t get me wrong it was a good and fun book.
What I liked about the book: the story was super fun, I loved the chemistry between the characters, more importantly I loved their personality. Mabel was funny, witty and she had what I think it was a great point for discussion that is this struggle of being confident and accepting herself but and at the same time being self-conscious. Because honestly, who doesn’t?! I also loved her representation as a fat person that is happy with her body. For once the story here was not about her struggles with being fat and her acceptance of her body. No! She likes the way she is, her self-conscious parts comes whenever she compares herself with her crush exes (and again.. who doesn’t?).
Alfie, on the other hand, was also adorable… he also had his insecurities and I love the combo: stoic on the outside but a true cinnamon roll on the inside. His interactions with Mabel was hilarious and you can see that they are truly friends, but my God.. he sounds so sexy when he starts to dirty talk to her.

Now, the thing that really made me struggle and I almost DNF’ed was the writing. As a non-native speaker that lives in the US, this book was hard to grasp because of the amount of British slang terms used. Overall this book is written in a super coloquial manner to the point that I realized I would have to let it go to understand some sentences because they did not make sense to me. In fact.. I felt the language barrier for me was so big in the beginning that it was taking me off the story. However, I decided to push through and after a while you start getting used to it. It’s like getting used to a different accent.
Anyway.. I had a lot of fun with this book and I am in love with Alfie and Mabel!

I’m sorry to say that this book just wasn’t for me. The main characters were over the top, exaggerated I thought. It all seemed disjointed. It did not flow.

This was such a fun book to read. I loved the banter- it helped build tension and their relationship. I loved that Mabel was a confident plus-size FMC and she was unapologetically herself. ALFIE, yessss! We love a consent king! I was impressed with how many ways there is to describe someone as grumpy without repeating words constantly
Their backstories helped to show why they turned out the way they were.
Great twist- I really didn't see it coming that he wanted to be a writer.

This was a Grumpy/Sunshine book that had everything I didn’t know I wanted. Normally the Grumpy character is just an asshole, and then it turns out he had reasons or something for why he did what he did. But not my boy Alfie. He was such a sweet and caring guy towards the MC always, and rough around the edges to everyone else. And Mabel was so relatable with her insecurities and general Sunshine demeanor, it just worked so well together.

Which is great, because the characters were what really saved this book. The grammar and writing style needs quite a few adjustments for me to increase my rating. I felt like every few pages I was seeing a list with a) and b) or random colon punctuation, to the point it got jarring. It could also get confusing on the transitions when there was a lot of banter, because suddenly the characters would be in a completely different place and I had no idea how they got there. But, this was an ARC I received, so hopefully these few things are changed before printing.

Yes the title of this book SPOKE TO ME as it is my own relationship in trope form.

Alfie Harding is a former soccer star who is very private about her personal life. So much so that he’s been labeled grumpy. When his Suzy sunshine potential ghostwriter comes into his life, his awkwardness comes out in full play. Mabel is a curvy and outgoing and sassy and with a fake dating plot in place she ends up bringing his story out of him with lots of banter. Spicy scenes were pretty well done. I ended up loving Alfie but the banter ended up being…too much? Or close to it. Where it almost took away from the story. Overall it was a cute book and I’m not sad I read it.

If this book is an example of what Charlotte Stein can do, then she's just become an instant buy author for me. The banter in this book is next level! The spice is *chef's kiss*. This book has everything I want in a rom-com. Yes, it was silly and extremely unlikely and over the top but it was also WONDERFUL. If you love 90's romcoms then this book is for you.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine offers readers a totally bonkers, theater-of-the-absurd romp with layers of emotional depth, charm and so many laughs in this meta homage to romance movies and tropes. Also, snark as foreplay that delivers, eventually.

This passage from chapter thirteen about the appeal of rom-coms sums up the emotional core of Mabel and Alfie's love story:
"I like them because sometimes things are really bad in them. Things are bad and wrong and so lonely your heart could crack in two over it. But even when they are, you know all of it is gonna turn out all right... deeply loved in a way that just never happens in real life."

Fingers crossed that someone adapts this into a movie.

[Observations that don't detract from overall reading satisfaction: The f-word and its variations are used a lot. The emotional maturity of both MCs seems more consistent with YA/NA characters than with thirty-somethings.]

2.5/5 ★

First before this review I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this book and gifting me my first eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

With that being said, my honest opinion is I honestly didn't click with this book for a few reasons.

First being the writing style, it took some getting used to and once I did understand it, it made it easier to comprehend but it still wasn't my favorite in getting the story across.

Second, the cliches. I understand the whole book is a cliche hence the title but I don't know, something about the constant repetition of him being hairy (?) kind of threw me off a bit. Just something I wasn't the biggest fan of.

Last is the plot. The plot of this book and their origin story and how they meet is her being his ghostwriter, which I was interested in because I've only seen this in a book once before in Business or Pleasure and it was super interesting, but that was something this book lacked. The ghostwriting was mentioned in the first like tid bit of the book, the introduction of characters and the reasoning for them being paired, it was never mentioned again after that. Maybe one or two interview scenes. And while it sounds silly to type and talk about, it adds realism to the characters and I think it would've benefited.

Now onto what I did enjoy. First being a plus-size FMC, I will always enjoy a plus size mc especially when I can find myself relating to their thought process and insecurity, but I'm happy her whole character was not her being insecure or sensitive to comments.

I also really enjoyed Alfie, I thought he was a cutie .

It also amused me and entertained me that they used like UK slang because I didn't understand it as I'm from the United States but it was still fun to include.

Thank you again for allowing me to read this book before it's released. When Grumpy Met Sunshine is released on February 6, 2024 !!