Classic Charlotte Stein. If you love banter, misunderstanding, longing in a book, this one is for you.

I'm so sorry, but I had to DNF at 30%. I just couldn't connect with the narrative voice. Also, total sidebar, I'm kind of sick of seeing Kaufman's covers everywhere.

While I really wanted to love this based on the description, I did not. I found it hard to stick with and was definitely not a good read.

My first ever DNF. Which makes me so sad. I had high hopes…. However I DNF after 5 chapters I could not get past the writing style, I hope others love this however I did not get far.

She typed away, fingers flying across the keys, the sounds of a coffee shop fueling her aesthetic backdrop. She paused and took a sip of her latte, careful not to burn her tongue like she did a few moments ago. Her phone dinged with a notification and she stopped herself from rolling her eyes too hard… it was him again.

When Grumpy Met Sunshine follows Mabel, a ghostwriter, and Alfie, an ex-soccer star. Mabel is hired to write Alfie’s memoir, but things are mistaken and people thing they’re dating, so now they must pretend to be together… but they’re complete opposites and Alfie is an A+ grump.

I think this book suffered for me because I read Business or Pleasure right before this and it also dealt with a ghostwriter and celebrity falling in love and that book did it so much better. I couldn’t connect with the characters in this one and found them to be so immature at times. I also love good banter, but the banter in this story was too over the top for me. I think this book can be loved by many, I just read it at the wrong time.

If you love grumpy/sunshine, fake dating, slow burn, celebrity romances, and books about writers… then you may enjoy this story!

LOVEEEE that our main female character is plus size!!!! It’s a super cute book with amazing spice ;). I will say though there were times where I caught myself getting bored and not fully enjoying the story. The writing style was good so I don’t think it was that! I did enjoy a good chunk of this book. Also I know Alfie is suppose to the the grumpy one but I felt like Mabel was too in some ways. I will for sure read this book again knowing what I know now and I’m sure I will enjoy it more.

I really liked the premise of this book, it started strong, to me, got lost in the middle, but I loved the way the epilogue wrapped the story up. I just wish there was more about the ghost writing part weaved in. The main characters were great - I kept picturing Roy from Ted Lasso as Alfie! The story and dialogues became redundant and boring at times and I found myself rolling my eyes and skimming through some parts just to reach the conclusion. Overall, I didn't hate the book and am still rating it a solid 3 stars, but it had a lot of potential to be more!

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a cute little romance book. It definitely made me want to keep reading it. I definitely felt for Mabel with how she felt about her body. I don't think there is enough books out there that actually show how woman really feel about themselves in a real light about themselves, and to see that the guy also had the same kind of flaws was also nice as well. in all I am giving this book 4 stars because I didn't completely love the ending. i thought there could have been more to it.

"When Grumpy Met Sunshine" is about a grumpy former football player who is collaborating with a curvy sunshine-y ghost writer. They're spotted together and the paparazzi jumps to conclusions, which leads to some fairly intense fake dating. By the end, I was fully on board, but this was not a quick read for me. The female lead character suffers from some fairly intense self-criticism, and the taciturn male lead made for a good chunk of the book being about her disbelief that he'd possibly, in any universe, be interested in someone like her.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free copy.

I really started off this book loving it. Cute banter, fluffy romance, a fun scenario of sunshine-ghostwriter and grumpy soccer player. I liked the plus-sized MC and how it handled that topic...until it really didn't. There was hardly any conflict or real plot in this story. It quickly became ALL banter and fluff, with nothing memorable happening with other characters or subplots whatsoever. It was just the two MCs falling in love with each other.
There was so, so much flirting/banter dialogue. And I mean pages and pages of it for one scene, where it could've been reduced to a few lines or even paragraphs. It was painful at times, because the story didn't follow anything else. It was so truly odd to me that there was hardly any external conflict besides Alfie's fans criticizing their fake relationship.
I think this had a lot of potential based on the two main characters and the premise, but it fell short of having an actual plot or backbone.

Beautifully written cute book, with all the feels of rom com. Execution of character development and plot was done beautifully and overall easy happy read

Unfortunately I did not finish this one. It was okay in the beginning, but then I completely lost interest and had no desire to pick up this book. I potentially will revisit this one closer to the publication date and give it another go, but I have no many books I want to read that I just don't have time to waste with books that are not entertaining me.

Hoping to still read from Charlotte Stein, but this was not the best one to start with.

Alfie is a former football player known for his grumpy demeanor. Mabel is a ray of sunshine to those around her. When they are paired up as Mabel is set to ghostwrite Allie’s book, chaos ensues as they try to navigate the job.

This book had some great parts but was a struggle to get through. I enjoyed the extras it had at the end of each chapter. There was too much banter and some was difficult to follow. This book never really pulled me in the way that short romance books tend to do.

So while I love a good grumpy sunshine book this one just didn't do it for me. I felt that the banter was alittle much and had to reread parts because I was getting lost in the banter. I also thought that it was pretty unlikely that a professional football player would have no idea about social media and how it works. And how he had an old phone and didn't know how to do much. I would get it if he was like a rancher and spent his days working but I professional athlete seems like that was alittle odd. I loved the quarky plus size FMC. The MMC was good but it was hard to connect with the Characters! I did laugh at a few parts.

If you’re looking for a brooding leading man retired from football to grunt and raise his bushy dark eyebrows through London you’ve found the right book. If that character sounds familiar to you then you better BELIEVE (maybe even put it on a sign above your office door) this book is for you. This grumpy man has a FOUL mouth in a variety of ways (IYKYK) and truly uses it to the best of his ability.

The pacing of this book is a little off and I felt like I was getting a direct line to the characters internal monologue which at times was hard to follow. I valued the representation of a plus size FMC and at times her anxieties felt so incredibly honest, almost too much for the romcom I was expecting.

Overall this book was reminiscent to me of the stories I loved when I discovered fanfic websites in the best way.

The plot has promise. I love a good misunderstood grump and lovable sunshine. I love a good “forced proximity” (made to work together) or “fake relationship”
It was just hard to get into the book. The intro to the characters was not well formed. Something felt rushed or not planned out

I received an advance copy of When Grumpy Met Sunshine in exchange for my honest review. My honest review is that this book was not a winner. It had all the makings of a cute rom com with a very Roy Kent like main character, but it just never really got off the ground. It felt very surface level (with an unnecessary/uncomfortable amount of spiciness). Almost DNF’d since I never got particularly invested or interested in the characters or the outcome - although I made it through and the ending was as predictable as expected. Pass on this one.

I wanted to love this. I'm a big fan of the grumpy x sunshine trop, and I love a good love story about a plus sized gal, but this kinda dragged on a bit.

While I did quite enjoy some of their banter, it felt like there was more than necessary. It went on and on and on. In the beginning, I wasn't sure how I felt about the writing style, but it kind of grew on me. I found it more unique than most books I read, and I read a lot of contemporary romance/rom-coms.

It was a fun read, and the dirty talk and smut was pretty fantastic, but otherwise, it was just a bit too repetitive with their conversations/banter taking up so much or the story.

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

The writing isn’t the most polished, and it doesn't feel like they were choices done for voice. I wasn’t the particularly gripped and stopped after chapter 2 (4%). I can see this being a “liked it” with the target audience.

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

I wanted to like this book, but it just didn’t happen unfortunately. It just missed the mark. I couldn’t really get into it and found Mabel a bit irritating