Wow this book was unexpectedly steamy! I loved the plus size representation and how sassy the main character is. It was a very fun read!

Mabel is a ghostwriter who knows she is up for a huge challenge when she is hired to write the memoir of Alfie Harding, a notoriously grumpy soccer player. PArt of her job is that no one can ever know she’s ghostwriting, so when they are spotted together in public and people assume they are dating, she can’t correct them. In fact, they decide to double down and lean into the assumption that they are in a relationship. But as they get to know each other better, their chemistry becomes harder to ignore.

Alfie very much gave Roy Kent vibes and I was so here for it. The entire time reading this book, I could clearly picture Roy Kent in my mind and that definitely added to the story. As the title suggests, this is very much your typical grumpy/sunshine romance and having them end up in an accidental PR relationship was a hilarious touch. This story is very much a slooooowwww burn but the witty banter was on point. I would have loved for this to be a dual POV to get more into Alfie’s head throughout the book, and it would have added even more to the already strong character growth.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the advance copy.

"When Grumpy Met Sunshine" is a charming and playful romance that explores the age-old trope of opposites attracting. Charlotte Stein creates a steamy chemistry between the grumpy ex-footballer Alfie and his vivacious ghostwriter Mabel, as they navigate writing his memoirs and, eventually, their feelings for each other.

While the novel's premise is engaging and the characters are likable, there are moments when the story feels predictable and relies too heavily on familiar romcom tropes. Nevertheless, the witty banter and sizzling tension between the protagonists make for an enjoyable read.

Overall, "When Grumpy Met Sunshine" is a fun and lighthearted escape that will satisfy fans of the genre, even if it doesn't quite reach the heights of more innovative romantic fiction.

As for the narrator, I had never listened to her but I was impressed! It was a very pleasant listen.

Thank you to NetGalley, Charlotte Stein, and Macmillan Audio for sending me the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Another perfect example of the audiobook making the book! The narrators were perfect and made this book so enjoyable!

I listened to the audio version of this book. I did not really enjoy the narrator and the female character and did not finish the book. This is a type of book from the description I would normally really enjoy so I think I will give it another try.

I really wanted to like this story but I just couldn't get into it. It felt like it was missing something for me. Nothing really stuck out for me.

This one took me awhile to get into, this was another one I had a hard time connecting with. It has all the right tropes and a great premise. But that’s all. This one really fell flat for me. The narrator was clear and easy to understand.
I didn’t love it and I didn’t hate it.

Mabel is a ghost writer who dreams of becoming a writer. When she is presented with a lucrative offer to ghost write a book for a professional athlete, Alfie, she accepts reluctantly. However, as their meetings to talk about his life progress, Mabel discovers that Alfie is not who he seems to be and that maybe she could, very uncharacteristically, be developing feelings for him.

This was okay. It was cute at times and you are rooting for them. But this is only from Mabel's POV and her insecurity and her and Alfie's lack of communication, while relatable, was not fun to read. Also, Alfie's complete lack of technology knowledge was just absurd. This was also a pretty insular book. There weren't really any other characters that Alfie and Mabel interact with. I did like the celebrity aspect of it and the slow burn was good. Overall, it was decent.

Thank you to netgalley, the author, the narrator, and the publisher for the advanced copy.

It was a bit cringey, but not bad overall, simple predictable story but enjoyable nonetheless. Thanks for the eALC my first ever.

I'm sad to report this was a DNF at 40%. The inner monologues was excessive and the plot was told, not explained. Also the narration was rough because I couldn't tell what was dialogue and what wasn't.

I received this audiobook through NetGalley and though it too me a few months to come back to it- I really enjoyed the story and the characters. I wished for more of the relationship and felt the abrupt third act conflict came out of left field and felt rushed. Overall, I liked the story and felt the narration added to the experience nicely.

The way I wanted to love this book. I love the grumpy sunshine trope and I love romance books with fat MC's. It should have been perfect. Unfortunately I feel like either half of this book wasn't written or half of it was edited out because so much is missing. And it's not like a specific chunk is missing it's like they went in every 5% and took out 15 pages. It's a consistent issue throughout the entire book where you feel like you're missing something.

So essentially we have this ghostwriter who is hired to go straight this book of this famous athlete who is known for being grumpy as hell. And then all of a sudden they're kind of friends and then they're mutually horny but also so mutually unaware that it's exhausting to continue listening to. Like neither one of them thinks that the other one would possibly be attracted to them and that gets old very quick. Maybe if it had started with that and they figured it out sooner than it would be okay but the fact that it goes to the very end of the book drove me nuts.

then we have the fact that there's way too much sex in this book. I like sex and books just as much of the next person but it feels like it took the place of actual conversations about them getting closer and bonding and for me personally, sexual intimacy does not replace emotional intimacy and if you're going to try and have both you really need to have both but emotional intimacy is so much more important for me and I wanted to see that more than I wanted to see the sex scenes.


SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Don't even get me fucking started on the ending of this goddamn book. You're telling me they go a full freaking fracking year without talking and then she somehow skims an entire book and a release party and realizes that he wrote the book for her and declared his love? I just don't buy it. The idea is cute. The premise is nice. It would have been much more successful had they had their little sodact break up which I'm not a fan of anyway, and then she went back to the agency and they're like oh yeah everything's great and she said okay well let me just run through it one more time or they sent her the final copy or something where she had time to read the whole thing through process it and then go declare her own feelings within a timely manner. It didn't make sense for me to have them have an entire year apart and then for her to somehow be able to read the entire book in just 10 minutes and then be surprised? I don't know. Again, the idea is cute The execution was very flawed.

Overall this is probably like a 2 to 3 star for me because there's nothing really problematic in it I just didn't like it. It usually save my one and two star ratings for like openly problematic books So maybe let's go with a solid two and a half.

I tried so hard to enjoy this book but I just couldn’t :( The Grump was just so un-grumpy from the beginning. Cinnamon role fmc instantly broke through so I just don’t feel like we really got the grumpiness, we were just told that he was grumpy. Two very different things. I just couldn’t get into the connection between the two, it felt super forced. I just, ugh, I’m so sorry :(

This was an enjoyable listen. Really liked hearing the narrators as well, and the banter is a lot of fun

I really liked the concept of this one and it was giving major Roy Kent vibes, but I found that there were parts where I was losing attention. I liked the main characters and their relationship made sense. I also really liked the ending. I guess I just wish that the middle section had better pacing because this had the potential to be a new favourite. I think I might reread this one in the future because it might have been a case of right book, wrong time. Also I want to say the cover it cute!

For me, <i>When Grumpy Met Sunshine</i> was only just fine. I was so excited to pick this up because of the titular trope, however, this novel suffered from several issues.

The most pressing of these were the lack of plot and characterization. Sure, we had a fake dating relationship featuring the grumpy/sunshine dynamic, but there was no depth to these characters. They each had one or two traumas to add the illusion of depth. However, we learned nothing about their friends, only very scarce information about their families (as that ties in to their traumas), and the world outside of the relationship itself was extremely vaguely crafted.

Even the careers of the characters which seemed to be important to them at first (one being a former football player who dreams of becoming an author, and the other, a ghostwriter) fell apart over time. They were half-baked into the story at the start, dropped as an afterthought in the middle, and then suddenly resurrected within the narrative at the conclusion.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, but it suffered from enough issues to cement itself as a middle-of-the-road romcom.


<b>Audiobook Review:</b>

Emily Spowage’s performance was extremely poor. She has a nice voice and a really pretty accent, but she didn’t even attempt to pitch her voice lower when she narrated the MMC's dialogue, which contributed to a very confusing listening experience. Often times, this made it very hard to figure out which character was speaking, and when one stopped and another started in spots without dialogue tags. This is definitely one you want to pick up physically.


<b>OVERALL RATING:</b> 2.5 stars.


<i>A big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Macmillan Audio, for providing me with an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review!</i>

I originally started trading this as a digital arc and couldn’t get into it. I switched to the audiobook and still felt like this book wasn’t for me.

This book took me awhile to get into, but once I got halfway I was cruising! The narrator did a good job. Very clear and easy to understand. I didn’t like how the main character talked about herself sometimes, but I do understand people feel that way and/or go through that. Overall, it has solid bones and I would love to read her next book! Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read in exchange for a review!

I loved the premise of this one. A steamy, opposites-attract romance with undeniable chemistry between a grumpy retired footballer and his fabulous and very sunshine-y ghostwriter. also including fake dating and forced proximity. But this one missed the mark for me. I didn't really connect with the characters and didn't get to the point of rooting for them. The most important thing in a romance for me. The comedy was a little lacking for me also. I could see what was meant to amusing, but it didn't really make me smile. Maybe I just don't appreciate British romance humor?

I thought maybe switching to the audiobook would help, but it didn't. Emily Spowage was a good narrator, but I didn't think she had the sunshine voice for the main character.

A steamy, opposites-attract romance with undeniable chemistry between a grumpy retired footballer and his fabulous and very sunshine-y ghostwriter.

In the beginning, I didn't like Alfie. He was a little too grumpy/bullish for me. It took a while for him to finally grow on me. As the romance starts to bud between Mabel and Alfie, it becomes very apparent that he is just reserved/flustered, and he wants to keep his personal life private. Which begs to questions...why did he agree to the memoir in the first place? That too gets answered!

Ah sweet Mabel. She really is quite lovely. Mabel is curvy with a great sense of humor. She is the epitome of sunshine with a bubbly, happy-go-lucky personality. I wish she would have believed in her self-worth more and able to accept that a strapping man like Alfie could totally obsess over her curves and all. (I have this issue as well though, so...)

Can we talk about the spice in this book? Holy Moly! The spice is off the charts. It always surprises me when the cover is cutesy/sweet, but then a MC has a dirty mouth! In this case...both of them! I freaking loved it! HA! The narrator did a fantastic job bringing this story to life. If not for the audiobook, Idk if I would have finished this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Publishers for giving me a digital copy and audiobook in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own!

3.5 stars