“So there’s a good way to refer to someone as a generic baked dessert.”
“Yes. No. I mean wait. Let me just think for a second, you’re going too quick.”
Good lord who is this person, she found herself thinking.
Because it wasn’t just how flummoxed she was making him—a man who once played the entire second half of a game of football after breaking his leg. No, it was the fact that she could hear something in the background. A kind of rustling and shuffling that sounded really familiar.
Then the dots connected in her head.
“Are you… are you reading from notes right now?”
When Grumpy Met Sunshine is a funny and spicy romance with lots of potential.
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 wanted to love this book more than I did. I stumbled upon it when browsing NetGalley’s catalogue and instantly fell in love with the synopsis. I am a huge fan of grumpy sunshine romances and knew this book was going to be chock full of grumpy sunshine goodness because the title is Grumpy Met Sunshine. First, I want to say that this book has tons of potential. The characters are wonderful, and the story is interesting. The problem I had with it was that the story often felt disjointed, and reading it was often jarring. This is because Mabel’s internal dialogue is far too excessive in the story. Often, I couldn’t keep track of what was going on or what was happening in conversations because Mabel’s internal monologue often went on and on and on to the point where I couldn’t remember what happened. I think if the internal dialogue were cut in half, readers would have a more pleasant reading experience. This is a much slower-paced rom-com. There is a lot of external and internal dialogue and only a little movement. If you like your rom-coms with more things happening and have a slightly faster pace, you should give this book a pass.
There are a lot of great things going on in this book. As I said before, the premise is interesting and has the potential for a lot of romantic fun. I adored Alfie with every fibre of my body. He comes across as this grumpy, abrupt, and violent athlete who hates the world. But the reality is that he is so shy and socially awkward that he doesn’t know how to act around people, which causes him to come across as an asshole. Alfie’s character could have gone terribly wrong because Charlotte made his social awkwardness so extreme that it could have come across as being distasteful or unbelievable. But it didn’t. I think it is because there is this child-like innocence that is woven into his character that just makes his character feel human and real. Alfie has no idea how to interact with people and has a hard time reading social cues. Think Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory. I loved being around this man; he was a complete mystery, and all I wanted to do was peel back those layers so I could learn more about him. He also made me laugh all the time, which I adored.
Mabel is that typical sunshine heroine who is struggling to make her dreams come true. She often lets those around her take advantage of her and just rolls with the punches. The only time she seems to stand up for herself is when she is around Alfie. There is just something about that man that brings out that sassy, rebellious spark in her. I like Mabel; her character is relatable and fun. I loved watching her befuddle Alfie.
The romance starts out sweet and then goes right to spicy. There is some faking dating thrown into the story as well. Most of their relationship or interactions is dialogue. They are just sitting and talking to each other. If you remove a lot of the internal dialogue, then what you get is fun and witty banter. I loved their conversations. It was captivating watching them learn to interact with each other. What surprised me most about their relationship was how Alfie, this socially awkward man, became this dirty-talking sex machine about ¾ of the way through the book. I’m not saying it was a bad surprise; it was just surprising. When it gets spicy, it gets really spicy. In terms of their chemistry, I liked them together. It felt like they balanced each other out.
Thank you, St. Martin’s Press, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
