When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein | Book Review

Hi, reader.

Yes, it’s true. I like the grumpy-sunshine trope. When paired with opposites attract, fake dating, and all the banter, it makes for an enjoyable book.

Why I read it: The Broken Circle discord dropped a link to this book on NetGalley, spoke highly of the book, and I could not resist. (Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advance copy; this is my honest review.)

Review #insixwords: All the fun tropes, so adorable.

More:

• She’s ghostwriting his memoir, he’s an ex-soccer (uh . . . football) player. For reasons, they get stuck in a fake dating situation.

• Set in the UK!

• Fat rep: FMC (Mabel) is fat. There is on-page fatphobia coming from the media and social media—never from the MMC.

• Their first and second . . . and maybe more . . . meetings don’t go well. It is awkward. And weird. And makes the relationship they have to fake for the world that much more interesting.

• Single POV. Told from the FMC’s perspective, her sunshine-y and stream of consciousness type narration makes this a fun, quick read. The author brought enough nuance to the narration to make it easier to guess at how MMC is feeling and what he’s thinking.

• Apparently MMC is a Roy Kent from Ted Lasso inspired character. (I have not watched Ted Lasso.)

• Super intense non-sexual intimate scenes that might make you want to fan yourself.

• The ending was unevenly paced for me, but not enough to mess with my overall enjoyment of the book.

Recommendation: This book is for fans of the grumpy-sunshine or fake dating tropes. Also, the banter. And the one bed.

Read the book description or add it to your TBR | Buy it

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