Review: When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein

When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was provided both an audio and ebook ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This was supposed to be a grumpy-sunshine romcom, but I didn't find the male lead to be very grumpy or the female lead to be very sunshiny. I found them both to be very immature average people. The characters are in their 30s however they act and speak as though they are much younger than that. I don't know if the British humor missed the mark with me or what but I also didn't find it to be as hilarious as promised either.

I feel that the main characters are supposed to be a take on Ted Lasso's Roy Kent and Keeley Jones. I loved Ted Lasso, and Roy is one of my favorite grumps, he reminds me of my own husband with his gruff take no prisoners attitude. Keeley is the epitome of sunshine with her bright, fun wardrobe and wacky personality. The reason they work as a couple is at heart of it they are both kind and care about the people they really let get to know them. Mabel is our Keeley in this story, but instead of a model she is a quirky, curvy writer with self-confidence problems. She constantly worries what other people think about her and what their opinions of her are. She doesn't feel worthy of love and affection from anyone. I'm not a fan of the self-depreciation trope and the constant inner monologues she has with herself about how unworthy she is. She’s a bit of a contradiction. Our Roy is played by Alfie, who was more of a mash up of Roy and Jamie Tartt. He damaged, and is terrible with people and emotions, but he knows what he likes. What he likes isn't what the public expects of him and he's gotten pretty good at putting on a show and hiding the real Alfie. Hanging out with Mabel working on his memoir, brings him out of his shell a bit and he gets more confident about letting the world see who he really is now that he’s retired.

If you haven't seen Ted Lasso, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. It’s a great show!

Anyway...this book had so much potential, but it missed the mark for me. Both characters had such good back stories to explore that brought them a kinship when it came to their issues with emotions and affection. This topic was kind of glossed over. I think this was a missed opportunity for them to really connect on more than a superficial level. They never talk about the things they need to talk about, and good communication is something I look forward to in a romance. These two failed at good communication. The writing style felt all over the place and I often felt like I missed something. This felt like more of a stream of consciousness style of writing with much of it told from Mabel’s perspective, and I'm not the biggest fan of that style. It felt like the characters were rambling and not making much sense at times. The dialogue between them is dare I say cringey. I love good banter between characters, but I didn’t feel the chemistry between the two and I didn’t understand the humor. Again, it felt very immature to me. This has quite a few steamy scenes, which I'm no stranger to; however the dirty talk was over the top in my opinion. I was not a fan of the choice of language used, but everyone has their thresholds when it comes to those types of scenes.

Overall I think this was supposed to be whimsical and quirky, but for me it fell more into the nonsensical zone. I didn't enjoy the writing style or the characters. I feel like had I been able to connect with Mabel I would have loved this. I think this had so much potential and perhaps it will hit the mark with other readers. As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, I don’t think I got the humor so perhaps someone who understands British humor will absolutely love this.
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