Pocket Full of Sunshine

When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein: A Book Review

Genre: Romance

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First off I would just like to say that the main characters, Mabel and Alfie were super cute. The names did throw me for a laugh at first. Mabel because the name reminded me of Clarabelle from Mickey Mouse. Alfie because for some reason my brain connected that name with Alfalfa from The Little Rascals. So, for the duration of the story, I pictured a skinny little guy with the iconic piece of hair sticking straight up with Clarabelle the cow who also sometimes resembled Darla.

Just like Alfalfa was all over Darla in The Little Rascals, as a reader, you could clearly tell Alfie was into Mabel from the very beginning. Maybe it was the fact that it was a romance, but it was clear how Alfie felt. Mabel was the one denying them.

I actually also really enjoyed the discuss of self-worth and trauma throughout the book. Stein did put a trigger warning for it at the beginning of the book, so I was a little thrown, as I was wondering how awful she wrote the topic in a freaking romance book – and let me tell you.

It. Was. Completely. Unnecessary.

Going into a book with a plus size heroine, you know the term “fat” is going to be used. Freaking everyone has some level of trauma, so giving your characters “daddy” issues isn’t a taboo subject. Putting any kind of trigger warning on this book, is absolutely unneeded. However, I will also be the first to tell you that I am not the biggest fan of trigger warnings. There are only a couple trigger warnings that I can understand – the action of suicide (note I said action, not talk or mention of it); the action of rape (again note I said action); and the action of killing someone (again note I said action). These I feel may, and probably should, be triggering. These actions should invoke a strong emotional reaction from the reader. To say that the word “fat” is triggering just makes me feel that people are way too sheltered – and to call the character’s childhood trauma triggering… you should hear some of the stories from my youth.

That said, I really enjoyed the little secret of Alfie’s about how he doesn’t even actually enjoy *it* (trying to not spoil the secret). It was a nice little thing to show how parent approval will lead children to do things just to gain it – or be able to gain their attention. It was a nice touch.

Real quick, I am going to mention how the language flip-flopped. At times, I wasn’t sure if the book was taking place in the UK or in the USA. Honeslty, it could have been either or. The main reason I even figured it was the UK was because Alfie plays football and the book talked like it was soccer – which is called football practically everywhere else besides the United States – and is also a bigger deal in England.

To end this review, I will say that the book progressed too fast. It would have been 100% better if even just the end was slowed down. At the end it was really bad. It was like: LMNOP rather than A B C D. I will also say that I did not get the title chapters or some of the included pieces between the chapters. In some cases, I actually felt that they were drawing away from the book as I was trying to figure out why the material was there or why the title was what it was.

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Who would most enjoy the work and who should stay clear (if necessary):

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Plot:	9 / 10
Characters:	9 / 10
Writing:	9 / 10
Editor:	10 / 10
Total	37 / 40

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Title: When Grumpy Met Sunshine

Author: Charlotte Stein

Edition: eBook

Published: 2024

Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffen

ISBN: 9781250867957

If you want to get it: Amazon; Barnes&Noble