Grumpy Sunshine Starter Pack
Curated by BookMatcher Editorial · Scowling-at-the-world meets relentlessly-okay.
Eight books built on the opposites-attract grumpy-and-sunshine pairing — the cold one who didn't ask to be charmed, the warm one who refuses to take the hint. The genre's bread and butter, from the contemporary canon (Henry, Thorne) to the dark-romance crossover (Huang) to the indie-tradpub breakouts (Babalola, Borison).
“Gus is grumpy, January is sunshine, and the lake houses are right next door. The book that defined the modern shape of this trope and put Henry on the bestseller permanent-rotation.”
“Knox is the entire grumpy archetype; Naomi shows up at his bar in a stolen wedding dress with her niece in tow. Score does grumpy-sunshine at small-town scale and the proportions are perfect.”
“Lucy is sunshine-coded chaos, Joshua is the corporate-grumpy ideal. Thorne writes the office grumpy-sunshine cleaner than anyone — the elevator scene alone is required reading.”
“Briana is the dependably-sunshine ER doctor; Jacob is the anxious-grumpy attending who writes her a letter. Jimenez does adult-of-real-baggage grumpy-sunshine — both characters earn the warmth.”
“Clara is small-town WASP sunshine; Josh is the LA porn-star roommate she didn't sign up for. Danan's debut is the most charming subversion of the trope in years.”
“Kiki Banjo is a campus radio host with a sharp tongue; Malakai Korede is the new transfer with disarming warmth. Babalola makes grumpy-sunshine sing in a British-Nigerian university setting that the genre needs more of.”