The 5 Best Grumpy Sunshine Romance Books (2026 Guide)
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Last week I was organizing my bookshelves by color for the third time this month — yes, I reorganized them again — and I somehow ended up with a stack of forty-seven books on my floor that had no business being grouped together, and I sat down right there on the hardwood for an hour and started rereading the first chapters of all my favorites. My family eventually just stepped over me. They know.
That little floor-sitting reading session reminded me how much joy I get from sharing books with other people. Recommending a romance novel is one of the most personal things I do — there's something deeply satisfying about matching the right book to the right reader at the right moment, and knowing that someone out there is going to stay up two hours past their bedtime because they couldn't put it down.
Today's list is all about one of my all-time favorite romance tropes: grumpy sunshine. If you don't know the term yet, it describes a pairing where one character is reserved, prickly, or closed-off, and the other is warm, optimistic, and utterly irresistible. The tension between those two personalities creates some of the most swoon-worthy slow burns in the entire genre — and readers who've discovered this trope tend to become devoted fans for life. Here are five of the best grumpy sunshine romances I've read recently, from quietly devastating to laugh-out-loud cozy.
$17.99
$11.99
4.87 out of 5 stars
Promise Me Sunshine: A Novel (Dial Delights)
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Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone
Tagged As:
grumpy sunshine, strangers to lovers, slow burn, grief and healing, found family, single guardian, hurt/comfort, emotional romance, contemporary romance, standalone, HEA
Plot Summary:
Lenny Bellamy is barely keeping it together. Since losing her best friend and soulmate Lou to cancer, she's been drifting — avoiding her parents, the apartment she once shared with Lou, and the laminated "live again" list Lou left behind. The only thing she can manage is babysitting, which lands her in the orbit of Ainsley, a precocious seven-year-old on the Upper West Side of New York City — and Ainsley's brooding uncle, Miles, who seems to see right through every one of Lenny's brave faces. Miles has his own complicated grief, and he makes Lenny a proposition: he'll help her tackle everything on Lou's list if she'll help him reconnect with Ainsley and mend his strained relationship with his sister. What begins as a quiet, practical deal slowly becomes something neither of them expected — tender, fierce, and utterly life-changing.
Why I Love This Book:
This book absolutely wrecked me — in the very best way. Cara Bastone writes grief with a level of honesty I've rarely encountered in romance, and yet she manages to balance that heaviness with so much humor and warmth that the reading experience feels like being held rather than shaken. Miles is technically the grumpy one, but he's more of a quiet, deeply perceptive man who is hurting in a way he doesn't know how to articulate — and watching Lenny figure that out about him before he's able to say it himself is stunning. The slow burn here is genuinely slow, and I savored every moment of it. This is a book about the audacity of choosing to live again even when you're terrified, and the romance that grows in that space is among the most beautiful I've ever read.
Who Will Like This Book:
Perfect for readers who love emotionally deep grumpy sunshine romances that tackle real, hard topics without losing sight of hope. If you enjoy slow-burn stories with genuine character depth, found family warmth, and a hero who isn't grumpy so much as quietly broken — and who becomes something extraordinary — this one will stay with you long after you finish it. Fans of Abby Jimenez's more emotional work will especially love this.
Steam Level: 🌶️🌶️Mild
$11.99
4.62 out of 5 stars
Say You'll Remember Me
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Say You'll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez
Tagged As:
grumpy sunshine, right person wrong time, long distance romance, meet cute, caregiving, found family, emotional romance, contemporary romance, banter, standalone, HEA
Plot Summary:
Xavier Rush is a gorgeous, quietly grumpy veterinarian in Minneapolis — disciplined, emotionally guarded, and completely unprepared for Samantha Diaz, a sunny, unstoppable social media manager who storms into his clinic with a rescue kitten that needs a very expensive surgery. Their meet-cute is a disaster. Their first date, somehow, is magical. But before anything can begin, Samantha has to tell Xavier the truth: her mother has early-onset dementia, and she's moving to California to help care for her. She asks him to just remember their night as a perfect moment — and forget about her. Xavier cannot. What follows is a tender, sometimes heartbreaking long-distance love story about two people trying to figure out whether love is enough when life keeps getting in the way.
Why I Love This Book:
Abby Jimenez writes the kind of heroes I want to believe are real — and Xavier Rush might be her best yet. He's grumpy in that very particular way where you can tell it's not his default setting, just what happens when a person keeps absorbing hard things quietly for too long. Samantha's sunshine feels absolutely earned — she's warm and funny and full of life, and watching Xavier fall for her while trying to be practical about the impossibility of their situation is deeply, acutely satisfying. This is a heavier read than Jimenez's earlier work, but her signature humor threads through it perfectly, and the emotional payoff is enormous. Bring tissues. Bring a lot of them.
Who Will Like This Book:
Ideal for fans of Abby Jimenez who love grumpy-sunshine pairings with genuine emotional weight and real-world stakes. If you're drawn to stories about people trying to love each other through impossibly hard circumstances — and you love a veterinarian hero with a hidden soft center — this book will become one of your favorites. Just be warned: it goes to some heavy places before it gets to the light.
Steam Level: 🌶️🌶️Mild
Deep End by Ali Hazelwood
Tagged As:
grumpy sunshine, sports romance, forbidden attraction, best friend's ex, college romance, forced proximity, STEM romance, slow burn, BDSM elements, contemporary romance, HEA
Plot Summary:
Scarlett "Vandy" Vandermeer is a junior at Stanford on the platform diving team, still recovering from a devastating injury that nearly ended her career and left her with a paralyzing mental block on one particular dive. Lukas Blomqvist is the Swedish Olympic swim captain — disciplined, precise, quietly intense, and as focused as a person can possibly be. On the surface they have nothing in common. But when a shared secret slips out, the two discover unexpected common ground and enter into a private arrangement. As Olympic pressure builds and feelings deepen, what was supposed to be simple becomes anything but. Scarlett must confront not only the fear that's keeping her from her dive, but the very real possibility that she's falling for her best friend's ex.
Why I Love This Book:
Ali Hazelwood is the queen of putting two smart, driven people together and letting the tension simmer until readers are absolutely losing their minds, and Deep End might be her best execution of that formula yet. Lukas is the grumpy archetype taken to its most precise, controlled extreme — a man of complete discipline who slowly, irrevocably becomes undone by Scarlett. And Scarlett is a nuanced sunshine character: funny and warm, yes, but also anxious and scarred in ways that make her feel genuinely real. The sports backdrop is vivid, the friendship drama adds real stakes, and the heat level is significant. This one is for readers who want their grumpy-sunshine pairing with some serious depth and serious steam.
Who Will Like This Book:
Great for fans of Ali Hazelwood's STEM romances who want something with a bit more emotional and physical intensity. If you love sports romance, grumpy heroes who are utterly devoted once they fall, forbidden attraction, and a dynamic that explores trust and vulnerability in bold ways, this book will keep you up far too late for several nights running.
Steam Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️Insanely Hot
$17.99
$11.99
4.96 out of 5 stars
Give Me Butterflies: A Grumpy Sunshine Rom Com with Slow Burn Chemistry and Found Family (Oaks Sisters Book 1)
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Give Me Butterflies by Jillian Meadows
Tagged As:
grumpy sunshine, STEM romance, workplace romance, enemies to lovers, single guardian, he falls first, slow burn, found family, contemporary romance, series, HEA
Plot Summary:
Millie is an entomology curator at a natural science museum who loves her job, loves her bugs, and is determined not to let anything distract her from landing the director position she's been working toward. That includes Finn Ashford — the astronomy department head with the permanent scowl, electric blue eyes, and nerdy astronomy ties — who is, of course, on the interview committee for the very job she wants. Finn doesn't mean to glare at everyone. He's just quietly juggling enormous grief after losing his sister and suddenly becoming guardian to her twin nieces, while somehow also trying not to burn dinner for the fifth night in a row. As Millie gets to know the man underneath the scowl, she discovers that avoiding him is much harder than she expected — especially once her heart starts getting involved.
Why I Love This Book:
This book is a warm hug in novel form, and I mean that in the very best way. Finn is grumpy because he is overwhelmed and grieving and doing his absolute best, and when Millie starts to see through that, the tenderness between them is just exquisite. There's nerdy banter about stars and insects, scenes with his twin nieces that will make your heart grow three sizes, and a slow-burn payoff that is absolutely worth every ounce of anticipation. Publishers Weekly gave this a starred review and called it "funny, sexy, sweet, and deliciously nerdy," and I could not agree more. Fans of Ali Hazelwood's earlier work will absolutely devour this one.
Who Will Like This Book:
Perfect for readers who love cozy, nerdy grumpy-sunshine romances with big found-family energy and a hero who clearly adores the heroine long before he's willing to admit it. If you love STEM settings, sweet scenes with children, and slow burns that reward your patience with something truly special, this series opener should go straight to the top of your list.
Steam Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️Moderate
$19.00
$10.99
4.35 out of 5 stars
First-Time Caller (Heartstrings Book 1)
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First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison
Tagged As:
grumpy sunshine, workplace romance, single mom, forced proximity, slow burn, banter, Sleepless in Seattle inspired, radio romance, contemporary romance, series, HEA
Plot Summary:
Aiden Valentine has a secret that makes his job deeply inconvenient: he's the host of Baltimore's romance hotline, and he's completely stopped believing in love. His ratings are tanking and his producers are desperate — until twelve-year-old Maya calls into Heartstrings asking for dating advice for her single mother, the interview goes viral, and suddenly all of Baltimore is invested in Lucie Stone's love life. Lucie is warm, optimistic, deeply devoted to her daughter, and doing just fine on her own, thank you very much. But when she's recruited to become Aiden's co-host while the station searches for her happily ever after on air, she finds herself spending a lot of time next to a grumpy, temperamental radio host who is very bad at hiding how much he cares — about everything.
Why I Love This Book:
B.K. Borison's ability to write communities that feel like family is on full display here, and that cozy, surrounded-by-people-who-love-you feeling makes the slow burn between Aiden and Lucie even more irresistible. Aiden is the kind of grumpy hero who isn't mean — he's just quietly, deeply jaded, and watching Lucie's warmth chip away at his cynicism without her even trying is absolutely delightful. The Sleepless in Seattle inspiration gives the whole book a nostalgic sweetness, the banter crackles from the very first scene, and Maya is one of the best fictional kids I've encountered in a romance novel. This one had me grinning and clutching my chest in equal measure.
Who Will Like This Book:
Ideal for readers who love cozy, character-driven grumpy-sunshine romance with a media setting, lovable secondary characters, and a slow burn that rewards patience with genuine emotional payoff. If you devoured Borison's Lovelight series and are ready for something new from her, or if you love single-parent romances where the kid is absolutely part of the charm, this is essential reading.
Steam Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️Moderate
