If you love a grumpy sunshine romance novel, this list is for you!
We sampled nearly 50 historical romances on Season 1 of the Historical Romance Sampler in 2024, and seven of them feature the grumpy vs sunshine dynamic. First, let’s look at what that trope means, and then let’s get into the books!
What is the grumpy sunshine trope?
The grumpy sunshine trope is a common theme seen in romance novels where one character is grouchy and the other is cheerful. The grumpy character is often more of a loner, perhaps nursing a wounded heart from a disappointment in love or family drama, and has a pessimistic view of the world.
Meanwhile, the sunshine character is usually friendly, open, and warm with an optimistic outlook.
What does reverse grumpy x sunshine mean?
Some romance readers assume that “grumpy vs sunshine” means “grumpy man vs sunshine woman.” Those readers then use the term “reverse grumpy sunshine” when the woman is the grump and the man is the sunshine.
I personally find this too reductive, so I use “grumpy sunshine” to refer to any gender pairings!
Now that we know what “Grumpy x sunshine” means, here are the novels featured in Season 1 of the Historical Romance Sampler with that trope! You can listen to the author read a sample in each video, then click through to purchase the book from your preferred retailer!
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7 Grumpy Sunshine Historical Romance Books on Season 1
The Love Remedy
By Elizabeth everett
Average Storygraph Rating: 3.62
When a Victorian apothecary hires a stoic private investigator to protect her business, they learn there’s only one way to treat true love—with a happily ever after.
When Lucinda Peterson’s recently perfected formula for a salve to treat croup goes missing, she’s certain it’s only the latest in a line of misfortunes at the hands of a rival apothecary. Outraged and fearing financial ruin, Lucy turns to private investigator Jonathan Thorne for help. She just didn’t expect her champion to be so . . . grumpy?
A single father and an agent at Tierney & Co., Thorne accepts missions for a wide variety of employers—from the British government to wronged wives. None have intrigued him so much as the spirited Miss Peterson. As the two work side by side to unmask her scientific saboteur, Lucy slips ever so sweetly under Thorne’s battered armor, tempting him to abandon old promises.
With no shortage of suspects—from a hostile political group to an erstwhile suitor—Thorne’s investigation becomes a threat to all that Lucy holds dear. As the truth unravels around them the cure to their problems is clear: they must face the future together.
Highland Conquest
By Heather McCollum
Average Storygraph Rating: 3.67
Bonus for any readers who love enemies to lovers!
Cain Sinclair has a plan. In order to finally bring peace to his clan, he will wed the young female chief of their greatest enemy. Only problem: capturing her and forcing her back to Sinclair castle doesn't exactly make her want to say yes. Ella Sutherland may be clever, passionate, and shockingly beautiful, but what she isn't is willing.
Every attempt Cain makes to woo her seems to backfire on him. A gift? The kitten practically claws his eyes out. A competitive game of chess? Even when he wins, he loses. It seems the only time the two ever see eye to eye is when they're heating up Cain's bed. Still, the only thing Ella truly wants is the one thing he cannot offer her: freedom.
But when Cain discovers she's been harboring a secret--one that could threaten both clans' very existence--he'll have to decide between peace for the Sinclairs or the woman who's captured his heart.
Voluptuous
By Felicity niven
Average Storygraph Rating: 4.25
Bonus for any readers who love friends to lovers!
Her father’s best friend is the man-of-her-dreams.
Lady Henrietta Stafford can’t remember a time when she wasn’t fascinated by the tall, dark, melancholy Mr. Oliver Hartwell. But she knows she is meant for some other, far less compelling man. Her father’s friend Mr. Hartwell would never be interested in her. She’s too young. She’s not beautiful or clever. And, of course, he’s already married.
A widower twice over, Oliver Hartwell’s life has been one failure after another: his boyhood dream turned into a hellish nightmare, his tragic marriages, the utter botch he is making of fatherhood. In truth, he has only ever felt happiness in the home of his friend, the Duke of Bexton. But now that his friend’s oldest daughter has grown into a gorgeously voluptuous woman, Oliver seems doomed to ruin his chances for love and affection, just as he has ruined everything else.
Sometimes ruination IS the happily-ever-after.
He is ruthless, reclusive, and out for revenge. She is sweet, innocent, and irritatingly cheerful. Why can’t she leave him to his darkness? And why can’t he keep his hands off this beautiful Farthingale?
Leonides Poole, the Marquess of Muir is a much-admired agent of the Crown. He has just returned to London after spending the last four years imprisoned in an enemy dungeon. Now that he has been released, he is determined to find the man who betrayed him and exact his revenge. The problem with his well-crafted plan is his unexpected feelings for Marigold Farthingale, the little ray of sunshine who lives next door to him on Chipping Way. She seems to understand ancient skulls and bones more than she understands men. Yet, Leonides knows if he exacts his vengeance, he will lose out on the promise of happiness with the beautiful bluestocking. Which does he value more? The answer is suddenly not so clear.
Marigold Farthingale is quite excited about the dragon-like animal whose skull she discovered while on archeological exploration in Devonshire. She has now returned to London with a crate full of bones she must deliver to the Huntsford Academy and is delighted when her new neighbor, the fierce and reclusive Marquess of Muir, agrees to assist her. She has never met anyone quite like this handsome man. He is intelligent, fierce, and endowed with a stunning musculature she would love to explore. But he is too tormented to think about courtship and marriage. Marigold is about to make her Society debut. It seems such a fuss when the only man she wishes to marry is the marquess. Perhaps if she discovered his secrets...how dangerous can they be?
She didn’t gamble on love.
SHE HAS THE DEED.
Camelia Parikh is a fallen woman trying to start over. When she wins the deed to a cottage in a card game, she believes her luck has finally changed. A charming coastal village seems like the perfect place to begin again, far from London and her romantic regrets. That is, until the stern Duke of Wednesbury arrives to claim the deed and cottage as his.
HE HAS THE TITLE.
Raaz Panchal, the new Duke of Wednesbury, is searching for the missing deed to his late father’s beloved cottage, and he travels to the countryside to investigate. But once there, he learns the home is not vacant, and a beguiling woman claims it’s her property now. When her deed proves genuine, Raaz prepares to leave, but then fate collapses the stable roof. Duty to his father’s memory–and certainly not a pair of alluring amber eyes–compels him to help.
TOGETHER, CAN THEY HAVE IT ALL?
Camelia cautiously accepts the duke’s assistance, but between a bold badger, a moonlit waltz, and dangerous late-night wagers, it’s impossible to keep her distance from the devastatingly handsome duke. When they surrender to temptation, she can no longer ignore their differences in station or the mistakes of her past, but her traitorous heart already wishes for a future that’s surely out of reach.
The Temple of Persephone
by Isabella Kamal
Average Storygraph Rating: 3.66
Bonus for any readers who love slow burn romance!
Persephone Honeyfield is witty, intelligent, and very aware that the only way to escape the monotony of the life she shares with her father and sister in the English countryside--and the wagging, ever-critical tongues of the people around her--is through marriage. She also knows the likelihood of it being a love match is nearly zero.
Aidon Barrington has carried on the legacy of his family's funeral furnishing business, losing himself in the process. A shell of his former charming self, he's traded his reputation as a rake for that of a recluse and regularly appears in the scandal sheets as London's mysterious Lord of the Dead.
When Persephone finds herself at Gallowsgate--the old Barrington estate--on a seemingly simple errand, an unexpected run-in with the Lord of the Dead himself leaves her on the brink of ruination. With no other way to silence the village rumor mill, or save her sister's reputation, Persephone agrees to marry Aidon, becoming the wife of a man she hardly knows.
Persephone finds herself increasingly fascinated by her new husband, whose kind, patient nature stands in stark contrast to the ever-swirling rumors about him. But when the gossip begins to sound more like reality than fiction, she attempts to uncover the truth behind the Lord of the Dead while discovering she may have already lost her most guarded possession: her heart.
Portugal, 1872
An aristocrat haunted by his sins…
After losing his bride to a hated Englishman, Pedro Daun shuts himself in his winemaking property. Drowning in port, he hopes to find oblivion from his murky past in Mozambique.
A girl with dawn in her eyes…
Kind and whimsical, Anne Maxwell moves to the Douro to help her new sister-in-law. She dreams of finding the perfect suitor to give her the unconditional love she never had.
Shadows can taste light…
A twist of fate brings them together. Anne glimpses in Pedro's eyes a yearning for love that rivals her own, but the cynical Fidalgo isn't the perfect prince of her dreams. Pedro craves Anne's touch more than the air he breathes, but he is unwilling to soil his angel with the sins from his past.
A conspiracy is revealed…
A false accusation turns them into fugitives. Running from a treacherous enemy, they plunge into an ocean of intrigue to prove Pedro's innocence. As their passion grows, Anne discovers that love isn't the perfect matter of fairy tales. But can Pedro forgive himself for his past and allow Anne into his heart?