Back at work for a week and already running on fumes—but here I am, trying to keep the review train going, so let’s see how this goes. I picked up While You Were Seething by Charlotte Stein partly because of the title (if you know me at all, you know that While You Were Sleeping is one of my favourite movies—Bill Pullman is a dreamboat and I will not be taking questions), and partly because I could tell from the cover that the protagonist was plus-sized, which is always something I appreciate seeing. I went in hoping for that same warm, cozy romantic energy the title suggested. What I got was something a little different—and not entirely in the way I was expecting.

Daisy Emmett has been enemies with famous romance author Caleb Miller since they were in college together, and time hasn’t lessened their mutual loathing. So when she agrees to manoeuvre him through a PR disaster of his own making, she knows it’s not going to be easy. She just doesn’t realise how not easy until they somehow end up trapped in the same truck, on an endless road trip from one book tour stop to another, bantering and butting heads along the way.

Then, even more people appear to be mistaking her for the woman he dedicates all his books to. The love of his life, his adored beloved—the one who doesn’t actually exist. Now they’re trapped into pretending she does and that Daisy is her, each fake kiss and phoney embrace ratcheting up the tension to the point where enemies suddenly seems a lot closer to lovers than either of them would like.

Or so they’re telling themselves.

But sometimes it’s hard to be sure, when seething turns into something so much more…

This is my first Charlotte Stein, and I came in without any real expectations beyond what the title and cover promised. The bones of While You Were Seething are solid—enemies-to-lovers, grumpy-meets-sunshine, fake dating, a reclusive mountain man MMC who turns out to be a secret romantic—and there were moments where it really clicked. But there were also moments where I found myself genuinely confused, which kept me from fully settling in.

What I liked

Caleb: He is the best thing about this book, full stop. A reclusive, rugged mountain man who also happens to write swoony romance novels and is quietly, deeply gone for the woman he can’t stop bickering with? I loved discovering who he actually was underneath all that gruffness. The way his feelings for Daisy emerged gradually throughout the story was genuinely sweet, and it kept me turning pages even when other elements weren’t quite landing.

Daisy: A PR fixer who can sell ice to an iceberg and who doesn’t miss a beat—she’s a fun character to spend time with. Her quippy energy against Caleb’s grumpiness made for entertaining reading, and I appreciated that she was written as competent and sharp. (Except there is one knock against her, see below.)

The spice: I wasn’t expecting it, and I was pleasantly surprised. When this book gets going, it really gets going. Stein writes spicy scenes well—they felt earned in the moment, even if the lead-up was a little bumpy.

The representation: Daisy lives in a bigger body, and the book doesn’t make that her whole personality or her primary conflict, which I appreciated. Caleb makes it clear he finds her attractive, it’s woven into their dynamic naturally, and then the story just moves on. That’s exactly how it should be done.

What didn’t work for me

The pacing disconnect: This was my biggest issue. The book spends a long time in slow burn territory—and then suddenly it isn’t slow at all, and the shift felt so abrupt I genuinely wondered if I’d missed pages. I think the problem is Daisy herself: despite Caleb’s feelings being pretty clearly telegraphed through his actions the entire time, she remains convinced he doesn’t feel the same way. For someone who is supposedly quick on her feet and reads people for a living, it just didn’t add up. Her emotional obliviousness created an artificial barrier that made the eventual turn feel jarring rather than earned.

The flashbacks: The scenes that pull us back to Caleb and Daisy’s university days had good intentions—I could see what they were trying to do—but they didn’t land for me. Every time we went back, I felt pulled out of the present-day story rather than enriched by it. The same information could have been woven into dialogue or referenced in passing and been just as effective, if not more so.

Final thoughts

While You Were Seething is a mixed bag for me, but it leans more positive than negative. Caleb alone is worth the read, the spicy scenes deliver, and the plus-size representation is handled with exactly the kind of casual confidence I want to see more of. I’m not rushing out to read everything Stein has written, but if the right premise came along, I’d give her another shot.

3 STARS

“Fighting with him is better than anything more supposedly normal that I’ve ever had with anyone else.” —Charlotte Stein, While You Were Seething

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.