Review: The Opposite Of You by Rachel Higginson

THE OPPOSITE OF YOU
Series: Opposites Attract #1
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author: Rachel Higginson
Release Date: March 30, 2017

I’ve sworn off men.

All men.

Famous last words, right? You’re expecting some epic tale of reluctant love and my dramatic change of heart? Well, you’re not going to get it.

I’m stubborn. And headstrong. And I’ve just survived the worst three years of my life. After escaping an abusive boyfriend to live in hostels and cheap hotels while I worked my way across Europe, I’ve come to two conclusions.

The first? Now that I’m back home, I’m going to squander my expensive culinary degree on a food truck that caters to the late night drunk crowd.

The second? I’m going to prove to the bastard across the plaza that my street food is better than his fussy five course monstrosities.

Killian Quinn might be Food and Wine’s Chef to Watch Out For. He might have a Michelin Star. He might have every food critic in the city wrapped around his too-large fingers. But he’s also pretentious and unbearably arrogant and the very opposite of me.

So he can keep his unsolicited advice and his late night visits and his cocky smiles. I want none of it. Or him.

I want the opposite.

AMAZON 

He’d told me I was bright, but not compared to him. He was the sun, and I was a flower turning my face to his heat. He was the stars in the clear summer night sky, and I was the stargazer mesmerized by the mysterious beauty I would never fully understand.

Well color me giddy, because I just found a new author to love. I love a good opposites attract story almost as much as I love an enemies to lovers one and this book combined both into one witty romance packed with plenty of feeling, charm, and swoon.

Date him?” I laughed. “Hardly. And not just because I’ve sworn off men for the rest of all eternity. He’s too… He’s too familiar. I don’t want a guy like Killian Quinn. I want the exact opposite of him.”

Vera bet everything on a man once…and lost. Now back home to lick her wounds and start over, leaving her potential dream of becoming a famous chef behind, she’s starting from the ground up. She still has dreams of having her own kitchen in a fancy restaurant one day, but for now she has Foodie the food truck. Her brother is even letting her use the parking lot across from his shop rent free. The only problem? That problem is right next to one of the best and most well known restaurants in town. It’s a restaurant where she would have loved to work, and also one where the kitchen is ran by the renowned and super grumpy Killian Quinn. World famous chef and notorious pain in her ass. Killian is less than thrilled about her food truck darkening the parking lot and he doesn’t hesitate in letting her know…at every opportunity…what he thinks about it.

Sparks fly between these two from the very first insult and keep sparking hotter with each additional encounter. What begins is a hilarious back and forth that’s had such a potent sexual tension beneath it that I thought I’d catch on fire with every page I read.

He threatened everything. My business. My sanity. My vow of celibacy. The carefully constructed walls I’d built around my heart. My fragile courage I’d only just regained. He’d bulldozed into my life and shaken up everything I’d thought was true about men and chefs and people.

Now I love food, so I absolutely loved how engrained the story is in food and cooking. I felt like I was right there in the kitchen along with the characters. But beyond that, I simply loved the slow burn romance that starts as an unwilling friendship. These two seriously burned up the pages with their chemistry. So much so, that I didn’t care that this wasn’t my typical steam packed romance. It had just enough of a taste to satisfy but the budding romance is truly what took center stage here and I appreciated that so much.

The writing is witty and engaging and full of humor. The characters are phenomenally developed and full of depth. The romance is swoony and the story completely unforgettable.

As soon as I opened the door, you became more. You were significant and important and right. You settled inside me like you were always meant to be there. I found you, Vera, because I was supposed to find you.”

I’m thrilled that this is the first in the series and can’t wait for more. Especially knowing that the mysterious Ezra is next. I can’t wait to see what happens with him and Vera’s BFF. Or at least that’s who I’m assuming will be the one to bring the grumpy millionaire to his knees.