Quinn Lee is a walking disaster with perfect hair, zero filter, and an alarming caffeine addiction who’s just ploughed her life savings into rescuing her family’s failing Christmas tree farm. She’s got one shot to pull off a Christmas miracle, so when an important promotional cookie order goes wrong, it understandably leads to a spectacular meltdown in front of cute-as-a-button bakery owner, Zoey.
Zoey bakes like an angel, thinks “drat” is a swear word, and is wholly unprepared for the opinionated, red-headed hurricane who storms into her shop competing for “world’s worst customer”. But she’s equally unprepared to discover that you don’t have to like someone to find them irresistible.
When both their businesses are threatened, a reluctant partnership becomes their only solution. But somewhere between Zoey’s killer dance moves and Quinn’s Chuck Norris puns, incompatible starts looking a lot like inevitable. As Christmas approaches, can these polar opposites navigate unexpected feelings, and the terrifying possibility that sometimes the person you clash with most is exactly the one you need?
A quintessential queer romance with small town vibes and plenty of festive cheer - this sweet, steamy story is a chaotic romcom that takes the 'opposites attract' trope, loads it up with caffeine and lets it loose.
Quinn and Zoey are not a good match on paper. Honestly Quinn can be a bit of dickhead when she gets stressed out about everything she's dealing with. At first, they seem like the perfect caricatures of the sunshine/grumpy characters; Quinn is literally an ex-wall street exec who gives up a high-flying career in the city to buy her families struggling Christmas tree farm back home and Zoey is the perfect, kind baker who helps the community. But each page just adds layers to them as we see the soft, warm side of Quinn hidden under the bravado and Zoeys boldness, her bravery and a little edgy streak (I have a bit of a crush on Zoey, tbh)
They share the story with dual, first person perspectives, letting us watch on as they get off to a very bad start, then into chaos, and then start to fall in love. I ate up every single moment as they both kept missing their chances for stupid but relatable reasons and waiting for them to get it together and just get together.
But when they did - my god, don't read this somewhere your face can give you away. The romance was beautiful, sweet, anxious and the steam was steaming - you can just tell this was written by someone who actually likes women.
Our duo kept the story moving at a good pace, offering us some beautiful backstory into their town, their families, how they ended up back there - and then it easily slips back into the present in a way that just flows so smoothly.
It's a bit bonkers, with madcap Christmas escapades, questionable pizza toppings, struggling businesses, heartfelt personal journeys and a dash of festive magic. So cheesy, and so much fun. Take your classic Christmas romance film with a modern twist, a lot of sugar and a little spice - this is the book to put under your tree this year.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Any Girl but You is available now with Storm Publishing. I received a reviewers copy of this title.
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