Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsBillionaire boyfriend and a whole lot more
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2020
Elena Alvarez, raised in New Mexico and trained in France, is a top chef in the testosterone-fueled, high-risk world of Michelin rated restaurants. Elena has suffered deep, deep loss, and her nearly 40-year-old body is badly broken from a horrific car accident in her youth. She hasn't come to grips with the grief yet, and there's an element of magical realism in the story, given she still communicates with the teens who died in the wreck (they appear to her as ghosts, some quite graphically.) She is no blushing heroine, though, and is as tough as a superhero when dealing with her new nemesis, Ivan, passed over for the exec chef job in the high-end Aspen restaurant she is asked to helm. But Barbara O'Neal rarely writes characters as one-dimensional, and we soon see why Elena takes a chance on him. Indeed, one of the best aspects of this story is her strong leadership at the restaurant. She is the boss we all want to have. Throw in a billionaire boyfriend (also her employer), who just happens to have a needy teen daughter, who just happens to cotton to Elena, and you've got a great romance.
