(Book #1 in the Twisted Series)

↟ Contemporary Romance

↟ Key Themes: Grumpy & Sunshine, Smut, Best Friends Sister, Brothers Best Friend, and Dark Pasts

↟ “I wanted every shadow of his soul and every piece of his beautiful, multilayered heart.”

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. READERS BE ADVISED.

The Twisted series by Ana Huang is admittedly what sent me down a contemporary romance rabbit hole. It is what reignited my spark for reading, so it has a special place in my heart regardless of its flaws. This series is what I would consider a “junk food” read. It’s not glamorous or comparable to a steak dinner from a five star restaurant. It’s more so a Lays chip series, a snack that once you have one, you have to finish the bag.

To start, I want to discuss our characters in the book. Our female main character (FMC) is Ava Chen, a bubbly, awkward, sweet girl with a very troubled past and a messed up family. Ava is an enjoyable character, although she has plenty of moments where you physically cringe at her internal dialogue. Her background makes her complex, and that’s something I always value in characters. The one thing I do think Ana could’ve done with Ava’s character was give better representation of PTSD. The disorder is much more than just nightmares, suppressed memories or not. Instead of taking advantage of an opportunity to bring awareness to it, she used it only when it was convenient to the storyline. Compared to her representation of anxiety through Stella in the fourth book, Ava’s mental health struggles were not very well developed.

Now onto our male main character (MMC) Alex Volkov. Dark, emotionless, “no strings attached sex-having” Alex, who’s somehow best friends with the most emotion filled male character in the series (Ava’s brother, Josh). Alex’s character is almost unbearable. It seems that Ana doesn’t have a lot of consistency with his character. He, much like Ava, also has an extremely messed up past and family history that causes him to never smile, never laugh, and basically never emote. I understand the concept of having this very dark and hardcore MMC who has a soft spot only for the warm and happy FMC, but he was a bit over the top. Reading his point-of-view was yawn worthy as it seemed the only feeling he ever experienced was anger. Anger that was fueled solely from his past, not because he was upset about it or hiding that he was actually hurt. When he was a kid he basically chose that he would be angry for the rest of his life and that was that. I felt as though his character went from not caring about Ava at all to performing a song in front of a crowd of people just for her to notice him. I think an intimate moment between the two where his shell totally cracks and he cries in front of her would’ve been more moving than a musical number.

Since this is the first book of the series you get introduced to all of the characters for the rest of the series, Bridget, Jules, Stella, Rhys , Josh, and Christian. I do like the concept of these four female best friends who found each other in college, it’s very realistic and they’re all ride or die for each other. It’s not loaded with girl drama between them and I greatly appreciate that, as many contemporary romances seem to always have some kind of turmoil between the female characters. This always came across as a “women can’t get along with each other” stereotype that I do not like. We’re in a women supporting women moment right now, no need to have cat fights in every heterosexual romance novel.

As far as the plot, it was well fleshed out. Both main characters have dark and twisted paths that end up intertwined. The plot twist with Ava’s father was a great addition to it, I just wish the execution was maybe a bit more intense. All of the intensity and theatrics were used for Alex’s family issues, and all Ava had was remembering her father tried to murder her and a set up that landed him in jail. Sigh. This gave off the vibe of Ava’s issues being overlooked and not as important as Alex’s, which was entirely not the case.

The ending was definitely very cringy, as I previously mentioned Alex singing to her. They break up, she avoids him for years, he sends her millions of dollars worth of stuff that doesn’t impress her, and then he sings and that’s what makes her give in? I’d take the diamond necklace, thanks. Seemed very unrealistic to me, at least in a modern day sense which is when this all takes place. I would’ve taken any other grand gesture of love over a supposedly heartless man singing. This made the absolute gut wrenching betrayal Ava experienced just evaporate into thin air. All over a little song and dance. Ana is making women seem like they have no resilience with how easily Ava gives in. After all Ava had been through, she wouldn’t have given up that easily. She tried to emphasize Ava’s stubbornness with the years of rejecting his advances, but her forgiving him over a song made those years seem totally pointless.

Overall, I would recommend the book as a part of the series. As a standalone, I wouldn’t recommend it. I’ve noticed in other reviews as well as feedback from some of my peers that after reading this book they threw in the towel on the entire series. Which upsets me because the other three books are certainly way more worth it than this one. If Ana had started off strong with this book, she may have had readers more inclined to pick up the rest of the series.

Thank you so much for reading my review! Please do not hesitate to provide feedback or share your own thoughts!