Reviews

1. Twisted Love by Ana Huang

Rating :  3/5 🌟

It was an okay read for me, nothing new tbh, kind of like I didn't love it still I was able to read it through till the end.

I really liked the FMC, Ava Chen, who is your sunshine character and sees the light in everything and everyone in the world.

The MMC, Alex Volkov, is a high IQ genius turned billionaire and one of those quiet, collected, brooding, possessive, overjealous alphamales with reserved feelings who has two goals in life : success and vengeance.

The story starts when Ava's brother asks his best friend, Alex, to look after his little sister while he's gone. And Alex shifts into Ava's brother's house and becomes her neighbour.

The first half of the book was quite fun to read when Ava tried to get reactions from an unemotional and reserved Alex. And the author did a great job in showing the growing chemistry between the two characters.

Funnily enough, just when I started loving the book, the author started deflating that baloon little by little starting from the getting together part of our MCs.

The plot of the book was good but it's execution in the second half of the book literally murdered my vibes.

I'll try to pick apart the second half of the book where the plot execution just didn't make any sense for me to make sense of what I'm trying to say. 🙂

(SPOILER ALERT⚠️)

📜  I've also read the second book, Twisted Games, of the series and realised that the author likes to use 'time gap' as a tool to justify the change or the shift in the feelings of the main characters.
The author literally used a time gap to skip over one of main aspects of a romance book, where with the already present chemistry, we see the shift in the relationship of the MCs when they become friends.
But take a look at these lines.

"..... over the past few weeks, I had to admit I might have to bump it up on the list, because he'd been nothing but patient.....
Something had shifted in my relationship with Alex. He was no longer just my brother's best friend, but my friend too... "

Instead of being shown how the feelings changed, we got a time gap and were just told about what happened in the said time gap. Not to mention that this also fucks up with the purpose of a slow burn.

It all but have taken mere two scenes to show their interactions when Alex was helping Ava. To show a different caring side of Alex towards Ava and how Ava started considering Alex her friend because during that time he wasn't looking after her for Ava's brother, he was helping her for her.

📜  The smut🌶️:  I'll admit that I don't particularly favors the derogatory sex talk but I do *cough* enjoy it *cough* when it's done nicely and I've high regards for those writers who can pull it off without making it cringe. But unfortunately in this book, there were some cringe moments for me. (However those can be overlooked.)

One more part that was mildly disappointing was the CONSTANT insinuation by Alex that Ava won't be able to handle his sex preferences. That only a few can handle his sexual needs/likes. So there I was waiting for our couple to do the ✨deed✨ to get to know what kind of kinks this man has up his sleeves.
But the dude just likes name calling and doggy style.🙂

📜  The plot twist of Ava's father's confrontation was  just way off putting. How come Michael didn't think that there could be something wrong or a set up in Alex's freaking office, the dude didn't even think or get suspicious about Alex intervening in between with the truth. Still he dramatically outed himself like a kid's movie villain.
His villain outburst would've looked a bit better if the confrontation was done in any of their own houses with Michael thinking that Ava is alone and blurting out his evil intentions.

📜  And AGAIN we got a time gap for another main aspect of a romance book where the heroine forgives the hero and they live happily ever after.
The grovelling part at the end was the worst part of the book for me. We were just told about a whole year in snippets instead of being shown some bits and pieces gradually through the said year.

Ava is so angry at Alex that she wants absolutely nothing to do with him.
And boom!
One year passes and Ava is like

"Alex and I had developed a new...well, I wasn't sure if I could call it a friendship..... "

and then she proceeds on telling about the pseudo friendship and the events of the year. This skipping actually makes the reading nonsensical despite the plot making full sense.

📜 No comments on Alex singing 🤐.

🧡  Now some parts that I liked in the second half:

▪️Instead of quitting, Ava confronted her fear and overcame it on her own.

▪️Her going after her dreams and taking control of her life.

▪️Her not forgiving Alex instantly.

▪️Josh, Ava's brother, not forgiving Alex for the betrayal.

✨This review has to do with my own likes and dislikes when it comes to books. It wasn't a bad read overall. But it was definitely an overhyped book for me considering how much booktok praises it. So you can still give it a try if you're intrigued by the tropes and the book description. I hope that you enjoy the book.✨
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