I surrendered to the trend and read the entire "Twisted" series which has been a BookTok sensation for a while now. I don't know why. The "Twisted" series is written by Ana Huang and it contains four books "Twisted Love," "Twisted Games," "Twisted Hate" and "Twisted Lies." The books are considered to romantic drama books with some thriller elements, but I think that they already land in the dark romance land. Each book is a stand-alone book, but they are slightly connected. There is a group of four college girlfriends that are towards the end of their college days and each book follows a different woman, her life and her relationship with a different man. Since they are friends the same characters continue to show up in each other's books, so you can still keep up with them. If you are looking for a literary masterpiece then this isn't it. It's just entrainment.
Some books I get the hype, some books I don't. This was in the middle. Unlike "Icebreaker" and "The Spanish Love Deception" these books are readable. You won't give up after a few chapters. The characters have some redeeming and sympathetic elements. Even though all of the women are too happy and optimistic and all of the men are too good looking for it to be real, are all dominating male-alpha and all have tragic pasts. At some point the books do feel like more of the same, but if this is your cup of tea, that not might be a bad thing. Also, the smutty elements in the book were totally not to my liking so it didn't make me like the books more. The thriller aspects felt a bit forced, like the book forcefully wants to have more plot that isn't just romance, and I think people like the second book best, because it doesn't have that part. Sometimes plot is overrated and you need embrace it. Maybe most romantic books are terrible and this is why this series is so popular. I don't usually read a lot of romance. But this series was almost fun and sort of entertaining.
The first book "Twisted Love" follows Eva Chang. She see all the good in world despite of her unclear traumatic past. When her brother leaves for an extended period of time, he leaves his best friend Alex Volkov with orders to keep an eye out of Eva. Eva has a tendency to get into trouble. Volkov too, has a traumatic past and he spends his entire life in pursuit of revenge. But his friend's request puts him in a direct collision course with Eva.
"Twisted Games" follows Eva's friend, Bridget von Ascheber is a princess of a made-up country. Her regular bodyguard must leave her, so she is assigned with a new one, Rhys Larsen. They hate each other from the start, but there is a thin line between love and hate. Apparently. There are many obstacles in their way, including the fact that she must marry someone of royal blood.
Speaking of fine lines between love and hate "Twisted Hate" follows Jules Ambrose, Eva's best friend, and Eva's brother Josh Chen. They hate each other from the moment that they meet as Jules was assigned to be Eva's roommate. But when they are forced to work in the same place things get even more complicated.
"Twisted Lies" follows the last couple, Stella Alonso and Christian Harper who is Rhys Larsen's boss. She is a kindhearted fashion influencer, he is the owner of a privet security company and of the apartment building Stella lives in. They are forced into close proximity when Stella's stalker becomes a serious problem.
The male protagonist of the second book is the only not morally grey character from the men. He is just an alpha jerk. He has no criminal recorder. While the rest of the men aren't just morally grey, they are criminals. Especially, Alex and Harper. Like, seriously criminals. Which to me means these are dark romance books, because that's the definition for me. Their criminal behavior should be the deal breaker. So yeah, not romance, dark romance. I think I would have enjoyed the books more if I would have known that in advance. But they're okay. I didn't feel invested in the books, but they were a pleasant distraction.
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