Book Review: Twisted Love
Most people thought the biggest sacrifice they could make was to die for something. They were wrong. The biggest sacrifice someone could make was to live for something
What is it about romance novels with horrendously toxic men that we just love? In real life we would run, but hay! This is the world of fiction and in fiction it doesn’t seem to matter. And why should it when the male lead is utterly gorgeous, is ripped as fuck, successful, clever, witty and will go above and beyond for you. Or in this case would literally burn the house down. Just. For. You. Now I’m not saying that this is a healthy thing for men to do, (whatever happened to flowers?) but it does make for a good romance drama. You’ve got to admit, anyone who reads romance novels (that are so steamy they’d melt the polar ice caps) wants and is here for the drama. Because that is what this book is, dramatic, romantic, or, as Lady Caroline Lamb described Lord Byron “Mad, Bad and Extremely Dangerous”.
Dear Ana, please don’t take it personally when I say this book won’t be winning the Nobel Prize for Literature any time soon, but it does win for how addictive this book is. Like, I couldn’t put it down. I read it in a day. I HAD to know what happened next. You have the heroine, Ava Chen: sweet, smart, creative photographer who likes to see the best in the world. (Also win for having an Asian female lead!) And then you have Alex Volkov: dark, mysterious, wealthy as fuck, genius, utterly gorgeous and beguiling. Also, somewhat of a fuck boy. He is the antithesis of Ava. But here is the thing. They both have drama and some pretty heavy baggage to boot. So, when they collide, they don’t just collide with some damp squib of a bang. Think Nuclear Fusion, think the smashing of particles at CERN moving faster than the speed of light, then you’ll get what I mean. But in this case, when things collide, in scientific terms, they’ll either react to give an almost endless source of light and energy or create a chasm, a black hole which sucks the light in. A little poetic for a book review, true. But there is, with two such opposing characters, the inevitable heartbreak.
‘Twisted Love’ is exactly what it says on the tin, the love story is twisted and the plot, in and of itself, is full of surprise twists and turns. Some of which I didn’t see coming. And I’ve been reading a lot of Agatha Christie lately so I was actually impressed by some of the twists. For those wondering whether if this book is worth the read because of the inevitable heartbreak. Yes, it is. It does have a happy ending for Ava and Alex. Do they go to hell and back? Yes. Is it worth it? I’ll let you, dear reader, decide that. This book is an easy read, and as I later found out, very popular with the kids on social media: namely TikTok. But don’t let that guide you. It’s a fun read and it does pull on the old heartstrings. Will it give you unrealistic expectations in men? Yeaaaahhhh… kinda. Maybe not in terms of the toxicity, but the ‘going above and beyond for the person you love’ is what makes this novel. God damn it.