Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - Twisted Love

Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Twisted Love by Ana Huang

41 reviews

romancereader's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

-This book was really good i put off reading it for awhile and then today i said screw it im going to just start this series and i was not disappointed at all Alex and Ava😍😍😍to die for i lovedddddd how much alex changed somewhat for the better for Ava and i loved how he never stopped trying to win her back I could just feel every emotion that came from this book it was really good j definitely give this book five stars⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️-

Content Warnings

abception's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Twisted Love follows Ava - a photography student - and Alex - the COO of a massive corporation, and best friend of Ava's brother - as they live next door to one another following Ava's brother departure to Central America for a year of volunteering. Given it's marketing as a dark romance, and a billionaire x still rich but not a millionaire pairing, this book was outside of my comfort zone (but since last year I would have said that of romance entirely, I thought I would take a chance) but I was a lot more uncomfortable than I expected.

My biggest issue with this book, which took any and all potential enjoyment out of it for me, is that Alex is a terrible person, in a very abusive, disrespectful, aggressive way, and that over the course of the book he did nothing to redeem himself - instead, he got worse, and the book actually culminates

in a pretty disturbing case of stalking that the reader is supposed to find romantic.

First of all, very early on in the book, Alex tells Ava (on the authority of being asked by her brother to 'look out for her'): 1. what she can and cannot wear (cannot: anything he deems too revealing (except for the scenes requiring her to be wearing something sexy for him)), 2. who she can and cannot be around (can: women, can't: men), and 3. what she can and cannot do (can: self-defence classes chosen by him, can't: boudoir photography, going anywhere alone). As well as constantly belittling her feelings or outlook on things as childish or optimistic and therefore silly.

Secondly, he is extremely aggressive in a multitude of ways, e.g.:

• Early on in the novel, he decides he no longer wants to maintain a sexual relationship with a 'friends with benefits' type of situationship (minus the friendship) - but doesn't inform the woman of this - and when the woman approaches him for the first time after he's decided this without communicating it, he speaks to her very aggressively, culminating in him telling her "I'm not above ruining women". It's worth noting, towards the end of the novel he follows through on the threat and tanks her family's business, leading to her father ending up in prison (something he does multiple times throughout the book).

• Towards the end of the novel, after some turmoil that disrupts the protagonists' relationship, one of Ava's friends approaches him and tries to get him to admit his real feelings about Ava, and tell him that Ava is not doing well since their separation. During this conversation, Alex is extremely argumentative and fantasises about physically harming Ava's friends for having the audacity to take an argumentative tone back at him.

• Generally, he approaches every single problem with threats of financial ruin or violence, if not outright reacting with violence.

Thirdly, he is an out-and-out stalker. From the very beginning of the book, he wants to know where Ava is at all times, and will go out of his way to track down her location and show up if she goes an hour without responding to his messages/calls. That's pretty common fare for a 'dark romance' so I was expecting slightly toxic behaviour like this. However, while separated from Ava, he hires a private investigator/bodyguard to stalk Ava with the excuse that he's protecting her, despite making the PI report all of her actions back to him. Furthermore, Ava later moves to another country and he again hires someone to stalk her, before then dismissing them so he can do it personally. He follows Ava to and from work, he follows her while she's out with friends, he bombards her with unwanted gifts and stays in the vicinity of her home - all after informing Ava that she would not be able to get a restraining order against him because of his contacts in the government. This is highly romanticised (it does in fact eventually win the MC over) which was really disturbing to me, since most women would find this incredibly scary, and rightfully so.

A few other problems with Alex, specifically, are:
• He's a CEO (derogatory) - he literally treats people like dirt, he financially ruins people with no empathy at all, he looks down on all of his employees and is overall an entitled prick.

• When Ava's ex stalks her (for whatever reason, when he did it it was bad, but when Alex did the same thing it was romantic) and then attacks her, Alex's first response (after beating him) is to blame Ava for it, because she didn't follow his orders to take Krav Maga classes.

• When Ava decides to get a swimming instructor after Alex romantically rejects her, Alex tells her "If you think I'm going to let some fucker swoop in and take what's mine, you don't know me at all" - a very normal response to someone you just told you don't want to date saying they would do a non-sexual/romantic activity with someone else.

On the other hand, I had no problems with Ava whatsoever - with the exception of wishing her experiences of mental illness (i.e., insomnia, panic attacks, flashbacks, repressed memories) was more fleshed out and less 1-dimensional. She was a really sweet and loveable character, and I would have definitely enjoyed a novel with her characterisation in a less disturbing romantic situation.

Outside of Alex's problematic characterisation, I also disliked Huang's:
1. Unrealistic depiction of flashbacks
2. Constant references to sex (this is just a personal preference)

3. The same 'plot twist' twice in short succession
4. 1-dimensional/cartoonishly evil villains
5. How overpowered Alex is

The writing of the main characters' trauma (both Alex and Ava) really did not read as realistic/well-fleshed-out to me - primarily, due to the depictions of flashbacks for both characters. Very early on in the book, both Ava and Alex experience flashbacks in the middle of completely mundane/untriggering conversations. For example, Alex has a flashback

to his family's death

in the middle of a normal conversation with his best friend, and it was really jarring to be reading small talk/banter one sentence, and the details of a traumatic event the next. Admittedly, this could have been Huang's attempt to write PTSD representation - though there is no reference to either MC having PTSD, despite both experiencing extremely traumatic events - but it was poor writing regardless to include flashbacks without triggers (something I feel fairly confident saying as someone who has had experiences with PTSD flashbacks).

As for the same 'plot twist' (a familial betrayal) occuring twice in close succession to one another - I found this really lacklustre (it felt like Huang couldn't think of another way to write a conflict), especially because the first time this happened it wasn't really necessary for the plot to move forward so it felt like a throwaway event that was there so Alex could come to Ava's rescue. Also, it was compounded by both betrayers being cartoonishly evil antagonists with no real depth in character, as well as Alex being annoyingly overpowered since he could solve every problem in the plot with a snap of his billionaire fingers and either a cheque or a well-placed email to one of his many, many unnamed business/government/criminal connections.

Overall, I would not recommend this novel to anyone due to the disturbing romanticisation of criminal harassment and abusive/controlling behaviour - and, I'm not happy that I bought the rest of the series before reading (though I'm crossing my fingers that Huang writes at least one romantic male lead that isn't just plain abusive).

Content Warnings

chloelj27's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

coco78337's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

booksofautumn's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

sdemo08's review against another edition

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tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I wasn't sure how I felt in the beginning but the story begins picking up the pace somewhere near the middle. Ultimately? I ended up liking this book. The beginning was moderately placed. I thought I had reached the ending wrap-up but really it was about 65% so that threw me for a loop. The remainder of the book was very quick-paced with two plot twists that took me from reading the book to enjoying the storyline and anticipating the next one.

[Sun/cloud on "black" crocheted book blanket.]

Content Warnings