What's to like: The mushy feeling you get when reading a bad boy romance and experiencing a complex web of characters woven across the books.
This series has been incredibly popular among bookstagrammers, and rightfully so. It follows the lives of four college roommates at Thayer University, who are in their 20s, navigating friendship, love, and hard work. Their love lives, however, add just the right amount of SPICE (wink wink) to their stories.
Twisted Love: A grumpy/sunshine love story, this book centers around Ava Chen, a photography major with a fear of water bodies caused by a childhood incident where she almost drowned. Her relationship with her father is strained and somewhat confusing due to his bias toward her elder brother, Josh. However, she loves her brother and father wholeheartedly. Ava is a little naïve and wants to believe in the good in everyone.
When Josh goes away on a medical camp, he entrusts Ava’s safety to his best friend, Alex Volkov. Alex moves into Josh’s house, next door to Ava on the university campus. A force of nature, Alex is the billionaire CEO of a real estate company, which he built at a young age using the inheritance left by his parents after their death. His sole surviving relative, his uncle, aids him in pursuing a secret revenge plan: avenging his family’s death. Alex trusts no one but his uncle and Josh. However, as he begins protecting Ava and her friends push him to express his emotions, both Alex and Ava discover hidden parts of themselves through each other.
Twisted Games: This book dives into a royal romance with Bridget von Ascheberg, a princess studying at Thayer. Despite being the "spare" heir, Bridget fulfils her royal duties alongside her studies. Her life changes when her personal bodyguard is replaced by Rhys Larsen, an uptight, rule-abiding man who takes his clients' safety very seriously. Rhys values his privacy, but something about Bridget’s loneliness begins to chip away at his emotional armor.
Things become even more complicated when Bridget’s grandfather, the king of Eldora, falls ill, and her elder brother—next in line for the throne—abdicates his position to marry a commoner. This forces Bridget to become the heir, requiring her to balance the immense responsibility of stepping into the royal spotlight with her forbidden feelings for Rhys, who supports her as both her protector and a man she might not be able to have.
Twisted Hate: This enemy-to-lovers tale revolves around Jules Ambrose, Ava’s best friend, and Josh Chen, Ava’s protective brother. Jules is an ambitious, aspiring lawyer with a hidden past, while Josh is a soon-to-be successful doctor. Their animosity defines their dynamic as much as it defines their personalities. Josh distrusts Jules, believing she’s trouble for Ava’s safety. Meanwhile, Jules is determined to rise above the shadows of her past.
Forced to work together, they call a truce to maintain peace (but honestly, who are they kidding?). As Jules’ web of lies unravels, she and Josh begin to develop feelings for each other, setting the stage for a passionate and complicated romance.
Twisted Lies: This billionaire romance introduces Stella Alonso, a social media influencer juggling two jobs to make a name for herself in a field far removed from her family’s expectations. Despite her online fame, Stella values her privacy, which was once threatened by a stalker. To outsiders, she appears calm and composed, but Christian Harper sees through her facade.
Christian, the billionaire CEO of Harper Security, is Rhys’ former employer and Alex’s chess rival. He helped Jules in a tricky situation earlier, solidifying his place within the friend group. Christian becomes obsessed with understanding Stella’s generosity and resolve. A twist of fate leads Stella to move into an apartment owned by Christian, where they strike a deal to help her increase her social media visibility. As Christian’s curiosity deepens, Stella discovers the spark they share.
While all four books follow the pattern of meetup → fall in love → breakup → patch up, and the series stands out because of the relationships among the characters. It beautifully explores the nuances and growth of a close-knit group of friends who mature individually while growing together. Though the books can be read in any order, I recommend reading them sequentially to fully experience Ana Huang’s masterful storytelling.
Scenes to Look Out For:
There’s a standout scene in each book that readers will adore:
- Twisted Love: The phone call scene
- Twisted Games: The throne scene
- Twisted Hate: The library scene
- Twisted Lies: The boat scene
SPICE LEVELS THROUGH THE ROOF!
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