I’m really starting to lose my trust in TikTok’s book recommendations.
The title essentially sums up all my thoughts about this monstrosity of a book. Don’t get me wrong, it was what I had signed up for – your classic enemies-to-lovers trope – but there were so many things about this story that just caught me completely off-guard. When I said I wanted enemies to lovers, I didn’t mean it in this way.
Twisted Love by Ana Huang is the first book in the Twisted series, a set of four interconnected stories. This first installment revolves around Ava Chen and Alex Volkov. Ava is portrayed as a softhearted teenage girl, coming to terms with a traumatic childhood she barely remembers. On the complete opposite end of the emotion spectrum, Alex is described as having a “heart made of ice”; he also happens to be Ava’s brother’s best friend. When Ava’s brother Josh jets off to Central America on a year-long volunteer placement, Alex moves into Josh’s house… which happens to be right next door to Ava’s. This summary basically tells you all you need to know about the book, which exploits almost every single Wattpad fanfiction trope in existence.
I picked up this book from the library initially because I really like the enemies-to-lovers trope. There’s something about the intensity of the character’s emotions as they go from barely speaking, slowly tolerating each other, to falling head over heels for each other that I find particularly beautiful because I think it’s a perfect example of what human beings are truly capable of in terms of feeling. I made it through at least half of Twisted Love and really enjoyed it as it delivered exactly what it promised; despite Alex’s questionable morals and behaviour, and Ava’s intense hatred towards him because he was rude beyond belief, there was still that magnetic attraction between them that really raised the stakes of the story. It gave me hope that Alex would change his ways and the two of them could have a fairytale romance.
While they did fall in love, the rest of the book was not exactly what I pictured. The further I read, the more I thought I was reading wasted potential because it was coming across so much like a Wattpad fanfiction. At times, the direction in which the plot was going just wasn’t making sense to me. I won’t spoil too much, but the entire plot twist with Ava’s father was redundant. I understood how it provided closure for Ava due to her trauma and that it helped strengthen the relationship between her and Alex; while supporting her in fighting her demons, he began developing his soft side for her. This was a pivotal point in the characters’ development, but I wonder if there was a better way to create that emotional connection between them that respected the parameters of the current plot. It made me realize that there’s a very delicate balance when writing a contemporary romance, between overusing tropes and cliches that will elevate authors to TikTok fame and creating a genuine relationship between two people that readers can feel connected to.
This book is also very morally gray, partly because Alex is depicted as such an emotionally unavailable character. I think a reasonable level of toxic behaviour from the male character can enhance the storyline, but in this story, the toxic behaviour translated into borderline abuse that was romanticized by the characters themselves and the author. Coupled with the book’s advertising as a romance novel, it watered down the overall quality of the book.
Speaking of which, the other morally gray aspect of this story that really did not sit well with me is the strong emphasis on Ava and Alex’s sexual intercourse, which is incredibly rough in nature. It made me uncomfortable to read at parts because it was so physically aggressive that oftentimes it bordered on domestic violence. It would have been different if it was for the purpose of educating the audience, but that was not the case in this context. The sexual nature of the story also painted Ava in an extremely degrading fashion, which was frustrating because it played into the stereotype of the submissive Asian woman. I think there is a lot more to unpack about this than the book has space to get into, considering that the author is an Asian woman herself.
Overall, while this book was enticing, I did not enjoy this specific execution of the enemies-to-lovers trope. The overuse of tropes completely watered down the book’s potential, which is disheartening as I do enjoy Ana Huang’s writing style. It also tipped the balance of enemies to abusive behaviour, which I think authors should be more careful with portraying in their stories.