Twisted by Emma Chase
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at Romancing Rakes For The Love Of Romance.
When I was approved to review TWISTED, I was so happy that I think I actually squealed. TANGLED was one of my favorite books of 2013 and this first sequel was near the top of my most anticipated reads for this year. But now that I’ve read TWISTED, and had some time to ponder my reactions to it, all I can do for that previous version of me is pat her on the hand and make vaguely sympathetic noises. To say I felt blindsided by TWISTED is an understatement. How about sucker-punched? Betrayed? Enough about me – let’s talk about the book.
The original conceit of TANGLED was its funny and touching 1st person POV of Drew Evans, an admitted manwhore who met his match in the only woman he’d wanted who had actually turned him down. Drew was a winning character in spite of all his shortcomings, and in their story told entirely from his side, we got to see the initial surface dislike he and Kate had shared slowly give way to a genuine romance, complete with a sweet and touching Happy For Now.
Fast forward two years, and here we are at the beginning of TWISTED, which is told entirely from the side of Kate Brooks, the woman who showed Drew that one true love is light years better than a million fleeting sexual conquests. (Or so we had been led to believe.) Just like TANGLED, TWISTED begins at what is actually close to the ending, with the bulk of the story being an extended flashback. So we know right away that something terrible is about to happen, and can only squirm helplessly as it lurches toward us like an especially gruesome slow moving train wreck. And for me, when that train went off the rails, so did the rest of TWISTED, and even more horribly than I could have ever predicted.
Because TWISTED’s entire plot relies on what I consider the worst execution of the infamous Big Misunderstanding I’ve read in any recently published romance novel, requiring the reader to suspend all critical judgment and believe in an increasingly implausible series of events. It expects you to believe that Drew would instantly jump to the most awful conclusion about something that could have easily been explained in a five minute conversation (“Who’s Bob?” “That’s my doctor. Her full name is Roberta.”) It expects you to believe that Drew would decide to react in the most offensive way imaginable after having jumped to this completely wrong conclusion mere hours before (again, without bothering to have the simple conversation that adults not in this book would have at least considered). And then it expects you to believe that although Kate first responded to Drew’s insane behavior in the same way pretty much anyone in her position would do, she would then assume she knew exactly why he had done this terrible thing and decide to leave him, her job, and her life as she knew it, without any explanation to anyone else.
Yet this was just the start of the madness. When Kate arrived in her hometown to recover and regroup, none of the people around her – not a one! – ever suggested that perhaps she might want to reach out to Drew to try and fix things. Later we discovered from Kate’s good friend Delores that everyone in Drew’s life also automatically believed his version of why they split up. Really? So even when Delores knew what Kate believed, and Matthew knew what Drew believed, Delores and Matthew never once compared notes or traded explicit accusations? I was especially surprised that not a single one of the lengthy cast of secondary characters in this story ever took it upon themselves to confront the supposed offender directly. For a brief moment, I hoped Kate’s mother would be the one to put an end to this tortured farce when she threatened to go to New York to yell at Drew herself. But that never happened. It was only pages and pages later that Kate finally relented and asked for Drew, but only after she nearly lost what she wasn’t quite sure she wanted. And it was only then that they finally had the conversation they should have had at the start. Sigh.
Although I understood the ending of TANGLED wasn’t a final Happily Ever After, I did believe I had come to know these two characters, and that perceived knowledge is what made the ill-conceived Big Misunderstanding driving the plot of TWISTED all the more hurtful for me. Because the Drew Evans *I* knew and loved would not have immediately believed the worst of the woman *he* knew and loved, and the Kate Brooks *I* knew and loved would have never given up the love of her life without a fight to the death. All I can do now is treat TWISTED as an aberrant deviation into the darkest timeline, and wait for the final resolution to Drew and Kate’s romance in TIED later this year. I can only hope that it’s more like TANGLED and less like this one. *fingers crossed*
Favorite Quote:
Anyway, now’s about the time I start spouting off some pearls of wisdom.
Advice.
But given the events of the last year, it’s become increasingly obvious that I don’t know what the f*ck I’m talking about.
