This review contains mild spoilers for Twisted Games - please read with discretion. You can read my review of Twisted Love on my blog, here.
Making my way back to this series and I have to say that I had the time of my life reading this book. I was constantly giggling and kicking my feet, and there were times where I had to put the book down and start walking laps around my apartment during certain scenes. I was not sure I was going to feel regarding the whole princess and bodyguard trope, and I am so happy to say that I was proven wrong in my skepticism. Bridget is a princess to what I essentially consider Genovia from The Princess Diaries, and Rhys Larson is her newly appointed bodyguard. Initially, I was not sure what their relationship struggle would be, but when Bridget literally says "I don't want to wear the crown," my immediate thought was that I fear she just jinxed herself.
Rhys Larson's first appearance is something a romance reader dreams of - "The biggest man I had ever seen in real life" - Bridget, girl, you and I both cheered and gave a standing ovation. Her immediate distain for him once he started speaking was a key indicator that I knew I would love their banter and relationship, and every chapter after that proved me right. Rhys is so incredibly grumpy and Bridget is essentially a walking ray of sunshine - they are a match made in heaven. The random Jules lore in chapter two had warning signs blaring in my mind, and with the knowledge that she takes the lead in the next installment makes me even more motivated to keep up with the series. Christian Harper popping up as well - I have heard this man's name so many times on TikTok but did not have a clue who he was until this moment.
I literally forgot that Bridget casually got kidnapped with Ava in Twisted Love, and this book backtracks in time, so when the kidnapping happened again, I was cackling that Rhys was more inconvenienced than concerned that the literal princess he was in charge of got kidnapped out of nowhere. I love a good grump, but why was he so dead set on not letting Bridget go to a single concert when she was in her final year at college? I felt so bad for her when all of her friends would go without her and she was basically forced to stay in her house, missing out on these last moments. Sure, Rhys setting up the at-home concert was thoughtful, but he would not have had to do it if he just went with her to the festival instead of making her stay home.
The Rhys perspective chapters had me cackling out loud - he gets mad at her because she has a personality instead of being one dimensional, he is so unserious. That being said, his backstory is so heartbreaking, and the author did a great job in expressing his inner turmoil and the conflicting feelings he has towards his family and his past in the Navy. However, I am a sucker for a tortured past trope, and throw in scars on his back, and I am basically the world's happiest romance reader - two top ten tropes in this book, I never lose.
"...and crawl to me," is CRAZY work and TikTok did not prepare me for the absolute insanity that is Rhys Larson when he is feral for Bridget. He is freaky and fun and such a delight to read about. He is so obsessed with Bridget, and the jealously trope was amazing this entire book - you could tell he was annoyed that he liked her so much, and with their ten year age gap, he was constantly trying to find a reason to not become even more infatuated with her. Everything he says to her is so wild it had me gagged - "You are leaving with a guy. Me." like sir, yes, sir.
Personally, and this is just me, if my brother, who had been training to take the throne for his entire life, abdicated and left me to be first in line knowing that I wanted to live a normal life and marry for love, I would smack him so hard. He would have flown off his horse and into another dimension - you could literally feel the dread fill Bridget up when she realized what his abdication meant for her. Bridget is also so funny, I genuinely enjoyed her personality and can see why everyone wanted to be friends with her. On the other hand, someone needs to get that girl to a therapist as soon as possible - she has so much weighing down on her and she blames herself for things out of her control.
Bridget's grandfather, the literal king, had me so annoyed on so many levels. There was a moment where I thought he was able to propose that Bridget marry her cousin and I was going to faint. The amount of misogyny that pours from his veins and the rest of the advisors was so off-putting and had me truly agitated - I cannot say I was not surprised, but it was so sad to see Bridget slowly become more drained as the days went on. I was actively preying on this man's downfall the entire book. She is literally first in line to the throne and everyone treats her like her only purpose is to become a wife.
"I wasn't a blackmailer," Bridget... you are actively being blackmailed, now is not the time for moral dilemmas and taking the high ground. I literally just completed my cyber security training for work the other day, and Bridget had me stressed to the max. Big shoutout to Alex Volkov for coming in clutch towards the end of this book - sorry for judging you in your own book, but in my defense I thought you were insane for half the things you did to Ava. But I have found it in my heart to forgive you, and when being compared to Rhys who literally never did anything wrong ever, it does not but you in the best light.
There are a ton of time jumps in this book, and at times it began to irritate me - weeks or months would go by and by the end of the book, I had no idea how much actually did pass - maybe three years? Honestly, this is one of the longer romance books I have read, and there were definitely some plot points that could have been resolved quicker - the book started to feel a little too long for my liking.
Imagine being so horny that you plan to overthrow one of parliament's oldest laws... Bridget truly is that girl. I know that Nikolai was happy for her, but do y'all think he was lowkey mad he did not think of it first before he abdicated? The man was trained for twenty-five years to be king and then said goodbye immediately. Maybe it is because I have not read a true romance book in over a month, but I ate this book up and truly enjoyed nearly every minute of it. Ana Huang, you have pulled me into this series and I will certainly be seeing these stories through, and cannot wait to see what is in store for Jules and Josh in Twisted Hate.
You can add Twisted Games on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.
No comments:
Post a Comment