Last year, I found out about the “Twisted” series by Ana Huang. This is a very popuar series amongst the Booktok and Bookstagram crowd and I’m always a little hesitant when it comes to such hyped books. However, when I read Twisted Love, I was pleassantly surprised. I’ve read Twisted Games not long after and I enjoyed this equally as much. I intended on finishing the full series by the end of 2023 so I could start with the “Kings of Sin” series in 2024, but that didn’t happen in the end. This review is for Twisted Hate, the third book in the series and there might be minor spoilers for the first two books. Since we follow a different bunch of characters each book, you can read them either as series or as stand alones. The main characters are part of the same group of friends so are connected in some way. Was this book as entertaining as the previous ones?

About the book

He hates her…almost as much as he wants her.

Gorgeous, cocky, and fast on his way to becoming a hotshot doctor, Josh Chen has never met a woman he couldn’t charm—except for Jules f**king Ambrose.

The beautiful redhead has been a thorn in his side since they met, but she also consumes his thoughts in a way no woman ever has.

When their animosity explodes into one unforgettable night, he proposes a solution that’ll get her out of his system once and for all: an enemies with benefits arrangement with simple rules.

No jealousy.

No strings attached.

And absolutely no falling in love.

**

Outgoing and ambitious, Jules Ambrose is a former party girl who’s focused on one thing: passing the attorney’s bar exam.

The last thing she needs is to get involved with a doctor who puts the SUFFER in insufferable…no matter how good-looking he is.

But the more she gets to know him, the more she realizes there’s more than meets the eye to the man she’s hated for so long.

Her best friend’s brother.

Her nemesis.

And her only salvation.

Theirs is a match made in hell, and when the demons from their past catch up with them, they’re faced with truths that could either save them …or destroy everything they’ve worked for.

Twisted Hate is a steamy enemies with benefits/enemies to lovers romance. It’s book three in the Twisted series but can be read as a standalone.

Warning: It contains explicit content, profanity, and topics that may be sensitive to some readers. For details, please see content notes inside the book. Recommended for 18+.

My review

As I really enjoyed the first two books in the series (with Twisted Games probably as my favorite so far), I was really curious for what this book would bring me. Josh Chan, Ava’s brother, is one of our main characters. We saw a few glimpses of him in Twisted Love, as he is both Ava’s brother and Alex’ best friend. Now, we’ve jumped forward a few years and it’s time for this doctor to get settled. Still, the ghosts of his past are haunting him and he has to deal with stuf that happened in Twisted Love. On the other hand we have Jules and she is one of the characters i thought was annoying. I didn’t like her that much in the previous books. She seemed really shallow to me there. Well, there actually is more depth to her character and that shows in this book. We learn more about her past and she also had a lot to deal with. When looking into character growth, I liked Josh better because of the way he had to go before he actually grew. However, I wasn’t a big fan of Josh and Jules as a couple, they – especially in the first half – annoyed me more than I could imagine. I just didn’t feel the chemistry

The writing on the other hand was fine. Huang again chooses to use dual POV narration for this book and personally I like this in romance novels. Both characters play an important role in such books and through a dual POV narration we get to know them both. Also, it provides a good feeling of the chemistry between our main characters. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel it really here. I found the combination of characters a bit strange. Sometimes, that made this book feel a little dragging.

Despite the characters not being totally my cup of tea, I think their background story is interesting. Especially Jules’ since we barely knew anything about her beforehand. As I stated before, i thought she is really shallow. We have learnt a great deal about Josh’ past in Twisted Love, but now it’s all about Jules. From the moment Huang provides hints that something has happened, I wanted to know what that was. Therefore, this book was intriguing. Also, no relationship can go with its ups and downs and that happens in this book as well which is very realistic.

In the end, I enjoyed reading Twisted Hate by Ana Huang, but it’s not my favorite book in this series. To me, Jules is the most interesting character here since I really wanted to know what happened to her in the past. Unfortunately the chemistry was lacking for me and therefore I barely connected to the romance. The writing was again fine, the dual POV narration keeps working well in these books. I’m still curious for Twisted Lies as that book is about Stella. She seems a little boring to me in the other books, so let’s see where this one goes.