REVIEW: Twisted by Emily McIntire

Twisted by Emily McIntire: Set up like a contemporary dark fairy-tale, Twisted follows Princess Yazmin, heir to her father’s fortune as head of Sultan’s Diamonds. And for Yazmin, her charmed life has had patriarchal layers clearly outlined so much so that her father’s dying wish is that she will marry before he passes so that he can pass his legacy onto her husband.

As her father’s health deteriorates, it is clear he is trying to set her up with old business men and as things progress from bad to worse she is forced to give up the boy she has loved for her lifetime in place of Julian, her arch nemesis and father’s right hand man.

Despite the contemporary context, Twisted holds to some of the Aladdin retelling traditions, but unfortunately it didn’t always work and made for multiple contradictions in narrative structure and plot. Julian, whilst set up as the murderous villain that he was, had a relatively sympathetic character arc, and despite Yasmin claiming she loathed and detested him, it was evident she didn’t. Having had a crush on him in her teens, it appears that infatuation never really dissolved. And quite likely Julian was grooming her all along.

Whilst there were some key moments that were entertaining, it felt forced and at times a little gratuitous – particularly the criminality lurking beneath Julian’s surface. And rather than leveraging on some of the original plot line, this dark romance fell into a repetitious pattern of kill, shag, kill, shag…angry face…hot love so much so that things just didn’t gel together. Whilst there were some hot scenes littered throughout, this one wasn’t the dark happy ever after that sings the song of love and depth or taps into the better elements of fairy-tales re-imagined.

Book Info:

Publication: 7th February 2023 | Bloom Books | Never After #4

Yasmin Karam, daughter to one of the richest men in the world, has never known strife. So, when her beloved father falls ill, she’s determined to make his final days his happiest. His last wish? To see her married to a man of his choosing. Except Yasmin’s heart already belongs to someone else. A servant. A street rat. A man her father would never consider worthy. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Yasmin strikes a desperate deal with her father’s right-hand man, Julian, not realizing he has his own twisted agenda.

Julian Faraci has one goal: become the most powerful man in the world. He’s built a future from broken bones and faded bruises, never caring who he hurt along the way. But when his mentor falls ill, he finds himself on the verge of losing everything, and he’ll stop at nothing to inherit what is rightfully his. Even if it means forcing a woman he can’t stand into marriage.

Yasmin is a brat who speaks out of turn, and he’s the villain of her story. But he decides she’ll be his—no matter what it takes to convince her.