3.5
While there is stuff to like here, no one is particularly relatable and I found myself rooting for people I didn't really want to succeed because I disliked them the least. My big complaint is that generic, oversimplified but still bulky, yuck title.

With her latest book, A Twisted Love Story, Samantha Downing proves once again what a talented writer she is. To say the couple this story follows, Wes and Ivy, are dysfunctional is the understatement of the year. They fight, break up, make up, love, and experience every emotion a couple can possibly experience. This started when they were in college and has been going on for the past ten years. Now, during a break up, Ivy decides to punish Wes and accuses him of stalking her. This brings a very determined detective into their lives and things really heat up.

While the flawed relationship exhibited by Wes and Ivy is dramatic, it also begins to become rather repetitive. I began to agree with some of the other characters in the book: I was growing tired of their constant back and forth. I also thought the detective was going to have a different effect on the story. I was very surprised (and disappointed) at how single minded she was. Despite these little quibbles, it was a very enjoyable book.

My copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

Heart pounding thriller that left me on the edge of my seat. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. Definitely one of the best books this year.

📖 A TWISTED LOVE STORY by Samantha Downing

🕵🏻 Ivy and Wes are in love. But the toxic, ruin-your-life, actually-abuse kind of love. They are like magnets, orbiting each other until they crash together. This time, though, the police are involved and looking into a hit and run from years ago that left a man dead. Karen, the detective, thinks there’s a direct link between Ivy and Wes and the crime and doggedly pursues the pair.

👩🏻‍💻 The characters made me uncomfortable, which was probably the point! Watching the games Ivy and Wes play against each other, the manipulation, the lack of honest communication and quick tempers made my stomach churn.

Readers who enjoy a dark, messed up relationship - think Colleen Hoover - will enjoy this book. There’s murder and vengeance and betrayal, which I enjoyed - Karen and Bianca’s
chapters were my favorite, but at the end of the day, the core of the story is this ugly beautiful relationship between two people who would be better apart than together.

Kudos to the author for stirring up feelings inside me I hadn’t looked at for a long time. She does an amazing job of bringing characters to life, their good points and their flaws, and makes them relatable, even in extraordinary circumstances.


TW: toxic relationship - but if you didn’t guess that from the title then I don’t know what to tell you 😂


Thank you to Samantha Downing and the team over at Berkley for this advanced reader copy.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and Samantha Downing for my copy of A Twisted Love Story. Wes and Ivy are in love. They have the kind of love story that people write about. But is it a romance? Or a horror story?

When things are good there are grand gestures, deep conversations, and much needed support. But when things are bad, there are violent fights, damaged property, arrest warrants, and possibly human collateral. Now a detective is involved, and she is looking into Wes and Ivy’s past. There are some things they never talk about, never in public and never in private. That is the night of their worst breakup, when things went too far and someone ended up dead. But now, it seems that those things are coming back to haunt them.

Thoughts: In A Twisted Love Story, Samantha Downing writes about toxic love and a very volatile relationship. She perfectly describes the cycle of abuse and how relationships are sometimes not as they seem. I never know where her stories are going, and this one is no exception. I hated both the main characters and had no idea whose side to be on. Each chapter flipped the narrative and made me question what was really going on.

The Detective was an interesting character because she was on the side of justice, but also was so single minded and informed by her past that she couldn’t see past her own experiences. This was a character driven story where you learn about their intentions in the past and present. I did think the ending was a bit anticlimactic because there were so many directions this story could have gone in. 4-stars.