I spent the better part of my weekend devouring this book and absolutely needed to find out what was going to happen next and how it would end.

The short version: I loved it.

Here’s the longer version:

Wes & Ivy have had a ‘never or forever’ relationship since they met in college 10 years ago. The highest of highs. The lowest of lows. They get each other in a way no one else can. And they also bait and taunt and fight and destroy things in the process. When they are together the rest of the world fades away. And no matter what destruction they serve upon each other they can’t stay away.

Back together, yet again, they are in the honeymoon period of sheer bliss. But when the people in their lives find out, everyone is worried. When a detective finds herself in Wes & Ivy’s world, she’s can’t shake her instinct that there is something not quite right and she is going to find out what it is.

Now Wes & Ivy have to put all their games aside, needing each other to survive in a way they never have before.

From the moment I read SAMANTHA DOWNING’s debut, MY LOVELY WIFE, I knew she was an auto-buy author for me. I was struck not just by her writing, but by her willingness to explore the darkest corners of her characters. She doesn’t shy away from exploring all sides of people, and whether or not you agree with people’s choices I think she does an amazing job of making the reader understand her characters.

She also weaves together page-turning stories, all the delicious twists I never see coming and makes me want to read late into the night. I’m such a massive fan of her books and she’s an absolute must-read for thriller fans!

And shoutout to quite possibly the best dedication ever 🙌🏻

Huge thanks to #BerkleyPub & #NetGalley for the eARC. So excited to have the chance to read this and can’t wait for my preorder to arrive and take its rightful place on my shelf!

I’ve read all the books by Samantha Downing so I was thrilled to be approved for the digital ARC. I read this last week and whilst it’s a completely bingeable read it’s not my favourite of hers.

It’s not your usual thriller but more like a romantic suspense and while I’m all for toxic relationships the games between the two protagonists became repetitive. They were twisted characters so I guess I was hoping for things to get darker, especially given the title!

But the author is the queen of twists and this book is no different. It has some good ones which I didn't see coming. I love when that happens.

Overall, it’s definitely a compulsive and enjoyable read!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

🥀Pub Day Review🥀
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Summary: Wes and Ivy are madly in love. They've never felt anything like it. It's the type of romance people write stories about.

But what kind of story?

When it's good, it's great. Flowers. Grand gestures. Deep meaningful conversations where the whole world disappears.

When it's bad, it's really bad. Vengeful fights. Damaged property. Arrest warrants.

But their vicious cycle of catastrophic breakups and head-over-heels reconciliations needs to end fast. Because suddenly, Wes and Ivy have a common enemy--and she's a detective.

There's something Wes and Ivy never talk about--in good times or bad. The night of their worst breakup, when one of them took things too far, and someone ended up dead.

If they can stick together, they can survive anything--even the tightening net of a police investigation.

Because one more breakup might just be their last…
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Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
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My thoughts: Happy Pub day to one of my favorite authors ever @smariedowning !! Thank you @netgalley and @berkleypub for the advanced copy! This one is such a wild ride with the most toxic/hot mess couple you will ever read! I loved This one and really had a hard time figuring out who to believe. So much fun, the perfect summer thriller with an absolutely insane couple 😂this one will make you feel like you are the most calm girlfriend/wife/partner in the world. 😂overall tons of fun with some cool twists that you will not see coming! Beautifully written as usual with the most addictive characters you can’t stop reading about!
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QOTD- what is a fun thriller that released this summer that you highly recommend ?!
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#atwistedlovestory #samanthadowning #bookreview #bookrecommendation #bibliophile #bookobsessed #bookaddict #bookaesthetic #bookish #booklover #bookworm #bookwormsunite #readersofinstagram #readersgonnaread #readmorebooks #readersofig #thrillerbooks #thrillerreads

Talk about toxicity on the highest level! 🫢 Ivy and Wes practically *screamed* red flags 🚩 🚩

Something I absolutely love about Samantha’s books are the short chapters!! They’re the way to my heart! I also enjoyed the detective work in this book and trying to piece together what happened. But I do feel like there was something missing and the ending felt rushed and unfinished. Nevertheless a fun and twisted love story! 😉

📖📚📝
•multiple povs
•quick reads
•toxic/abusive relationships

So ever since My Lovely Wife, I have had a huge expectation in Downing but I need to lower it because nothing can live up to it. I know it's harsh but this is my biggest let down of the year. Unfortunately, this was pointless. There's no mystery or thrill or suspense. It's just drama between a toxic couple and the people around them. I was bored out of my mind and can't believe I finished it. I started this April 30th and finished July 16th.. I never take that long to finish books!! I'm hoping I will enjoy her next book though.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book!

Samantha Downing's latest is perfectly titled, because I haven't read a more twisted love story in recent memory. Wes and Ivy love each other, I think, but they're also addicted to each other, completely and totally obsessed. The things they will do to get each other's attention really has no boundaries, but they're also bound together by a secret, something that neither of them has ever told anybody else, and, when it starts to come out, the result is explosive and oh so fun to read about.. Wes and Ivy are dysfunctional, but they're also so very entertaining.

Outlier alert, found this one to be just ok.

Wes and Ivy have an on again/off again relationship. Their passion runs high but their tempers run hot as well. Their friends and family think they are awful and toxic for each other, and so they try to stay away, but something always draws them back in. Ivy goes to the police after she receives many creepy notes and gifts indicating she is being stalked. She names Wes as a possible suspect, so the police detective Karen pays him a visit. This sends Wes and Ivy back into each other's orbits with shocking repercussions.

I did not like ANY of the characters. I wasn't rooting for anyone because they all had their own agendas. I wanted Ivy and Wes to just grow up, to knock off their horrible behavior. There are some decent surprises, but it just didn't captivate me like I wanted it to.

Like I said, I'm an outlier. There are many positive reviews for this book. Give it a try if you think it sounds good, it has short chapters which keep the story moving even when the characters are stuck.

A Twisted Love Story by Samantha Downing is twisted in the best possible way. Every single character is completely unhinged and I loved it. I never knew what anyone was going to do, I was always waiting for the next shoe to drop. I was immediately drawn in by Ivy and her relationship with Ben. Both seemingly normal people, until they come together. It was toxic but oh, so enjoyable for me. A Twisted Love Story gets 5 stars from me and I’ll be immediately getting He Started It.

Samantha Downing is my favorite thriller author. I recommend her first book, MY LOVELY WIFE, to everyone that ask for a great thriller read.

Her newest book is just what the title says…it’s a truly twisted love story about Wes and Ivy who have had an “on again off again”relationship for over a decade.

When they are “off again”, Ivy calls with a stalker complaint to the police and gently suggests that Wes is the stalker.

That complaint begins a domino effect that stirs up a past crime, has a present death, and has a very determined detective named Karen that feels she needs to save Ivy from Wes.

Samantha came through with another great read. There are plenty of morally grey characters to enjoy and plenty of layers of deceit to unravel during the read.

In A Twisted Love Story, Ivy and Wes are in crazy and toxic love affair. They bring out the best and worst in each other.

They love madly and behave badly.

When their past mistakes come back to haunt them, and include a police investigation, can their love save them?

This one is not my favorite of hers. I kept waiting for a big twist and it never came. There wasn't all that much going on in the book for most of it.

Wes and Ivy are in love, but this book is not your typical love story!

I loved Samantha Downing’s first book, My Lovely Wife so I was so excited when I got approved for an ARC of A Twisted Love Story. This book wasn’t exactly what I was expecting because it read more like romantic/domestic suspense rather than the thriller I was hoping for.

The first half was a slow burn where we get a lot of information about Wes and Ivy’s past and their toxic relationship. In the second half of the book, the pace picks up, and we get the twists we expect to see from Downing. I didn’t see a lot of these twists coming, and I think Downing did a good job of putting all the pieces together at the end.

Although this book wasn’t my favorite, I have read so many good reviews. People who enjoy romantic suspense, toxic relationships, and some crazy twists that they won’t see coming should definitely check this one out.

Thank you Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for advanced copies in exchange for my honest review. Special thanks to @berittalksbooks and @dg_reads for hosting our buddy read.

Thank you NetGalley, Berkley, and Samantha Downing for the advanced copy of A Twisted Love Story in exchange for my honest review.

I don't think a book title has ever so *perfectly* encompassed a book. Wes and Ivy were absolutely cuckoo for cocoa puffs, and yet I couldn't stop rooting for them. I loved that we got chapters from both of their points of view, and a couple other side characters as well.

I also weirdly loved that Wes and Ivy weren't the only completely unhinged characters in the story. Everyone being so unlikeable weirdly made the book that much more enjoyable for me.

A Twisted Love Story will be on US bookshelves July 18!

Read about 50 pages and it wasn’t grabbing me- felt pretty immature and I didn’t feel compelled to continue…

Not for me. The whole book is about a super toxic relationship. And at the end they're like "all relationships are toxic" (not a direct quote). Ummm no they're not. The timeline was confusing; sometimes I couldn't tell if they were in the present or a flashback. But I kept reading wondering where it was going... It doesn't go anywhere exciting...

This wasn't really for me. I generally like thrillers that have really soapy and dramatic plot points, as I am always entertained by the really fun and outrageous places that stories like that can go. But I think that the problem I had with this book was that the protagonists, Wes and Ivy, weren't really fun in their dramatics and histrionics and toxic relationship. There wasn't much nuance or complexity to them, and on top of that the mystery itself didn't really compel me as much as I had hoped it would. I called a lot of the twists pretty early and there was one twist that felt a bit forced in and didn't really do much for the plot. That said, I did like the detective character and I liked getting into her mind and seeing how her background and experiences influence her devotion and obsession with helping victims of domestic abuse.

I had high hopes for A TWISTED LOVE STORY but it didn't work for me. Your mileage may vary!

Thanks to Berkley for a copy of A Twisted Love Story by Samantha Downing.

I loved For Your Own Good Last Year so was eagerly anticipating A Twisted Love Story but I was disappointed.

I don't mind extremely unlikeable characters (both Ivy and Wes were so unlikeable and toxic) but this took it to a whole new level.
And overall I was bored. There was a lot going on and nothing at the same time. It was very repetitive and overall just not a book for me.

A Twisted Love Story
Samantha Downing
Thank you @berkleypub and @letstalkbookspromo {partner}

This was my first Samantha Downing book and let me tell ya 😳 I’m not sure how I feel about it. I loved the juicy manipulations and it kept me hooked. It was like a train wreck, I couldn’t look away. Wes and Ivy were crazy in love and talk about dysfunctional, but a little cute 😜 I’m not a huge fan of crime procedurals and this was a little heavy on that angle for me. I didn’t particularly love the ending.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

This book is bananas in the very best way.  Ivy and Wes met in college and have broken up and gotten back together constantly over the past 10 years.  They are on a break when a detective shows up at Wes's office to question him about Ivy's accusation that she is stalking him.  When you might think this would cause Wes to be upset with Ivy and stay away from her, instead the incident only encourages the two to get back together.

From there, all is chaos.  Ivy and Wes have a truly toxic relationship.  It really kept me on my toes because I could never guess what they were thinking before they thought it or what they were going to do next.  There is a cold case murder mystery, an attack in the office, an angry fiancée and a secret hookup all entwined throughout the book.  The characters aren't exactly likeable but they are not meant to be.  You just love how absolutely crazy they are and don't know who to root for or believe from one minute to the next.

If you love a good domestic drama/thriller, this would be the perfect book for you.  There is also an aspect of police procedurals here as well as a touch of workplace gossip.  It all reads like your favorite show on Bravo and I am here for it!  If you're looking for a good time, pick this one up.

I am a BIG fan of Samantha Downing and her newest does not disappoint!

Exploring Wes and Ivy’s twisted, messed up, like REALLY messed up “love story” of the past 10 years. Crime is involved. And the cops….

If i could describe this book with one word it would be captivating. I don’t know how she does it! She creates these toxic, all around bad characters, and they are twisted, but you can’t help but root for them, despite how terrible they are.

I flew through this book so fast, it has short chapters that you can’t help but jump into the next over and over.

What's it about (in a nutshell):
A Twisted Love Story by Samantha Downing is just what the title says – a twisted love story that is every inch a psychological thriller, plus part mystery and a tiny part police procedural.

My Reading Experience:
This story has two very distinct parts (even though they aren't marked as such). The first half sets the stage and introduces the reader to all of the players, and the second half settles down and focuses on a death and the discovery of who did it and how.

I grew frustrated and confused with the first half as I wondered where the story was trying to go and why I wanted to go there with it. The second half, however, was more to my liking. It's focused and fast-paced and has so many delightful twists and turns.

I loved the portrayal of Wes and Ivy's relationship, in a thriller story regard, throughout the story. I've never experienced a connection like that, fortunately. However, still, it felt toxically authentic – sort of like a Bonnie and Clyde type of situation.

I also loved the mystery aspect once the story finally honed into what that would be. I honestly had no clue of the who or why, but it is well-developed with plenty of red herrings that ended up having more to do with who said what and why than the actual crime. Most plot threads are brought together at the end to explain all the answers to my questions.

This story is very freaky and very unique in its freakiness. I enjoyed that about it because I seldom run into thrillers that are this kind of unusual. I don't know what to say about it other than it's an experience. That's the best way I can describe it.

Characters:
The story is about the relationship between Wes and Ivy, who met in college and have had an off-and-on relationship for the last ten years. Other than the relationship, though, I can't say I learned much about them.

That was probably due to the narration style of the book because I also didn't feel like they were two-dimensional. They felt very nuanced to me.

Narration & Pacing:
The narration is told through 4 different characters, the most minor of which is Abagail – the assistant for the sales staff at Siphon (where Wes works). Wes, Ivy, and the police detective Karen were the primary narrators. I would call all of the narrators somewhat unreliable, which added to the craziness of the story.

The pace is fast, especially in the last half of the story.

Setting:
It is set in California in a small city/large town near Sacramento. The setting doesn't play a part in the story, but it is mentioned several times. I would have loved the setting to have more of a role in the story.

Read if you're in the mood for:
A very mysterious, as well as dark and tense, psychological thriller
Unreliable narrators whose flaws are the focus of the story.
Toxic and unlikable characters you can't help but root for.