Chaotic, dark and toxic, a book that really grabs you by the neck.

I found it gripping but I'm not sure this would be suitable for anyone that has lived in a toxic relationship.

There were points when I felt this book glamourized some very dark topics.

I have previously loved samantha downings books however this book did not live up to my expectations, it felt just a bit flat and predictable.

Not a fan of this book at all. I really didn't like the characters or the storyline. It wasn't for me at all. But it will be for some so sorry for my review but I'm sure others will like it.

Well if that’s what constitutes love I’m amazed my marriage has survived as long and as happily as it has. What a nasty pair Wes and Ivy are and with nothing to redeem themselves as far as I could see.
Not a winner for me mainly because I just couldn’t get over this odd couple.

I enjoyed this but it was super thrilling. It did remind me of some of the toxic relationships that my friends are involved in and I saw myself relating to some of the people thinking WTF. Good read if you are nosey and like drama.

Wes and Ivy have the kind of relationship you expect to read about in a Samantha Downing book , majorly dysfunctional to everyone but themselves . they are constantly breaking up and getting back together repeatedly pushing each other to their limits . When Ivy goes one step too far and involves the police you know we are heading for trouble .
Entertaining and fast paced I would recommend

My thanks to NetGalley and Michael Joseph Publishing for a copy of “ Twisted Love Story” for an honest review.
I’ve really enjoyed other books by Samantha Downing but unfortunately this new book by her just wasn’t for me.I really struggled to get into the story of a toxic relationship with unpleasant characters , and by the end I’d just lost interest.

Wes and Ivy have been together for ten years but it’s been a very rocky and unsettled ten years. They’ve been apart more times than they should over those ten years as they’ve fallen out over something but they always end up back together. They are obsessed with each other but not in a healthy way and they always gravitate towards each other again.

Detective Karen Colglazier is investigating a stalker and the person being stalked is Ivy. Ivy tells the detective that she’s sure it’s Wes that’s stalking her. Karen is determined to find out what’s happened and she’s sure that Ivy is being manipulated and emotionally abused by Wes.

Wes and Ivy have a big secret that they never talk about and they both know that it’s something that could ruin them. They try to live their lives and keep this secret hidden. But secrets have a habit of coming out and they soon find themselves reliving the nightmare and trying to deal with it while at the same time trying to get Karen off their backs.

I really enjoyed this book, thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advance copy - I would definitely recommend this book.

Well.. this book definitely lived up to its title! This was a completely twisted story of manipulation, mind games and revenge, centred around Wes and Ivy’s toxic, and utterly dysfunctional, relationship.

I absolutely adore Samantha’s work, (MY LOVELY WIFE being one of my all time favourite books!) but sadly, I wasn’t 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘺 about this one. It’s definitely slower paced compared to her previous work, with less shock factor and more character study. More romantic suspense than thriller.. and at the risk of sounding unhinged, it just wasn’t as twisted as I’d have liked/anticipated😅

Having said the above, I was gripped and intrigued enough to keep flying through the pages, the morally grey characters were dark, chilling + well written, and the reveals and twists were clever. In fairness to this book, I’ve been crashed out most days, still half dead from night shifts, so maybe right book, wrong time! Downing remains an absolute must-read author for me + I can’t wait to see what she writes next🫶🏽

𝑅𝐴𝑁𝐾𝐼𝑁𝐺𝑆:
#𝟏 — My lovely wife 🔪
#𝟐 — He started it 🏜️
#𝟑 — For your own good ✂️
#𝟒 — A twisted love story 💌

[𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺. 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯. 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 @𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 (𝘐𝘎), 𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩.] —— 𝑬𝒇𝒇𝒚 @𝒓𝒆𝒅𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍 🥀

R E V I E W: (will be posted on www.instagram.com/kayleyisreading) on 28th August 😍

Things I loved about this one:

✅ unreliable narrators
✅ proper TOXIC characters and relationships
✅ moderately paced, tension building plotting
✅ gripping, page turner
✅ just everything I love about a Samantha Downing novel 😍

I am a huge fan of Samantha's work, I loved My Lovely Wife and For Your Own Good, and this new one did not disappoint. Something Samantha does well is a TOXIC couple, and that's certainly here!

It's not Wes and Ivy that are toxic. Everyone in this one is morally grey (sometimes black)! Everyone is shady, has secrets and just flawed. It was so much fun trying to work out how it was all connected and who was going to do what next.

This one is moderately paced, bordering on slow burn however it's executed well and the drip feed of information is so gripping! I was turning those pages to get to find out what happened next 😍

Id recommend this to fans of domestic thrillers and toxic characters.

R A T I N G

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Disclaimer: e-Arc provided by Michael Joseph Penguin Random House, via Net Galley for Review. All thoughts are my own. My thanks to Penguin Random House, for providing me with the arc for review.

Actual Rating: 2.5 Stars

Plot
A Twisted Love Story follows the toxic relationship between Wes and Ivy who met and fell in love in college. Since then they have had an on-again-off-again relationship, with some deadly consequences.

Thoughts
I feel very underwhelmed by this book. When I read mystery/thriller books I think I expect something a bit more thrilling (for lack of a better term). This book read more like a domestic novel with just a sprinkle of murder and mayhem.

I think this book would have worked better if it was just an exploration of a toxic relationship.

Overall, I found the book to be very fast paced and I flew through it. However, I think if it had have read slower I may have not finished it.

This book begins when Ivy files a report to the police of stalking and indicates it might be Wes.

As the story evolves it’s clear that Ivy and Wes are in an on/off toxic relationship where ‘mind games’ are played. However this time, Ivy has gone too far and it leads the police to investigate hidden secrets that Wes and Ivy thought would never be uncovered.

I liked this one but I didn’t love it. I didn’t like Wes or Ivy and I felt the middle of the book dragged a little but then came a great twist and I enjoyed the ending 🤷🏻‍♀️

I was lucky enough to receive an early copy of this one and it’s out now!

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for the Arc! Unfortunately, I am going to be in what appears to be the minority of reviewers as I was not a fan of this book. I'm sure Ms. Downing didn't intend to glorify abusive relationships with this novel, but to some who may not know better, they may think that this type of love is romantic and the pair destined to be together. As someone who has been in a toxic, on off again relationship with a narcissist, it was triggering. A trigger warning, or a general statement on what to do if you find yourself to be in a relationship like this, needs to be added before publication. It wasn't a terribly written book, I just didn't like the content.

I raced through this one. Gripping, kept me guessing and reading late into the night. A well paced thriller that does what it says on the tin. Ivy and Wes were good unlikeable , slightly unrealistic unreliable characters and they entertained me.
I don't know how memorable A Twisted Love Story is a book but I certainly enjoyed it when reading.

3 stars.

Thank you to Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House and NetGalley for this ARC! I’m going to be honest I absolutely detested My Lovely Wife by the same author but I wanted to give her another go.

This is a thriller following Wes and Ivy who have a, to say the least, tumultuous relationship. When Ivy reports Wes to the police for stalking her as part of the weird mind games the two play with each other, she inadvertently draws the attention of the police to the both of them. Detective Colglazier has dug up some evidence regarding the night of Wes and Ivy’s worst break up. A night in which one of them went too far and someone ended up dead.

I definitely enjoyed this more than My Lovely Wife so that’s a bonus. It was definitely compulsively readable for me but that was mainly because the chapters were so short and I was waiting for the story to actually lead somewhere. At no point did I actually believe Wes and Ivy actually loved each other which kind of made the rest of the novel redundant because there was nothing to root for (apart from therapy for the both of them really) and zero connection to them.

The plot was kind of random and meandering and I was kind of left thinking “what was the point then?”. I think the author was trying to give commentary on toxic and abusive relationships which is admirable but it fell really flat. That and there really isn’t anything you can take away from this in terms of a message. Ivy and Wes are just a mess and not in a good way. I get that they were supposed to be unlikeable but I want my unlikeable characters to be compelling rather than just flat out shitty and boring people.

I really do not recommend this if you’re looking for a fast paced thriller or something that is actually thrilling. There wasn’t even an element of mystery in this either. The twists felt half hearted an unsatisfying and I’m not even going to talk about the ending. I still want to give the other two Samantha Downing books I own a go but this really was not it.

I am a big fan of Samatha Downing and have read all of her previous books.
Although I liked A Twisted Love Story I am sad to say I did not love it. There was lots going on in the book and with the storyline I was compe;lled to keep reading to see how it was going to turn out. I am still a little unsure on who was the more twisted of the two, Wes or Ivy. Their on off relationship was a little confusing. The influence that Ivy's friend Heath also had a very negative impact on theire relationship..

Thank you to Netgalley, Samantha Downing and Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House,for an ARC in return for an honest review.

It is a twisted love story. It's hard to know whether it's Wes or Ivy who's playing the biggest game, it's no wonder the trust between them is delicate. They both seem capable of devious things but in the end is it really just love? I like how this author narrates toxic relationships however the ending of this book left me a little underwhelmed! I hoped for a bit more of a surprise at the end, but that said I still enjoyed reading about the roller-coaster of a relationship between Wes and Ivy!

While this didn't wow me, it was still what I needed in the moment.
A fast paced thriller, where things are constantly happening. A detective who won't let things go. A couple who shouldn't be together, nothing good comes from it but they are addicted to eachother.
One wrong decision set off a chain of events that will change the lives of many. But also uncover the truth of a past death.
This sounded like the perfect thriller. What let it down for me was mainly the ending. It felt underwhelming. Even though you could see it coming. I was just waiting for something bigger to happen. Even the stalker twist was left too late and felt like an afterthought.

4.5 stars rounded up.

Wes and Ivy are madly in love. They've never felt anything like it. It's the kind of romance people write about. But what kind of story? Because 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 reconnections needs to end fast, Because suddenly, Wes and Ivy have a common enemy - and she's a detective.

I was quickly drawn into the on/off relationship between Wes and Ivy. They go between grand gestures to toxic breakups. The tension builds with each turn of the page, and I wanted to find out how this toxic relationship would end. I was fully invested. But there's a detective with plans to bring the couple down. I love Samantha Downing and her writing style. This is one twist filled read. I was never sure where this story was leading, but I thoroughly enjoyed the the journey to get there.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #MichaelJoseph #PenguinRandomHouse and the author #SamanthaDowning for my ARC of #ATwistedLoveStory in exchange for an honest review.

Twisted is certainly a very appropriate word to have in the title of this wild ride of a novel. The story is crazily over the top and totally unbelievable but wow is it a hugely entertaining read. A wonderful piece of bonkers escapism.