I promised myself I wouldn’t pick up another BookTok book. Unfortunately, I did. I thought, surely, a series that was doing so well ought to be at least readable. But like curiosity killed the cat, this book annihilated me as well. This book gave me a literal brain cramp. I will not sugarcoat this review because the reading experience was terrible. My reading experience consisted of a thousand and one eye rolls. I hurt my brain reading this book. Twisted Games by Ana Huang, was written to mint money, and it’s very telling.

Twisted Games by Ana Huang is a romance novel about the regal, strong-willed Princess Bridget and her stoic, broody and arrogant bodyguard, Rhys Larsen. When Bridget’s brother abdicates the throne, she faces the prospect of a loveless, political marriage and a throne she never wanted. As she navigates the intricacies and treacheries of her new role, she must also hide her desire for a man she can’t have, her bodyguard. Her protector. Her Ultimate ruin.

If I had to describe this book in one sentence. It’s Princess Diaries II on smut. Of course, Ana Huang had to make changes to avoid accusations of plagiarism. But the basic premise of the story is Princess Diaries II. If you’ve seen the movie, you now know the plot of Twisted Games. Twisted Games is a book based on stolen ideas and zero originality because it is a story already told.

I should have known better that this book would be terrible when I saw the Spotify playlist at the start of the book. Good writers should not rely on music to set the mood or carry the story. Your writing should do that for you. The writing was horrible. It’s all telling and no showing except for the smut scenes. It’s a nightmare for visual readers because it gives us nothing to work with. When I say visual reader, I mean readers who visualize scenes described in the book as they read. There is so much under-describing that it hurts. Another issue I had with the writing was the overuse of adjectives. Ana Huang often uses ‘Gun metal eyes’ to describe Rhys’s eyes; I started picturing the Gun Devil from Chainsaw Man. And it’s not a nice image. It draws attention away from the story, and by the way, this is what the Gun Devil looks like:

I didn’t like the characters either. I found them both very bland. They are so one-dimensional they belong in a Wattpad story. I love broody, stoic men. The list of anime men I simp for is a testament to that. Unfortunately, Rhys did not work for me. I think it’s because Briget is a very uncompelling character that she fails as a love interest. One of the reasons he lists why Briget is “different from other girls” is because she dances in the rain. When I read that, I remember face-palming myself so badly that I left a handprint on my face. Their chemistry is non-existent since Briget and Rhys are such poorly written-characters. The time skip in the book was just lazy writing. It wasn’t necessary, and I think it was an excuse not to flesh out the characters. Thankfully, it was a fast-paced novel because I know that I would have DNFd it if it wasn’t.

As I said before, Twisted Games by Ana Huang was written to mint money. It’s a book made from stolen ideas, bad writing and poor characters, yet it still did well. There is not an ounce within these pages where you can tell that the writer is passionate about her work. And that’s sad. I’m not saying smut is bad. I like reading smut occasionally, but it should at least tell a decent story, especially not one based on stolen ideas. My rating for Twisted Games by Ana Huang is 1.5 out of 5. The extra 0.5 because the smut was good.

It’s sad to see that the publishing industry is becoming a fast fashion industry. Otherwise, this book would not have been published. The publishing industry is choosing quantity over quality, which is very unfortunate. Will I ever complete the Twisted series? Absolutely Not. I don’t want to subject my brain to such torture again.