May 9th, 2025
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The books of May are here—fresh, fierce, and full of feels.

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Wedding season includes searching for a missing bride�and a killer . . .


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Sometimes the path forward begins with a step back.


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One island. Three generations. A summer that changes everything.


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A snapshot made them legends. What it didn�t show could tear them apart.


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This life coach will give you a lift!


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A twisty, "addictive," mystery about jealousy and bad intentions


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Trapped by magic, haunted by muses�she must master the cards before they�re lost to darkness.


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Masquerades, secrets, and a forbidden romance stitched into every seam.


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A vanished manuscript. A murdered expert. A castle full of secrets�and one sharp-witted sleuth.


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Two warrior angels. First friends, now lovers. Their future? A WILD UNKNOWN.


A Twisted Love Story

A Twisted Love Story, July 2023
by Samantha Downing

Berkley
400 pages
ISBN: 0593101006
EAN: 9780593101001
Kindle: B0BJP4HKSX
Hardcover / e-Book / audiobook
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"A Toxic Relationship Drives Downing's Latest Domestic Drama"

Fresh Fiction Review

A Twisted Love Story
Samantha Downing

Reviewed by Sandra Martin
Posted July 18, 2023

Suspense Psychological

Wes and Ivy have a tumultuous relationship that no one understands. Filled with obsession, manipulation, anger, and control issues, the couple thrives on the drama they create, until a detective sets her sights on the couple to solve a cold case in A TWISTED LOVE STORY.

Wes and Ivy have spent the better part of the last ten years breaking up and getting back together. After a recent separation, Ivy believes Wes is stalking her and reports him to the police. Detective Karen Colglazier takes the case and pays Wes a visit. This puts Wes on her radar and she starts connecting him to an earlier case involving a hit-and-run accident that resulted in the death of an eighteen-year-old boy. Wes is angry with Ivy, but not for long as the two decide they need to stick together to stay out of prison.  As the backstabbing, gaslighting, and toxic games continue, the couple tries to avoid the police and stay together. Will they succeed, or will they turn on each other?

Filled with complex and calculating characters that are highly unlikeable, A TWISTED LOVE STORY manages to be a guilty pleasure that pulls you in, but stalls in the middle with repetitive scenes and pointless drama. The ending picks up speed as the police close in, but the epilogue doesn’t quite fit and the novel never feels very suspenseful. Secondary characters like Abigail and Bianca could have been further fleshed out and Detective Colglazier’s instincts about Ivy seemed so off and biased, it made her an ineffective detective. The bad behavior displayed in the toxic relationship was hard to understand and the destruction Wes and Ivy created in other people’s lives seemed meaningless to them. With all that said, the novel has strong writing and intriguing moments, which will entice me to try another book by this author, even though this one fell a little short.

Learn more about A Twisted Love Story

SUMMARY

From the bestselling author of My Lovely Wife comes a reckless, delicious thriller that gives a whole new meaning to the dangers of modern dating.

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 reconnections 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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