Twisted Love by Ana Huang Book Review
“I’d do anything for you. No matter how twisted or impossible.”
(pg. 198)
About
Author: Ana Huang
Genre: New Adult Smut Romance👏🏼
Series: Twisted Book 1
Click to read other book reviews
Other Twisted Book Reviews (coming soon!)
Twisted Games
Twisted Hate
Twisted Lies
Synopsis
Alex Volkov is a devil blessed with the face of an angel and cursed with a past he can’t escape.
Driven by a tragedy that has haunted him for most of his life, his ruthless pursuits for success and vengeance leave little room for matters of the heart.
But when he’s forced to look after his best friend’s sister, he starts to feel something in his chest:
A crack.
A melt.
A fire that could end his world as he knew it.
***
Ava Chen is a free spirit trapped by nightmares of a childhood she can’t remember.
But despite her broken past, she’s never stopped seeing the beauty in the world…including the heart beneath the icy exterior of a man she shouldn’t want.
Her brother’s best friend.
Her neighbor.
Her savior and her downfall.
Theirs is a love that was never supposed to happen—but when it does, it unleashes secrets that could destroy them both…and everything they hold dear.
Review
Spoilers Contained Below
To all my smutty readers,
If I said it once, I’ve said it a million times, I’m a smut reader through and through.
AIn’t nobody can shame me for reading smut, ant those are facts 👏🏼.
Wow wow wow.
There’s nothing better to get you out of a reading slump then a little smut, or a lot of smut 🙈.
In all honesty, Twisted Love is so much more than just a spicy read, and that was why I was pleasantly surprised by the storyline. I really enjoyed the nice touch of surprise, the drama, the mystery, the family dynamic, and the friendships.
There was sooooo much drama that it felt like I was reading an action-drama movie in the best way.
Let’s talk about Ava.
Gosh, I loved loved loved Ava. I love how confident, brazen, and bold she was—-just such a strong woman who knew what she wanted and was highly independent. As someone who is around Ava’s age in real-life, I appreciated seeing a young woman who was independent, still feminine, but strong in her own way. I mean, I have read numerous strong, independent women, but being at a place where I feel the most independent as a young adult, reading someone like Ava’s character hits differently because I am going through what it means to be an adult. I don’t know if that makes sense, but it’s like when you read about people older than you, you. kind of understand, but not fully, but when your read about people younger than you, you’ve been through most of those emotions or experiences so you feel differently thinking about how past you would have felt. I don’t know, present me really admired Ava.
Also, sis doing the whole boudoir photos because she was a confident queen, I was like, “Let’s go, sis.” 👏🏼 I loved that for her. I just don’t like the idea of weird/creepy people potentially looking at those photos of her because there be creeps in the world. But again, the confidence. What surprised me the most about her level of brazenness and confidence was how Ava was described as this lithe, light-hearted, and kind person who needed protecting; People treated Ava like a flower that needed the utmost care from the world because of how loving and open flowers are—-how loving and trusting Ava was.
Being hopeful about the world and people is such a beautiful quality, and a quality I would encourage people to feel. However, I understand the realistic point of view and how being too trusting towards others can lead to people taking advantage of your kindness.
And by realistic—aka cynical point of view—I mean Alex.
Ah, Alex.
“Do you ever smile . . . it might help with your condition.
‘What condition?’ Alex sounded bored.
‘Stickupthea**itis.'”
(pg. 11)
I feel like if we reversed the lyrics in “Midnight Rain,” the song would fit Alex and Ava perfectly.
She was sunshine, he was midnight rain.
Her lightness to his darkness.
Alex’s dark, broody, angry, tense vibes were immaculate. I mean, not if you don’t like those vibes, but I liked how Alex was written and you knew exactly what kind of person he was—a classic tall, dark, and handsome “bad boy” who hates everything and everyone 🙃.
Alex was friends with Ava’s brother, Josh, who was going away to Central America for a doctor program he was a part of. Josh couldn’t be there to protect Ava from the dangers of college men, so Josh asked Alex to keep an eye on Ava. Alex somehow agreed, and moved into Josh’s old place, which was right next-door to Ava and Jules house.
I love love loved the brothers best-friend trope because you know Ava’s off-limits because of Josh, but we all knew where the story was going with Alex and Ava. I also liked that Alex and Ava had a relationship/knew each other because there was history and tension that made it all the more fun when they started to spend more time together. Gosh, did they peez each other off to no extent 😂.
I loved Operation Emotion in trying to get Alex to emote; Ava and her friends wanted to mess with Alex to see if he could feel something because they were convinced he was a robot. I freaking loved how Ava brought him red velvet cookies, and how embarrassed she felt. She brought him red velvet cookies as a truce for any previous animosity between them since she knew Josh asked him to watch over her. As much as she didn’t like it and knew she could take care of herself, if Alex was going to play protector, they might as well be amicable. I liked how he secretly loved the red velvet cookies. I freaking LAUGHED when she tried to make him feel disgusted and brought him these gosh-awful cookies, and was like “You made the red velvet cookies and then made this?” 😂 I loved how he didn’t outright tell her the cookies were awful like I thought he was, but he implied that she made those fantastic cookies and then she made this garbage 😂. I guess, you couldn’t say Alex wasn’t considerate.
But when he said they were fine, I was like, please lie through your teeth some more 👏🏼🤪.
I freaking could not with how Ava tried to watch sad movies with Alex to get him to cry, but all she did was fall asleep during the movies. I thought it was sweet though how he cancelled his plans to watch movies with her because he wanted to. I mean, he didn’t need to humor her by watching sad films, but he did because part of him liked spending time with Ava. I also laughed at how she tried to see Alex at his happiest by doing a whole picnic in the park thing. Dude is the walking figure of a storm cloud, I don’t think a picnic in the park is his idea of his happiest moment. I freaking loved how Jules was suggested something else, something spicer 😉. We were all thinking the same thing, but you know, we don’t do games for a game. So funny when the dog peed on his shoes though—-what a truly happy moment.
Operation emotion was entirely silly, and to be quite honest, didn’t add to the plot. But I loved Operation Emotion because it was so silly and we got to see Alex’s patience and his walls slowly break down. They got to spend more time together and kind of got to know each other better, which helped develop their relationship later on.
The first time Alex and Ava felt like they were bridging something more was at the Thayer gala.
We love a dance 👏🏼—nothing says sexual tension than a dance. And sexual tension there was.
“She stared up at me, those eyes liquid chocolate beneath the lights. ‘What do I want?’
A dangerous, loaded question.
Humans want a lot of things, but in every heart, there beats one true desire. One thing that shapes our every thought and action . . .
‘Love. . . deep, abiding, unconditional love. You want it so much you’re willing to live for it.'”
(pg. 105-6)
Love is a powerful emotion.
I do believe everyone wants to love and to be love—whether that is with a person or something they love. There was just something about this conversation that felt different in the way that I finally knew in my bones how different Ava and Alex’s beliefs were. Alex again, was more realistic and pessimistic about life and love because of his upbringing—which is a whole other thing I’ll get into—and Ava was someone who held so much hope because of the love I believe she never received.
Ava and her want for love is something I can relate to so much, not just in a romantic sense. Ava felt like her parents never loved her in the way she thought parents would, and she never got that sense of love growing up to know what love felt like. It’s hard when you feel like the people who should have loved you the most, didn’t. The lack of love makes you want to find people who love you even more because you never had a stable foundation of love in the first place. I wanted to hug Ava when she talked so lowly of herself because it was so unlike Ava. Nothing was wrong with her that her parents didn’t love her the way they should have—their lack of love was not a reflection of her. And that’s something I’m fortunate to not have felt, but I do know what it is like to feel like your parents never loved you as much as you thought they should. I feel like a parents lack of love comes from problems they are battling, and sadly, their anger or sorrow, more often than not, gets transferred to their kids for bear.
“If you let lesser people determine your self-worth, you’ll never reach higher than their limited imagination.”
(pg. 117)
I loved how Alex just listened to Ava’s vulnerabilities and doubts because it is difficult to be real and honest with someone. However, if you can be honest with someone, and feel comfortable doing so, that is someone you want to keep in your life.
Speaking of vulnerabilities, the backstories in this book were WILD.
Like insane based on contemporary romance standards. BONKERS.
It’s been a while since I’ve preached this sentiment, but it’s always shizzy parenting.
Because my gosh.
There’s this saying that the saddest people act the happiest because they don’t want others to have felt the pain they felt. I wouldn’t say Ava put on a facade of happiness, but she sure was Little Miss Sunshine to many people because I felt like deep down she wanted to hide the fact that she had all these traumatic experiences that she didn’t want people to know. If other people did know, I felt like Ava thought people would pity her or think her even more weak than they already did.
So reading how Ava had these nightmares or night terrors, shocked me at first because her nightmares were the first sign that there was more to Little Miss Sunshine .I loved how Jules was so supportive of Ava and brought her tea whenever Ava had her nightmares. I also liked how Jules never prodded Ava about her nightmares, but wanted Ava to know she was always there for her friend. In Ava’s nightmare/dream, she would always envision someone suffocating her or drowning her, and her screaming for her life. Ava would constantly wake up at 4:44 am, which is an ominous time in Asian culture because four is an unlucky number.
Ava’s nightmares were more so unlocked memories that Ava’s mind didn’t want her to remember. I took some psychology classes in college, and heard this sentiment many times, so correct me if I am wrong, but people say that when you experience something traumatic, sometimes your brain blocks out the experience so much that you don’t remember it because of how traumatic. I always thought it was fascinating and amazing how the brain could do such a thing—to protect us from moments we do not even realize we need protecting from.
Ava had a nightmare or a memory flashback when she was awake. The flashback was the story about when she was younger and her mom fell into a sort of depression. Ava’s parents divorced when she was young—it was a messy divorce—and the divorce left the mom in a sorrowful state where she wasn’t herself. The dad took Josh and left, which made me wonder why the parents split the kids up because most times, parents keep the kids together or at least give them a choice. I think if Josh had a say, he would have stayed with his sister. to protect her. I also wondered why they left if they knew the mom was not mentally well as she was. I would think any respecting human being would have seen the state the mom was in and help her get help; even though the parents were divorced, I would hope the ddad would have the decency to still care what happened to his ex-wife.
Anyway, those were just a question that popped into my head when I read what happened in the divorce. But Ava’s mom fell into this state of melancholy, that her happy days were limited. There was a good day where the mom was in the mood to play with Ava, so Ava and the mom decided to go the dock by her house. The mom was grabbing something and Ava was skipping rocks on the river. When the mom came back, the mom apparently pushed Ava into the river.
My first reaction was if your mom is pushing you into a river on purpose, you call CPS and RUN 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼!!!!
Like excuse me??!?!? I’m sorry?!!?!!?
What do you mean your own mom shoved you into a river!!!!!
No wonder sis was afraid, no petrified, no TRAUMATIZED,, by water!!!! Her mother tried to drown her ☹️.
The story goes that the dad was there to pick up some papers and saw the mom and Ava on the dock, and he rescued Ava from the water. After that incident, the mom’s rights as Ava’s guardian were given up and the mom fell into a deeper abyss of her depression until . . . It was claimed because the mom was either too depressed or she felt guilty for what happened that day.
In all seriousness, I could not even begin to process what Ava had been through because her experiences were absolutely traumatizing. I wanted to hug her because it breaks my heart that there are people out there whose parents show them the utmost disgusting, inhuman hate. I just don’t understand how someone’s heart can be in such a dark and hatefully repulsive place to hurt their own children or the people around them. That’s a whole other sticky conversation, but Ava and no one deserves to experience anyone’s hate transferred onto them. Absolutely no one.
But now Ava had to live with this trauma—she had to live with these literal nightmares and fear of water. When Madeline pushed Ava into the pool during that party I was talking about, I screamed because Ava didn’t know how to swim, and Madeline just pushed Ava into the one thing she feared most in the world. I was terrified for Ava. Not going to lie, I was also excited because I knew Alex was going to chew Madeline’s butt out for daring to put a finger on her, especially pushing her into a body of water.
Alex’s backstory is a whole other level of cluster truck.
We all knew there was something underneath all this protective energy because what trauma had he experienced to make him so distant and cold? Also, not Ana Huang literally dropping hints in the beginning of these cryptic lines of Alex “handling” a problem, someone destroying his family, him standing in front of bloody bodies, and this whole revenge plan. If I already wasn’t suspicious about his broodiness, I was even more on guard? Revenge plan?????? What?
Who is he avenging? Or should I say revenging?
When Alex was younger, someone murdered his family. Alex grew up with his mom, dad, and sister and they were a pretty normal family. His dad was an immigrant who started his own company in the U.S., a fairly successful company. But with success came people who were jealous of that success. Apparently, someone who was jealous or angry at Alex’s dad sent someone to murder his family in cold blood. That week, Alex was supposed to be at this camp, however he didn’t go. But then these people crashed into Alex’s house while Alex was in some safe room because his parents told him to go there, however, Alex’s sister, Nina didn’t have enough time to make it to this safe room because she went to save the cat. These people murdered Alex’s parents and his sister in front of him because Alex could see them through this wall in the fireplace/safe place area. The people sent there thought Alex was at camp too and that they had to go to the camp to hunt him down. However, Alex saw it all—-he saw his family get taken from him. That’s not something anyone should EVER have to witness and experience. I did not blame Alex for being as cold and distant as he was because experiencing something that horrid and awful could make any person numb and unfeeling. I mean, Alex’s past explained why he didn’t show his emotions easily and why he was so protective over the ones he loved.
Alex blamed himself for not saving his family or protecting them. But he was only a kid, how was he supposed to go up against these armed people. He should not blame himself for hiding and he was not a coward for doing so because it was what his parents wanted for him and his sister—-they were protecting their kids, and heck at least they protected their kids and didn’t metaphorically or literally push them in a river. They loved Alex to protect him, and I completely understand Alex’s guilt and regret because he loved his family and felt like he didn’t protect them. It sucked, and I hurt for what he went through. It didn’t help matters that Alex lived with HSAM—Highly Superior Autographical Memory. I have never heard of HSAM before, but it sounds interesting. I like to think I had a great memory when I was a kid, but having a highly superior memory to remember every single detail can be a great thing, but also a difficult thing. I also wonder how do you know if you have HSAM? Do you have to go to a psychologist for them to diagnose you as HSAM? I’m genuinely curious 🤔.
Anyway, Alex felt guilt and regret, but he also felt anger, red-hot, white-hot, burning anger. I felt like Alex’s anger ate him alive to the point he didn’t know how to feel or be a person without his anger.
I don’t fault Alex for being anger.
But anger is such a heavy emotion to carry for so long, that the anger is more taxing on the person who is anger than the person that we are angry with.
Nevertheless, Alex’s anger and backstory explained this whole revenge plan. I legit thought this dude was terrifying, and he still is, but I at least understood why he wanted revenge. I don’t think revenge is ever the answer, but again, this was fiction 🙈
Not me trying to justify every suspicious and wrong thing in this book by saying this was fiction 🤪.
But honestly, why not have a literal fun time with fiction? That’s the point. Write to your hearts desire, queen.
Alex’s revenge plan was to take down/ruin the person who murdered his family. This begged the question of who sent these people to murder Alex’s family? This also begged the question of how he had all these darn connections because, again, it is utterly terrifying that Alex would have all these connections to ruin people and hack into all these systems. I don’t know if Alex had these connections because he made them or because of his connection with his Uncle. His Uncle was his only living relative who practically raised Alex. They also shared the company together, even though Alex was the person who mostly ran the company.
“There’s something beautiful waiting for you, Alex. Whether you find it tomorrow or years from now, I hope it’ll restore your faith in life. You deserve all the beauty and light in the world.”
(pg. 145)
I loved that when Alex opened up about his past, Ava was non-judgmental. Instead, she validated his emotions and understood why he was the way he was. The past really does shape us or has a huge influence on who we become. I loved how Ava wanted the best for Alex still and how she believed that he would find happiness and lightness in the world again because I think she felt how much anger or heaviness he carried—-again, anger is heavy. Someone who genuinely cares about you or loves you, would want the best for you because of how much pain they know you’ve experienced.
Even though, Alex had a heavy and traumatic past, and he had a literal revenge plot going, he was deep down, a really good many. He cares deeply about the people he loves because he doesn’t want to lose the people he loved like he lost in the past. He also has a destructive attitude because he feels angry at himself for not doin anything when he was younger, so he doesn’t want to sit by while his loved ones are out there in the world; I think he places this responsibility of protecting others on himself so much because he doesn’t want history to repeat itself. I understand that, but also feel like to an extent it can be unhealthy to be so overbearing on others and to threaten everyone because you think they might hurt the people you care about. We all know Alex needs to go to therapy to talk about his past because I think therapy would allow him to really look inward and better himself.
But agin, a good man.
When Ava and Alex knew each other on a more vulnerable level, they saw that they were two people with very deep and dark pasts. They let down these walls and grew to care for each other past this best-friends brother obligation.
I freaking laughed with how Alex told Ava to take Krav Maga lessons. I mean, I’m not laughing that she took the lessons because gosh knows that’s so cool and I should take some self-defense lessons too. I’m laughing because Ava actually listened to something Alex said. I also loved loved loved when Ava used Alex as one of her models for her portfolio. She asked him to pose for portraits if she did Krav Maga, and he acquiesced. A picture truly does capture every emotion that you do not say, and I loved how Ava was able to capture how much Alex liked her. She had a hunch from looking at Alex’s photo of Alex looking at her, that he might have felt something, but you know us girls, we overthink and doubt our emotions. Or at least, I do. What I liked about the whole self-portrait moment was how stiff Alex was in posing—giving off no emotion—-but when Ava started to talk to him and ask him questions, especially about his happiest memory, his whole demeanor and image changed. Alex gave off emotion, even if his emotions were sexual and tense, his emotions were better than nothing. But I wanted to scream at her and literally tell her that if he looks at you like that, then he likes you sis 👏🏼👏🏼!!!!
I also loved when Alex went to her workplace and bought a $40,000 painting because he missed her.
This was after the fight with Madeline (one of the girls Alex used to sleep with). Madeline pushed Ava into a pool during a party, and Alex went all I’ll-destroy-you on Madeline, which I guess is fair because she pushed Ava into a pool. But they were both angry at what happened with Ava getting pushed in the pool and Alex being overbearing, that they hadn’t texted or seen each other in a while. So he went to go see her 🥺💙. Because he MISSED HER. It was so obvious how much he loved spending time with her. I just loved that he bought the painting too because part of the commission sales would go to Ava, so he bought the most expensive piece. What a man.
“‘Tell me who or what I need to kill.’ I growled. ‘What happened at your father’s house?’
‘I told you, nothing. It was just the lake.’ Ava eked out a wobbly smile. ‘You can’t kill a lake.’
‘I’ll drain every f***ing lake and ocean in the world if I have to.'”
(pg. 198)
I CACKLED 😂.
Get you a mans who would drain a lake for you 😂. I’m joking, don’t drain a lake or a ocean, but it was hilarious that Alex was always so quick to destroy, and would destroy anything, including a freaking lake 🤪. Idiot.
So if a tree so much as scratched Ava, he would chop that tree down 😂.
If the wind so much blew Ava’s hair the wrong way, Alex would fight the air 🤪.
I’m RIDICULOUS.
To be quite honest, I don’t know whether Alex’s I-will-destroy-anyone-who-dares-to-touch-or-look-at-you attitude or if that’s quite a possessive and terrifying attitude to have. Like in a fantasy sense, his attitude is hot because he would do anything to protect her and he knows what he wants. In a realistic sense, if anyone is that possessive and jealous about you, I would run 😅. No joke, turn and run because if your partner is being that possessive over you, your partner obviously has some trust issues that he/she/they need to work through because they should trust you to go out by yourself without being that overbearing or protective.
But this is fiction, so . . . 🙈
But what was kind of funny to me, but not really, was how Alex would literally threaten any guy who dared look at or touch Ava, and Alex actually meant what he said. I had no reservations that Alex would actually kill or hurt someone who dare breath in Ava’s direction. I mean, dude did Krav Maga and had all these powerful connections.
I kid you not, I kept asking myself how Alex had all these connections with everyone to literally hack internet systems and ruin careers or empires. He was known as this self-made rich, intelligent man with a 160 IQ. He was the COO of a realtor company with his Uncle who was the only living relative who was left to take care of him. With being an orphan at such a young age, and then rich, one does have to wonder who does a 17 year-old (at the time) get all these connections. How does a 27 year-old (now) know all these important people? 🤪
So interesting.
Kind of terrifying, but interesting.
One of my favorite cute and sweet moments between Ava and Alex was when he wanted to teach her how to swim 🥺.
Can I just say though, I absolutely loved loved loved how Ava wasn’t angry at Madeline for pushing her into the pull, but Ava was upset at herself for letting her fear have power over her—that her fear made her feel helpless to herself. Being a strong woman, Ava did not want to feel powerless or helpless anymore to this fear, and I loved loved loved that. I loved how she said, “Teach me how to swim,” because she wanted to get confront her fear.
So Alex was going to teach her how to swim. I think it says a lot about a person in how patient they are with you when they want to literally scream their head off at you 😂. As a teacher, my patience is tried every day. But I loved how gentle and patient Alex was with Ava. I liked how he started off with her practicing mantras of being okay in the water to get her to eliminate or diminish those negative thoughts. I also liked how he gradually exposed her to different bodies of water; Alex was really easing Ava into reacquainting herself with bodies of water. I thought the time and care he put into acclimating her to swimming was so tender and kind, such a contrast to his usual robot impatience. But I also think he knew how much overcoming this fear meant to Ava and he didn’t want to overwhelm her by literally pushing her into the deep end. You can’t heal a wound by pressing on it.
The first time Alex actually brought Ava to a pool was during the hotel moment.
They went to a hotel with a nice pool and Alex wanted to help Ava acclimate to the water and practice her mantras. He was going to try help her swim or at least be comfortable in the water. I quite appreciated how Ava’s first time in the water wasn’t successful because the first time is not always the easiest. I liked how Ava got into the pull and moved around in the water. When she went underwater though, that’s when things got worrisome. I understand how being underwater would resurface all these memories and traumatic feelings for Ava, so it made sense why she blanked underwater.
But gosh, when I heard they were going to a fancy pool in a hotel and they were by themselves, I was like, we are setting the mood tonight 😂. I mean, the situation was prime time for some steam, or some spice as you will!
When I first heard of Twisted Love, everyone said it was a smut book.
Ana Huang delivered the smut 👏🏼.
“She felt like the heaven to my he**, the closest I’d ever get to salvation, and yet I still wanted to drag her into the depths of Hades with me.”
(pg. 165)
If you read my A Court of Silver Flames book review, you would know, I feel like a literal child reading some of these smutty scenes 🙈. I don’t know, there’s just something about smut that makes me feel like what the heck—-I don’t know whether to laugh or feel something else. I mean, the latter, but sometimes the former.
Okay, this is probably TMI, but I’ve read some pretty interesting lines in smut books like “I got impaled by his d***,” “I was stabbed by his d***,” “His d*** was so hard it could hammer nails,” but never have I ever read my nipples were so hard they could cut diamonds 😂!!!!!! I WAS SCREAMING.
Definitely a line to remember.
I could not.
Like do I laugh😂? I laughed. I mean, how could you not. I mean, I guess if you are a mature queen you did not laugh. But ain’t nobody said I was mature 🤪.
I’m joking.
But dang! When the lead up to going to the hotel room had me in a chokehold. They were really letting their inhibitions go and Alex was giving into the tension he felt. But when Alex said, “You’re about to find out what happens when you invite yourself into the lions den,” I WAS SCREAMING. Done. What. Like . . . okay. OH, don’t even get me started on the thing Madeline said about how Alex likes his spicy spicy. Uhhhhh, someone can go print that on a shirt 🙈.
Anyway, the spice was next level. I’m still bothered just thinking about it; the steam was definitely something. I mean, you should just read it for yourself and you’ll know what exactly what I mean. But wow, okay. Sometimes I’m like, people have absolutely no idea what I read and if they did they would question my morality 😂. But that’s okay.
Oh no, when he was on a phone call for work and had a spicy moment with her. I didn’t know if that was hot or dumb, probably both. But not Ava literally having to hold in her screams and the chair moving . . .ummm, yea.
I’m not sure how Josh was going to feel about that Hahahahhahaha.
Thanksgiving was a fun time. And by fun, I meant WILD.
Person: “What are you thankful for this year?”
Ava: “That I found out my father nearly murdered me.” 😳
Ava mentioned that she always had this vibe that her dad feared or hated her. She went to visit him before Thanksgiving for his birthday, which was nice. However, when she saw him, he was a bit apprehensive or tense around her, which made me wonder why Ava got the sense that the dad feared or hated her. Did the dad blame her for what happened to the mom? But if the dad blamed her that would have meant the dad would have still loved the mom to care so much? So I truly didn’t know why he looked at her the way he did. However, you know, sometimes father-daughter relationships are just awkward and uncomfortable because you don’t want to know that your daughter is grown up and doing all these things. At the same time, I feel like there’s this barrier where not all fathers are close with their daughters because they don’t want to hear how much their little girl grew up, so the relationship becomes uncomfortable. So that’s what I was kind of thinking.
GOODNESS WAS I WAAAAAAAYYYYY OFF.
THE DAD WAS THE ONE WHO TRIED TO KILL HER 😳🤯😱.
WHat.
That sound is the sound of pure utter disbelief and confusion.
Ava saw the dad running by the dock when she was out there and the dad had this gold ring that flashed in her eyes, and it brought back all these memories. I looked back on the memories that Ava had, and I didn’t see anything about a gold ring, but I was rolling with it.
What was even more revolting was how the dad turned into a literal TV villain in front of our eyes, slow-clap and all. WHAT TRASH. He’s all kinds of screwed up to have gone from an unassuming father to a murderer, a gaslighter, a manipulator, and a loser. What made my blood boil even more was how Ava confronted him about if he was the one to push her into the lake, and he had the AUDACITY to gaslight Ava some more. She knew 👏🏼👏🏼! Don’t you dare try to make her feel crazy. I detest people who try to make it seem like you’re the forgetful/crazy one because they think you’ll believe anything. But the dad really was using Ava’s trustworthiness against her, which bothered me to no end.
The day on the lake, the dad actually showed up to plant evidence that the mom was a drug addict, but he saw Ava playing outside by herself, so he pushed her into the lake. Ava wasn’t really his child and I think part of him resented Ava for it because Ava was a constant reminder that the mom cheated on him. However, Ava not being his child wasn’t why he shoved her into a lake. He pushed Ava in because Josh was his child and he knew Josh and Ava were a package deal. Only the dad and the mom knew Ava wasn’t really his child, so the court would most likely side with having the mom have custody. But the dad wanted Josh with him because Josh was his son, so the dad wanted to frame the mom or do something drastic that would automatically give him custody of Josh and Ava. So he pushed Ava in the lake and rescued her, because, oh no, he had a heart 🙃. Then he gaslit Ava—young mind and all—to believe that the mom pushed her into the lake. So that was the story Ava had told everyone and the story she believed. But the mom was innocent.
I was so furious because here the mom was going through a divorce and then Michael framed her for something she didn’t do, and she lost custody to her child. For something she didn’t do.
I wanted to SCREAM.
The dad was all kinds of screwed up.
And what was worse was the whole suffocating story. Ava came home one day and had this essay she wrote for a class about someone she admired or who was her hero, and she wrote about her dad. Michael didn’t like that, so he tried to suffocate her with a pillow. I can’t even begin to describe what I feel. I cannot. Like Ava’s dad can rot in Earth’s core or in a volcano. He’s a monster. Michael drove Ava’s mom to taking her own life at 4:44 am—the same time Ava would wake up from her nightmares. I agreed that the timing felt like a sign from the mom of the mom screaming at Ava to not trust the dad and that there was more to her childhood.
What really had me going for this high strung moment and villain tell-all was the moment Josh walked into the room and KNOCKED his dad out 👏🏼👏🏼🤪!!!!
I loved loved loved that Alex orchestrated and live-streamed this moment in his office so that Josh would walk in at the right time to pummel his dad. Also, I just loved Alex flew Josh back from Central America for this moment. As he should 👏🏼!
I mean, get you a man who knows to record a conversation to get your monster of a father arrested, who works with the FBI to Dif up all this past information about your father, and can fly your brother out from Central America to make the grand entrance of a lifetime. Iconic.
I thought I was done being surprised, but then the more that I thought about the whole situation/confrontation in Alex’s office and hearing the aftermath of the confrontation, I was like, DANG.
Let me back up though, after the confrontation, Ava was obviously shook and processing a lot. I mean, she just learned her father wasn’t her father and that he tried to kill her when she was younger. She also learned her mother passed away because of all these events that the mom wasn’t even to blame or shouldn’t have had all this negativity around—-the mom was the victim.
Ava had this moment where she talked to Josh about her relationship with Alex because they needed to have this conversation at one point. The way Ava spoke about Alex said it all.
“Yes, he can be an a**hole sometimes, but he’s still human. He needs love and care like anyone else . . . You have no idea how much he’s helped me these past few months. He was there for everything. The nightmares, the panic attacks . . . he taught me how to swim. Swim, Josh . . . He makes me laugh and believe in myself more than anyone else ever has. And he may not show it to the world, but he does have a heart. A beautiful one.”
(pg. 218)
You don’t just speak all of that if you do not love someone.
When Ava told Alex she loved him, she didn’t get an I love you back.
That’s probably one of the worst things to experience. She got a “You are the light to my dark. Without you, I’m lost.” There’s a difference between I need you and I love you.
But it felt like Alex was holding back from saying I love you because he felt even more guilty. He always voiced how he believed he never deserved Ava because he was this darkness and a body guy who did shady things, which I get. But him not saying he loved her felt like a different reason.
That’s when the gears started turning and that DANG moment came.
Because what if the family or person Alex had been trying to get revenge on was the Chen family?!?!??! What happens if all this time he had been trying to take down Michael? Because Alex sounded awful about what happened and he made it sound like his revenge was over, and the only thing that happened was this confrontation, so was the revenge on Michael? It had to be. So that made me think about how Alex purposely was friends with Josh because Josh was Michael’s son and that’s how Alex had all this insider information about Michael—you know, keep your friends close, your enemies closer. I don’t think him falling in love with Ava was ever the plan.
I liked that flashback moment when Alex first met Ava.
Alex revenge plot complete—almost
Alex finding out it was the uncle who murdered his family
Kidnapped Ava and Bridget and Alex hurting his Uncle and burning him
Breaking up with Ava and breaking her spirit
Heartbroken Ava and Ava’s moment of reclaiming her power
Bridget’s talk with Alex and him admitting he loves her
Alex trying to win her back—following her to London, buying her everything, the paintings, the singing
the end