Twisted by Emily McIntire – a Review

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Description:
She’s his diamond in the rough. He’s her worst nightmare.

Yasmin Karam, daughter to one of the richest men in the world, has never known strife. So, when her beloved father falls ill, she’s determined to make his final days his happiest. His last wish? To see her married to a man of his choosing. Except Yasmin’s heart already belongs to someone else. A servant. A street rat. A man her father would never consider worthy. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Yasmin strikes a desperate deal with her father’s right-hand man, Julian, not realizing he has his own twisted agenda.

Julian Faraci has one goal: become the most powerful man in the world. He’s built a future from broken bones and faded bruises, never caring who he hurt along the way. But when his mentor falls ill, he finds himself on the verge of losing everything, and he’ll stop at nothing to inherit what is rightfully his. Even if it means forcing a woman he can’t stand into marriage.

Yasmin is a brat who speaks out of turn, and he’s the villain of her story. But he decides she’ll be his—no matter what it takes to convince her.

Review:

Twisted by Emily McIntire is the 4^th book in her Never After series.  I have not read the previous books, but this did read very well as a stand-alone. The Never After series are each standalone dark romances of fractured fairy tale reimagining stories; Twisted is based on Aladdin.

Yasmin, our heroine, is the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the world, owning a renowned diamond building.  When her father falls ill, Yasmin is determined to make his final days his happiest; until she learns that he wants her to marry a man of his choosing.  Yasmin already has a boyfriend, who is a servant, and she knows her father will not accept him. 

Julian Faraci is Ali’s (Yasmin’s father) loyal and ambitious right hand, who is determined to be the person who takes control of the company. At the start, Julian was the villain, as he was ruthless, arrogant and evil, who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Both Yasmine and Julian hate each other, since she thinks he is cold and mean and he thinks of her as a brat. When her father brings men to meet her, as possible marriage material, both Yas and Julian agree on a deal for them to get married, allowing her freedom and him to run the company.  But what Yas doesn’t know is that Julian has plans to kill her later on, and inherit the business. 

Despite their dislike for each other, slowly things changed, with each of their feelings blossoming, and the sizzling chemistry between them.  This was a slow burn romance that took a while to change from enemies to lovers.  Julian found himself becoming more of a protector to Yas, and falling hard for her; as she did with him.  Yas was beautiful and independent and Julian was sexy, tense and captivating. Everything changed as we got to about the last third of the book, with Julian and Yas both very much in love. I ended up loving them together. Now Julian needed to protect his wife against the bad guys who he originally was with.

Twisted was a very exciting and steamy story, that was very well written by Emily McIntire. The secondary characters were very good, especially Yas’s best friend, Riya and Isabella, Julian’s 23-foot python.  Lol   I also loved the two epilogues.  If you like dark fairy tale re imagining stories, then I suggest you read the Never After series.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher