Review: Twisted in You by Rachel A. Marks

Twisted In You
(a Twisted Romance, #1)
by Rachel A. Marks
Publisher: Self-published
Publication date: March 21, 2018
Genre: Romance
Rating:

Romance is a myth…

At least, that’s what twenty-year-old Verity Landon is beginning to think. She’s supposed to be studying to be an artist, but she can’t seem to get past the fiasco that was high school—which left her a social media sex scandal survivor. She’s pretty sure she’s going to end up single for all eternity.

Exhibit A: Her latest boyfriend just broke up with her during happy hour.

Second: She’s a huge intimacy-phobe.

Last Straw: She has a rabid crush on her boss—the one guy in her life who’s off limits.

She needs serious help in the love department.

Enter Finbar MacNeil; snarky Irishman, rebellious musician, a bit of a mess, and the exact opposite of what she always goes for. What could possibly go wrong?

Verity has had a rough go in the romance department. She always seems to find the losers or the the wrong guy to latch onto. Case in point, she’s in love with her gay boss. However, when a sexy Irish rocker stumbles into her life, she feels like her problem has been solved. If she can get this sexy Irishman to teach her the ways of love, maybe she can finally find her happily ever after.

Let’s just start out by saying that Verity is a hot mess, and not in the good way. She seems to fumble, mess up, and misinterpret every relationship she’s ever had. Heck, even losing her virginity was nothing but a bet that was later broadcasted to the whole school. This poor girl just can’t seem to get her love life together. However, I felt like she brought it upon herself. I mean, how do you date a guy for over a month and not know that he’s not serious about you? How do you pine away for years over your gay boss (Diego)? How do you end up snagging a great guy (Fin) who actually finds your strange quirks endearing, and then drop him the moment you think your boss may not actually be gay? And how can you have sexual fantasies about one guy, make out with the other, and then immediately go on the date with the other one? Verity really needed to figure her shit out, and at the end of the book, I’m not overly sure that she did, because she didn’t seem to want the other guy to hook up with other females even though she was in a committed relationship with the other dude.

I was totally team Fin on this one. I mean, he was such an amazing guy. When he decided on something, he went all in. So when he set his sights on Verity, he was in it to win it. He was bringing her dinner at her job since he knew she was working late, he invited her to listen to him record at the studio, he was just a stellar guy. Even when Verity started to get wish-washy on him, he gave her space and tried to be her friend. I just thought he was a stand up guy. Her boss Diego, not so much. He never corrected her when she thought he was gay because he knew she had a crush on him and didn’t want her to think there was the possibility of romantic future for them. He has a shady past and he didn’t feel deserving of her. So, even though he loves her, he tries to keep her at arms-length and be there as her friend. At times, he was just as bad as Verity. He’d say they couldn’t cross the line, but then would get all possessive of her when Fin came around. He’d give her stormy, sultry eyes as he told her that he was her boss and that nothing would ever happen between them. I just couldn’t take all the back and forth.

I thought this story was going to be about Verity being in love with her boss, asking Fin for help, and then falling in love with the bad boy. I had no clue it was going to be a back and forth love triangle until the bitter end. And again, I’m not 100% Verity is even completely on board with the person she chose since she still seems to have her claws in the other one. Girl, why are you so concerned about the other guy when you made your choice!? While this isn’t the story I thought it would be, I applaud the author for thinking outside the box and doing something a little different. I mean, we’ve all read this sort of trope before where the girl falls for the guy she’s asked to help her get her groove back. However, the author went a completely different route, one that I did not see coming at all.

While Twisted in You was not what I thought it was going to be, I still enjoyed it. Sure I found Verity a bit annoying, and yes, I really didn’t care for one of the guys she had her eye on. However, the author’s writing was still able to grab me and keep me interested until the very end.