What happened in Twisted Love by Ana Huang? Full Recap

Read a full summary of Twisted Love, book #1 in Ana Huang’s Twisted series. This page is full of spoilers, so beware. If you are wondering what happened in Twisted Love, then you are in the right place!

Author
Ana Huang

Ratings
4.2 stars on Amazon
3.76 stars on Goodreads
Add Twisted Love at Goodreads

Twisted
#1 Twisted Love
#2 Twisted Games
#3 Twisted Hate
#4 Twisted Lies

Thank you to Subhransha for graciously providing this recap! Check them out on Instagram!

***** Everything below is a SPOILER *****

What happened in Twisted Love?

Ava Chen, a photographer student by profession lives with her friend Jules. At the start of the book, she gets stranded in the rain when she goes for a photo shoot and isn’t able to get an Uber or cab. She calls her brother Josh Chen who is a popular guy, an ‘All-rounder (good at everything),’ for help. Josh sends his best friend to rescue her.

Alex Volkow isn’t an I’ll do my buddy a favor and rescue his stranded little sister kinda guy. He’s a look at me wrong, and I’ll destroy you and everyone you care about kinda guy. He picks her up and drives her to her place where she gets ready for Josh’s farewell party since he’s leaving the country for internship camp. Josh is an overprotective brother because of a traumatic incident Ava endured during her childhood. He always tries his best to protect her, and since he’s leaving the country he asks Alex to look after Ava in his absence. He’s afraid her ex, who cheated on her and is now stalking her to ask for forgiveness, won’t harm her. Josh believed Alex would never fall for Ava. Alex isn’t the type to make promises, but when he does, he’s committed, and I’m not talking about a text check-in every two weeks. She’s under his protection now.

After Josh leaves, Alex moves into Josh’s house, next door to Ava. Over time Ava and her friends (Bridget- a princess of a European country called Eldora, Jules- a law student, Stella- an influencer and Blogger) realize Alex is overprotective and has shown little emotion. They come up with a plan to bring out a list of emotions through Ava and test if he will show any. Operation Sadness is second on the test list, and Ava goes to Alex’s house looking as ‘pretty and sunshiny’ as she could, taking two of the saddest DVD movies with her. But neither movie brings out any emotion from him. Between the movies, though, they have an intense conversation, and Ava realizes she has butterflies in her stomach when Alex calls her ‘sunshine’. Later that night Ava falls asleep while watching a movie, and since it’s raining, Alex lets her sleep in his room. He realizes he’s having thoughts about her which he shouldn’t be having for his best friend’s sister. Alex hates how he feels for her because he isn’t supposed to love, much less love her.

He gets jealous when he sees some guy dancing with her at a gala, and afterward, they have a heated conversation. Ava comes to the conclusion that Alex wants her because of the way he observes her, knows everything about her, and gets jealous over her. She says he tries to show the world that he has no heart or has a multilayered one but all of those types of hearts crave one thing and that is “love”. Later that night they get separated, and after a while, Alex starts to think she might’ve gone back home until he hears her shouting at someone to let her go. When he gets closer he sees Ava being forcefully held by her ex(Liam) who cheated on her. He’s harassing her since she hasn’t forgiven him for months. Alex rescues her and then beats him almost to death. Ava stops Alex and then remembers the most traumatic event of her life.

In her childhood, Ava loved throwing pebbles in water, but she never learned how to swim. She lived with her mother and her brother lived with her father while her parents were going through a nasty divorce. Her mother was always depressed since the day of the divorce. One day they finally went out into the backyard where they had a lake and a dock. While her mother went inside to get something, someone pushes her from behind into the lake. She is finally rescued as she’s on the verge of death. Later she was told that her mother had been the one to push her. Her mother couldn’t take all of it anymore, and she dies of an overdose. This incident has always haunted her, resulting in a phobia of water bodies.

After one of Alex’s exes pushes Ava into a pool at a party, she asks him to teach her to swim and help her deal with her phobia. Alex agrees they have peaceful sessions and the meditations and visualizations seemed to work for her.

Ava, in exchange for all Alex had done for her, wants to do something for him, so she and her friends plan a surprise birthday party. They thought he would get angry, but on the contrary, he didn’t complain at all and even cut the cake and did all the normal party stuff people do. That night when everyone is cleaning the house, Alex and Ava end up doing the dishes together, and Ava asks him if he enjoyed the party. He tells her this is the first birthday party he’s had since his parents died, and before she even asks, Alex confesses that his family was murdered. Because he hid in time, he survived, but his little sister didn’t. Hearing all this Ava says he deserves all of the love in the world even if he doesn’t believe in it. In the intensity of the moment they kiss, but Alex pushes her away saying they shouldn’t be doing that and the kiss was a mistake. He tells her that he isn’t a good person and that he’s trying to save her by staying away, although she doesn’t want to be saved.

The next few days Ava avoids Alex and also skips swimming class, later he gets angry and asks her to stop ignoring him and come to the pool. Ava finally gets in the water, and at first, everything’s fine, but later when she dips her head in the water she blacks out, remembering the incident. After she gains consciousness she finds herself out of the pool in the lobby of the hotel, she apologizes to Alex for failing, but he tells her with time she’ll get better, and she doesn’t need to be sorry. She realizes she’s wanted Alex more than she knew and asks him to kiss her. He hesitates, saying he’s not a sweet person and she shouldn’t be wanting him. But she says she doesn’t care about any of those things and boldly says that if he really wants her, he’d book a room in the hotel. He finally gives up and books the penthouse. That night while having sex, Alex looks into her eyes. Everyone knows that, as a rule, he never does that nor does he show his feelings. Confused, Ava asks why if that’s his rule, and he says that no rules apply when it comes to her. After that day they start dating.

Later, Alex and Ava visit Ava’s father for Thanksgiving and stay there overnight. A repressed memory resurfaces as she dreams. In the morning she goes outside, and as she watches her dad exercising, she notices his ring. She remembers seeing that ring when she was pushed into the lake as a child. She realizes it was her father who pushed her and that he also tried to kill her again by suffocating her with a pillow. She freaks out and tells that to Alex.

Alex plans a confrontation with her father in his office. Ava’s father Michael confesses everything saying he tried to kill Ava because he suspects she isn’t his daughter. He is arrested because Josh is also present and has recorded everything from the hall. While being arrested Michael says Josh would never accept this and that’s when Josh comes into the picture and tells his dad he totally believes his best friend. Later that night he shows his anger about the relationship between Alex and Ava, but after Ava tells him that she loves Alex, he calms down and leaves. He threatens that if Alex breaks her heart there will be a price to pay.

After a week Alex finds out that the one who had murdered his family when he was a child was his uncle Ivan Volkow, the man who raised him after his parents were gone. They’d decided to make Alex the CEO of the company. After finding this out Alex pulls strings and takes over the company becoming a CEO. Two weeks later he finds out that his uncle has abducted Ava and Bridget. Ivan asks him to hand over the company to him and take both the girls. Alex tries to show no emotion saying Ava is just a fling and he had been using her and Josh to get information from their father, thinking if he did that Ivan would let them go as they were of no use. Ava is hurt by this, but after some time Ava and Bridget free themselves and defend themselves from the people who abducted them on Ivan’s orders. Alex on the other hand, points a gun at his uncle and tells the girls to leave before he shoots 6 bullets into his uncle’s body, finally completing his revenge.

After everything is over Ava, not believing what he said, goes to Alex and asks if all he said was true. Alex thinks it would be better for Ava to stay away from him, so he says that what he said inside was true, and she could take it as a lesson not to trust people so easily. Ava is shocked by this and feels that her heart is ripping apart. Josh beats Alex to hell after knowing he used him. Although Alex tries to tell him he befriended him with a motive but over time genuinely became his best friend, Josh doesn’t listen.

How did Twisted Love end?

After two and half months Ava leaves London for her fellowship, and Alex is a total mess when Bridget barges into his office telling that she knows he genuinely loved her, so he should confess this to her. After a lot of denials, Bridget finally says that Ava is leaving for London in an hour. He finally admits he loves her. Rushing to the airport he finds out that her flight has already left.

Six months later Alex sets everything up so that he isn’t needed at work and leaves for London. After finding Ava he says that someday he hopes for her to forgive him. Everything was real for him, and he wishes for her to give him a second chance. She tells him to leave her alone, but he said he’d show up under her building every day asking for forgiveness until the day she forgives him.

After two years of chasing and on the last day of Ava’s fellowship, she has her first exhibition. She believes that if only one of her works is purchased, she will be proud. To her surprise, she finds out that all of her works have sold and her mentor/role model complements her. Deep down she knows that Alex is the one who bought the paintings. She searches for him in the exhibition only to find him on stage confessing how one person has entered his dark world and become a light in the dark. He later sings a song for her about love and heartbreak, betrayal and redemption, regret and forgiveness. He sings it so beautifully though he’d never sung in his life. Will she finally forgive him, allowing them to have their happy ending? Yes, definitely.

Thank you to Subhransha for graciously providing this recap! Check them out on Instagram!

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