Can a man and woman be just friends? Abigail Jenkins is wondering just that.
Now that Edwin Santora has graduated from law school with honours, he could get a job anywhere he wanted. Of all the places to land, why did he have to take a position with Abigail’s small firm? As if sharing a house with her irresistible ex wasn’t bad enough, now it was the least of her concerns. When Edwin’s macho arrogance begins to seriously affect her dating life, Abigail starts to seriously reconsider their friendship; not that Edwin believes a man and woman can be just friends anyway.
After yet another date gone wrong and Edwin’s fierce persistence, Abigail finds herself catching feelings. When Edwin makes a friendly proposal, no-strings-attached, Abigail can’t resist. After some sexy role playing, she finds herself dangerously in love and wrapped back up in his powerful grip. Little does he know that Abigail has a strict life plan for herself and has set out to see if Edwin is up for the challenge. When Abigail finally puts their relationship to the test, will it pass with flying colours or will they give in to the mysterious forces trying to drive them apart?–Description From Goodreads
Christa Simpson has designed characters that work with each other well. Nothing is simple and the relationships are not only complicated, but filled with the type of sexual tension that you want to see in an adult romance. You aren’t sure from the beginning why Abigail feels the way she does, and exploring her relationship with Edwin and his competition makes for an interesting plot that keeps the reader moving forward.
I thought the secondary relationships were handled very well, the friendship between Abby and Aliah was believable and made the characters seem more realistic and the story more grounded. I love it when you get involved in a book and feel like you have known the characters forever. The hate/hate relationship between Maddie and the other women in the book made for interesting dialogue and some tension that I wasn’t expecting, making it that much more interesting.
The sex scenes were handled very well and none of them were quite as over the top as I would have expected by the cover. Christa Simpson has a way of alluding to what is happening without having to give the reader every single detail of the act itself, which I appreciated, not particularly being a fan of explicit sex scenes. Some of the scenes seemed a little difficult to believe, but they were fun and made me smile in the end.
There is a bit of a paranormal something going on in this novel, that I am thinking will be explored more in the following books. It was a good start to making the rest of the series even more compelling, and added a bit of an unexpected twist to the book.
Now for the part I didn’t love so much. There really is no end to this book. While I do understand that this is a series and all of the loose ends could not be tied up, I did feel the ending was abrupt. It sort of dropped off mid-conversation and I wasn’t really expecting that. I would have liked to have seen the book end with hope for the future of the characters you grow to love over this story, rather than the unexpected end it had.
Overall, this is a book that I would feel comfortable recommending to other readers. This author clearly has a good imagination and a talent for her chosen craft. If you like books where there is tension, romance, steam, great character building and more than one book to look forward to, you might give “Twisted” a chance. I enjoyed it very much.
