Wednesday, March 5, 2014

BOOK REVIEW: [ARC] TWISTED by Emma Chase

Title: TWISTED (Tangled #2)
Author: Emma Chase (Website | Twitter
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: March 25, 2014

SYNOPSIS


There are two kinds of people in the world. The ones who look first, and the ones who leap. I’ve always been more of a looker. Cautious. A planner. That changed after I met Drew Evans. He was so persistent. So sure of himself – and of me.


But not all love stories end happily ever after. Did you think Drew and I were going to ride off into the sunset? Join the club. Now I have to make a choice, the most important of my life. Drew already made his –in fact, he tried to decide for the both of us. But you know that’s just not my style. So I came back to Greenville. Alone. Well, sort of alone....

What I've come to realize is that old habits die hard and sometimes you have to go back to where you began, before you can move ahead.

TWISTED picks up two years after Tangled’s end, and is told from Kate’s POV.


Tangled Series has a FACEBOOK PAGE already!
Mark and add this book in your "to read" list on Goodreads, here.

*ARC provided by Gallery Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*


Ramblings. For realsies, this is the first time that I truly got lucky in the ARC department!!! Not only I was able to snag an ARC from Netgalley but it was an ARC of a sequel that I am very much anticipating to be released. While waiting for the email response of Netgalley and Gallery Books, I was SO SURE that they’re going to decline my request. Well surprise surprise, because just days after I submitted my request I woke up with an email notification on my phone about them granting me an ARC. Aha, I was squealing and jumping up and down inside my room because of that news. Though, it took me a couple of days to get on with Twisted’s ARC for I was finishing another review copy which was Sempre by J.M. Darhower and rereading the first book of this series, TANGLED. *shrugs* Not that I forgot what happened in Tangled but I just want to be FULLY reacquainted with my Kate-Drew feels! Enough with that, let’s get started with our TWISTED discussion which as much as possible I will try it to be spoiler-free.

My thoughts.  Going into reading Twisted, I had this expectation that it’s going to be more dramatic than the last one. Why? Because when Tangled ended, Kate and Drew were pretty much in cloud nine and just from reading Twisted’s blurb you know, we know that there’s going to be a disaster in their lives:

But not all love stories end happily ever after. Did you think Drew and I were going to ride off into the sunset? Join the club. Now I have to make a choice, the most important of my life. Drew already made his –in fact, he tried to decide for the both of us. But you know that’s just not my style. So I came back to Greenville. Alone. Well, sort of alone....

So yep, more drama involved here and it quite spanned out in the entirety of the book.

Twisted may not be as hilarious as Tangled but Emma Chase definitely gives us a very distinct voice for Kate. This book is more on the serious note of everything – from the events that happened and the tone of the book itself. Through Kate’s character, Chase was able to voice out stuff about relationships in a girl’s perspective, which is pretty much VERY helpful for girls, guys and couples.

In terms of the storyline, if you’ve been observant from the very beginning I’m sure it’ll be predictable to you on what happens next to these characters. It’ll feel like you’re way ahead in your brain but the pages of the book are just catching up on you. BUT what makes this worth reading goes like this, Chase gives us this very witty, snarky narrative with the use of Kate’s character and the inserts of lessons/advice as we go along. Ooops, I forgot to mention – Twisted is as steamy as Tangled. I highly recommend this book or shall I say this series to everyone because all of us can really get some POINTERS in these books.

I was actually scared to start reading this ARC because I know that it will make me cry. And true enough, Twisted really made me a feel a lot of things towards the characters - frustration, disappointment, anger, sorry and towards the last chapters … the sense of elation finally settled in. As a VERY emotional reader, I ended up having my heart broken; bawling my eyes out in some parts of the book because of the situation the characters were in and there may or may not be parts where I want to strangle Drew. Though, Kate and Drew were both to blame with what happened to them here.

The biggest lesson in this book is the importance of COMMUNICATION in a relationship, not just with boyfriends and girlfriends but with any kind of relationship a person has. Yeah, here in this book Kate and Drew experienced a disastrous miscommunication / misunderstanding and for Drew’s case, I think his judgments were already clouded at that point. I won’t elaborate more on what their misunderstanding was but you see …without healthy communication, a relationship will really crumble down. Not that they don’t love each other anymore (because that can’t possible happen in a snap) but Drew and Kate or even us in our own lives could avoid a whole lot of unnecessary drama if communication is around. Another thing is if you were already communicating to someone be sure that you are on the SAME PAGE as with her/him.

Kate. There’s part of me that wishes that Kate could’ve just blurted out what that “THING/SITUATION” she’s in and it’ll be like a smack in Drew’s face then and there. Ha! It could’ve been more dramatic. Lol! *shrugs* Lesson: Just say it. Even if it’s happy news or a sad one, just say it and talk about it with your boyfriend or anyone. It doesn’t hurt for you to inform them of what situation you’re currently in. We witness a character development towards her character, which I really believe she needed. I love that she can now stand up for her own decision and let Drew see reason.

Drew. Oh boy, Drew’s knee-jerk reaction … I was devastated and disgusted with that. I felt so gutted when he did that. HOW WHY … yes, he was hurt but I CRY. Here’s another lesson: Even if your friend or someone you know is somewhat shady about things and you can’t avoid but to conjure all these worst case scenario scenes, we must TRY not to be ahead of ourselves, do something drastic that may jeopardize our relationship with them and just be level headed when conversing with them.

I can’t help but cry for those WHAT IF moments Drew and Kate were mentioning towards the end of the book. It’ll never happen for them that way (and it could’ve been perfect) because they can’t go back in time. Huff. All they can do is move past this disaster and drama-filled part of their lives. *pats your back* you’ll know what I’m referring to once you’ve read this book.

Dee Dee and the rest of the gang are back and they’re the ones that will make you crack up in some parts of the book. Mackenzie makes an appearance in the earlier parts of the book and she’s richer than ever.

Seriously though, I think this book is quite short or was it just because of how I read it? Maybe it was also because of the pacing and how engaging this book was. I was just flipping page after page and totally didn’t notice that I already reached the epilogue of the book. Real talk, I was really shocked finding myself staring at that EPILOGUE heading. I wasn’t ready to end Twisted, just yet.

Twisted may be written through Kate’s POV BUT Emma Chase returns to Drew’s POV to narrate the epilogue. AND wow, the epilogue was truly a great one and it’s quite lengthy compared to other epilogues. He gives us some of his insights with what happened in the roller coaster ride they were in in Twisted. You may feel heartbroken for the most part of the book but I think the epilogue will compensate for it and I’m quite sure you’ll be happy to read it. There’s something big that’s going to happen in there. *squeals*

I’m totally excited for you guys to be able to read this one. But you should totally be ready with tissues (something to wipe your tears away – happy tears, sad tears or angry tears), a pillow (if you find yourself wanting to strangle a character in this book, you might want to use that) and a glass of water (to at least help you calm down). Not only you’ll be able to feel FEELS but you’ll definitely learn a thing or two from this book.

*grabby hands for Book 3, Tamed*

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
This review is also posted on my Goodreads account. 



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