Twisted (Tangled #2), by Emma Chase
Publish Date: March 25, 2014
Publisher: Gallery Books
Format: audiobook, purchased
Genre: new adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon * Barnes & Noble
Rating: 5 STARS
(From Goodreads) 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.
One of my biggest pet peeves about "funny" books is, when the serious stuff happens, it's usually glossed over with jokes and sarcastic wit. Some situations are just not funny, and when they're treated as such, it cheapens the humor in the rest of the book. Somehow Emma Chase has figured out how to walk that very fine line. She was able to take a serious situation and blend it with humor at the right moments in the right ways to keep me laughing out loud and crying.
If you remember, at the end of Tangled, things looked sublimely good for Kate and Drew. In Twisted, two years have passed, and Kate and Drew seem to have fallen into a happy pattern. Until Kate throws the pair way outside of their pattern and Drew responds in an unexpected way. All of a sudden, Drew and Kate are facing an unexpected future, and that is the most unexpected thing of all.
Twisted is told from Kate's POV this time around. I loved her in Tangled, and I loved her even more in Twisted. This is one of the strongest heroines I've read about. She's incredibly smart and continues to hold her own at Drew's father's investment banking firm. She and Drew are like the Dream Team there. Kate is driven and ballsy and so much fun. I think that's why Drew loves her so much, even after two years together.
But, the best thing about Kate is that she can make the hard decisions when she has to. She doesn't like to make them, but she does what she thinks is best, no matter what. That takes serious guts - when you know that the best decision is not the easiest, and yet you go that route anyway. Also, sometimes she makes mistakes, and Kate can admit when that happens.
The humor that marks an Emma Chase book is definitely here. There were so many moments when I laughed out loud. The banter between Kate and Dee Dee (well between anyone and Dee Dee - that chick is something else) and Billy is absolutely hilarious. And, in this book, those moments were very much needed. What Kate is going through is really hard and really sad. I can't even imagine what I would've done in her position. I definitely would've cried a lot more than what she did. Would've wallowed more than planned. But, I'm not Kate.
Drew is missing for nearly all of this book. When things fall apart between them, Kate leaves New York and goes home to her mother in Ohio. That is where the majority of the book takes place. But, in the moments that Drew is present, he is larger than life, as usual. Despite the really serious - and I mean SERIOUS - mistakes he makes in Twisted, I still love the man. Hard. He doesn't always do the right thing, but what he does do, he does it with the same passion he exhibited in Tangled.
Once again I listened to the audio version of Twisted. Sebastian York, who was the voice of Drew in Tangled, returns to read the epilogue, which is also in Drew's POV. I swear, I will listen to any book this man reads. He is absolutely wonderful. Charlotte Penfield read most of the book. This is the first book I've listened to that was narrated by her, and it will definitely not be the last. She was fantastic! I thought she captured Kate's trademark snark perfectly.
Emma Chase managed to keep me laughing at the right moments, sad at the right moments, and furious at the right moments. The story line was never buried under needless silly banter and the jokes were never shoved in there with a crowbar. She is so good at what she does. I've already added all her other books to my TBR, because I need more from this wonderful author.
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