Twisted Games by Ana Huang
Genre: NA Realistic Fiction/Romance
Blurb (on back of book): She can never be his...but he's taking her anyway.
Stoic, broody, and arrogant, elite bodyguard Rhys Larsen has two rules:
1) Protect his clients at all costs
2) Do not become emotionally involved. Ever.
He has never once been tempted to break those rules...until her.
Bridget von Ascheberg. A princess with a stubborn streak that matches his own and a hidden fire that reduces his rules to ash. She's nothing he expected and everything he never knew he needed.
Day by day, inch by inch, she breaks down his defenses until he's faced with a truth he can no longer deny: he swore an oath to protect her, but all he wants is to ruin her. Take her.
Because she's his.
His princess.
His forbidden fruit.
His every depraved fantasy.
***
Regal, strong-willed, and bound by the chains of duty, Princess Bridget dreams of the freedom to live and love as she chooses.
But when her brother abdicates, she's suddenly faced with the prospect of a loveless, politically expedient marriage and a throne she never wanted.
And as she navigates the intricacies-and treacheries-of her new role, she must also hide her desire for a man she can't have.
Her bodyguard.
Her protector.
Her ultimate ruin.
Unexpected and forbidden, theirs is a love that could destroy a kingdom...and doom them both.
MY OPINION: ****
In sharp contrast to my less than savory opinion of the first book in this series, I actually really enjoyed this one. I was not expecting to like it as much as I did and I'm glad that the second book redeemed this series in my eyes enough for me to continue reading the rest of them.
This story covers Bridget, Queen of Eldorra (some random European country), and her love story with her bodyguard Rhys Larsen, who I absolutely adored. This book covered forbidden love, class differences, the typical barriers between royalty and "common people," and I loved it. It reminded me a lot of The Princess Diaries 2 which everyone should know I absolutely love and have seen 483920428 times, so I was definitely a fan of this one. Genovia/Eldorra... same thing.
This book does read a little more as insta-love but not in the crusty way I hate to read about. It does take two years for them to get together but those two years are skipped over so to us readers, we were firstly robbed of two years of slow-burn and secondly it just appears to us as insta-love. I personally was okay with this one because once they did kiss for the first time, it wasn't like they got together the next chapter and life was good. It took a LOT of time for them to finally confess their feelings for each other and then the rest of the book covers the forbidden aspect of their relationship so we still get the angsty tension we all love in slow-burns.
Rhys is assigned as Bridget's bodyguard towards the end of the first book but we don't get to actually meet him until this one. I actually loved Rhys. He was protective, if a little overbearing, a tad bossy, and very feral for Bridget. Rhys spends half his time claiming he doesn't conduct personal relationships with his clients but then five pages later talks about how he's obsessed with Bridget. Yes, he was very hypocritical but I was willing to overlook it because I enjoyed the relationship he had with Bridget. He honestly is a big softie though he claims to have the Alex Volkov energy (no he doesn't at all). He is a little broody and he definitely feels a lot of rage and he's definitely closed-off but I would say he was definitely more emotional and open to Bridget than Alex ever was.
Bridget was hard for me to like. She felt like a bit of a pushover and complained a lot about her first-world problems but I do understand how difficult it must to be shoved into the literal role of QUEEN without any prior preparation. I liked her character development and watching her grow into her role and mature into the queen we knew she could be. She didn't really have a lot of dignity when it came to Rhys, though. I would have loved to have seen more spark from her but she kind of obeyed his every word (despite a few lapses in judgment). She didn't have much of a personality apart from her role as Rhys's girl and queen, which I think made her less likable to me.
The one dude who she went on dates with as her possible husband was funny. He was literally Andrew from The Princess Diaries but okay.
The writing style has clearly improved from the first book to this one. I could definitely feel more chemistry between Rhys and Bridget and the emotions were described in a much more palpable way. Rather than just being flat, I-love-you and I will burn down the world for you king of trash like the first book was, this one definitely explored more complex emotions and the forbidden aspect of their relationship. It definitely had more layers despite having less action (which I definitely enjoyed, because I signed up for romance novels, not action novels).
This one didn't make me cackle in absurdity so for that, it definitely ranks higher than the first one. I was scared for most of it trying to find the moment when they would get caught and I liked that form of suspense way more than the first book's soap opera James Bond type of thing. The ending was not too surprising to me but I wasn't really looking for some mystery anyway so I didn't mind.
I will say the ending was just a tad too happily ever after for me. The whole book is spent trying to figure out how to get around the forbidden romance thing and then it gets fixed in like thirty pages. It involves a lot of illegal blackmail and things like that as well which just didn't sit well with me. It just felt like too easy of a fix for such a large problem. Like, they could have done that before and none of this drama would have happened. Bridget wouldn't even have had to be queen.
I wish we got to see more of the friendships but obviously, since most of this book is set in a different country, it was much harder. Still, I loved the relationships Bridget had with Ava, Jules, and Stella, and also seeing the boys start to form shaky friendships (though they would never admit it).
This was probably my second favorite of the series. I would recommend it to readers looking for a forbidden romance with some "spicy" elements and a lot of royal drama similar to The Princess Diaries (seriously, go watch those movies if you haven't already). They walked so this book could run.
Main Character: Bridget, Rhys
Sidekick(s): Ava, Jules, Stella, etc
Villain(s): Archaic rules, forbidden love, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was all very real to life.
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