.png)
Series: Boys of Briar Hall #3
Publication date: February 28th, 2022
Pages: 356
Spice: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Synopsis:
Favors and debts. Blood and sacrifice. The good and the bad. I can't have some and not the rest.
I can't have it all.
This place and these men have seeped into me, and not even my blades can cut them out. But Rook, Corvus, and Grey aren't the only ones keeping me up at night.
There's Diesel St. Crow, an imminent gang war, and an anonymous shadow from my past. Each one clinging to my bones as irrevocably as my own shadow. Any of themc ould be the end of me unless I do something about it.
It's time for me to show them I'm not a toy to be played with. I'm not just Ava Jade Mason anymore. I am Sparrow. I am Ghost. I am motherfucking AJ. I am the queen they've all been waiting for.
And what do queens do?
It's time for some new rules in Thorn Valley, and I'm going to be the one making them.
Twisted Games is book three in the Boys of Briar Hall series and should be read after Wicked Trials. It's a reverse harem romance, meaning the main character will have more than one love interest and she will not have to choose between them.
Warming: This series contains foul language, graphic depictions of gang violence, references to past trauma, and jealous/possessive themes. Please read responsibly.
Available at:
Review:
After Ava Jade finds out that everything she had ever struggled with, her moral compass over eking out revenge or being loyal to the Saints is put the rest, she must come to terms with a new set of betrayals. What is she to do when everything she thought was true turned out to be a test? Whether she likes it or not she is officially a Saint and while Diesel may no longer be a threat to her, her stalker is still out there. The question of whether he is dead or not is put to rest at last as he renews his drive to have Ava Jade for himself in the middle of the Saints going to war with the Aces. Between gang politics, a resurrected stalker, and her own battle of wills with her heart and the guys who have engrained themselves inside it, Ava Jade is once more juggling a medley of dangers to not just her life but her heart.
It seems like every time the group seems to get slowly closer to giving into their love for each other, something gets thrown in their way to make them all pull back and try to decide whether they can trust each other. Every time I shift to the edge of my seat in hopes that things are going to finally go easy for them something else happens to make me flop back with a derisive huff.
The battle between Saints and Aces is a defining moment in the story and while I don't want to spoil anything I do think there was a lot of emotional strife found there. I found myself sobbing at one point as one of the characters I had grown incredibly fond of was shot in the face. I definitely had to set the book aside for a minute and gather myself emotionally to continue. Not only would one of my favorite characters be gone but it would break the harem up completely in it's midst. Blame is thrown around in the heat of loss and pain that made me grind my teeth and grip my Kindle roughly. It was an absolute emotional rollercoaster to the point where I had to dive into the next book right away to find out what happened next. I couldn't risk the thought of losing even one of the main characters or even the supporting characters. I refused to believe Lawson would be so cruel!
One note I would give is that the author was very heavy handed with the term 'cunt'. I am not sure if it was used to make the sex scenes more taboo or if it was just the term that seemed most comfortable (Australians love the term), but perhaps a few of them should be changed to a different term? I mean, there are a plethora of other options that would make the scene just as scandalous without reusing the same word over and over again. This caused me to not be able to fully embrace the sex scenes and had me rolling my eyes after the first few times.
Aside from the overused term, this was yet another solid installment in the Boys of Briar Hall. Lawson is swiftly on her way to the ranks of one of my favorite authors.
