A Love so Dark and Twisted

by Deanna Knight, Jacilyn M. Knight

Charlotte Loughty is about to graduate college and is still plagued by the disappearance of her childhood best friend. The darkness left by his absence lights a fire in Charlie. Four years of college, armed with a degree in criminal justice and journalism, and she’s bound and determined to make a difference in the most crime laden cities in the United Chicago. Not only does Charlie want to help put a stop to the rampant war on drugs and sex trafficking, but she’s determined to figure out what happened to her friend.

Yuri Volkov and his family had to abandon their suburban life in the middle of the night right before his fourteenth birthday. Yuri’s father wouldn’t let him tell Charlotte they were leaving or where they were going. Yuri listened, even at a young age he knew it was the only way to keep her safe. He’s the eldest son of Ilya, leader of the Russian Mafia, and it’s not easy. Yuri is afraid for his life and the lives of his mother, father, and two younger brothers and best friend. Yuri will do anything to protect Charlie even if that means he never sees her again.


This dark - well, dark-ish - romance will have readers wondering if stalking is really all that wrong. Will Charlie ever find her long-lost friend? Will Yuri be able to protect his family and his friend? Can a child-like friendship filled with secrecy and lies grow into a love strong enough to conquer both crime and fate?

340 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 2025

Reviews

[booklover]

There's no "love" in this book because there's no relationship, some parts were so rushed but the relationship was so badly done. The ending sucked too, barely a real ending. And some grammar didn't make any sense

"my feelings started to become something more; she didn't want her to know that and ruin our friendship."

For context he's talking about the same Girl here ☝️

“Where is Andrey?”

He asks while he's torturing Andrey....


I normally don't care about these things but it does really ruin your experience with the book

Don't recommend this book at all, there's no romance , no love, there's just a bit of drama and fighting. So disappointing

[reading 505]

I respect every author and I know that the authors of this book did put effort in, but I’m here to be 100% honest. I don’t give 1 stars easily. About 50 pages in I just started a list of things to complain about:

- !!!!!! (If I saw one more exclamation point…. Oh…. Lord…)

- MMC said all he heard was “wah wah wah” while simply being told about sending an email without an IP address… and why did it take him several hours to prepare the email

- Stop saying she likes to watch elevator buttons light up

- Hunger Games mentioned 3 too many times

- “Casually sitting on my couch” & “standing board-straight” in the same paragraph

- Charlie cries every two seconds and is so over dramatic

- Saying “Aunt Flo’s in town” is just not it

- The Snake’s identity was laughably obvious

- Ripping nails off as torture, fine, very Zade Meadows. But ripping toenails? Really?

It was a good concept, but it feels like the writing wasn’t even reviewed. SO MANY TYPOS. I was so exited to read this and was definitely let down.

[Rochelle]

📚🩷ARC Thoughts and First Impressions 🩷📚

Buckle up, babes, because this book is serving danger, spice, and all the feels! 💋🔥

Charlotte’s no longer the sweet girl-next-door—she’s a whip-smart, crime-fighting queen on a mission to crack secrets wide open and bring justice to the gritty streets of Chicago. 💼✨ But beneath her fierce determination is a fire that’s been burning for years… all thanks to one mysterious, heartbreakingly handsome boy who vanished without a trace.

Enter Yuri Volkov. 🖤 The broody, untouchable heir to the Russian Mafia throne. He left for her safety, but now? He’s back—and watching her every move. 👀👀 Is it stalking if it’s sexy? Asking for a friend.

This story is a delicious cocktail of tension, betrayal, and off-the-charts chemistry. Yuri’s playing the “stay away” card, but with Charlotte in his orbit, fate doesn’t stand a chance. 🔥 Will their connection survive the lies, the danger, and all the sparks flying between them? Or will their worlds collide in the most explosive way possible? 💣✨

Warning: This book will leave you swooning, sweating, and questioning your morals. Highly recommended for lovers of dark secrets, mafia vibes, and stolen kisses in the shadows. 🖤🔥

[Sabrina Chaltry]

Finally finished. It was ok. I don’t think the title fit the book. I didn’t feel there was a dark and twisted love at all. There were sentences that didn’t make sense to me, errors in spelling, but most of all I didn’t feel the vibes were what I expected… the dark romance and twists you’d think there would be by reading the cover/back weren’t there. The way Konstantin and Konstantine kept being spelled with or without an e at the end really bothered me more than it should. I’m not saying DON’T read it. But 0 steam, 0 thrill so if you’re looking for dark and spicy, this isn’t it. If my teenage daughter wanted to dip her toes into a “thriller romance” this would be a book I’d give her. Because it’s very appropriate if that makes sense. The storyline in general was good, not something I’ve read yet.

[Kristena Schmitz]

What?! Sexy but clean? I’m sold!

In all honesty, I was not prepared for how much I loved this book! It brought me back to my “Twilight” days. Reading about this monumental love that went against all odds. Now, fast forward a few decades and I got to fall in love with a story that leaves behind the vampires and brings all the passion in a more realistic world. Imagine reading a romance novel that you aren’t afraid to let your teenage daughter catch you reading! This is a great way to introduce yourself to dark romance without feeling like you’re drowning. It isn’t often that you find something that allows the reader to use their imagination when passion and heat arise. What a great story. I cannot wait to follow this series!

[Destiny Klingaman]

I was lucky enough to have met the ladies who wrote the book! They even signed it for me. I’m extremely grateful for that. They own a bookstore in Menomonee, Michigan named The book Nook. Amazing place! I bought a couple of books that day.

I did like the storyline of the book overall. You could tell that it was one of the first ones in their writing journey and editing journey. But I personally am extremely excited to see what else they come up with. If this is them towards the beginning of their careers.???!! I can only imagine what they’re gonna be in the next couple of years.

[GKP2460]

A Love So Dark And Twisted is my first read by this author. It's Charlie and
Yuri's second chance story. They meet as children but are separated when Yuri's family has to relocate. Neither of them understood why but never gave up on finding each other again. Now as young adults, dangers come into play and intentions to reconnect are hit at every turn. This story has great characters, a good storyline and good direction, but for me, it seemed a bit disjointed. I give a good solid 3.5 stars.

[Alissa]

Was this AI generated? Like, genuinely wondering because no way it wasn't. Aside from the numerous grammar mistakes, the book itself was poorly written. The plot was shaky at best and there was very minimal romance and absolutely no spice. The whole thing was just boring and laughably corny. I quite literally only finished it out of spite. I have no desire to ever read anything else from this author.

[Jessica Pendleton]

I wouldn't consider this smut at all. Whoever said this was spicy was sadly mistaken. It is, however, a drama filled second chance romance. Overall- the book was ok. It wasn't hard to figure out who the rat was. There are spelling and grammatical errors throughout the book. Petal is a flower petal... pedal is for a bike, for instance. It was a quick read. It could have been more, but it feels like the whole thing was rushed.

[Deanna Knight]

As one of the authors, I'm a bit biased. I am mainly writing the view because I wanted to add this to my bookshelf! If you like friends-to-lovers, dark Mafia vibes, and close-door romance, you'll love this book! I wrote it with my sister Jacilyn M. Knight. It's our debut novel! Let us know what you think! Releases Feb. 1, 2025!

[Megan Key]

I really struggled with this one. Overall, I would rate closer to 3.5 but went ahead and rounded up to 4.0. It took me a long time to get into this story. I don’t like to not finish something I start, so I made sure to stick with it. Once I got past the halfway point, the story started to move quicker for me. I enjoyed the added element of the risk going on in the background.

[Vanessa Hilario Mata]

A Love So Dark and Twisted is not a fluffy romance it’s plunge into the murky depths where love blurs the lines with protective, obsessive, and do not touch what’s mine vibes. Yuri and Charlotte have a childhood friends to lovers relationships that had him trying to keep her out of the dark and twisted of his life. Recommend this fantastic mafia, dangerous, secretive, twists and turn book!

[Nifer Waters]

2 ⭐ 1 🌶️
Premise sounds good, execution not so much unfortunately.
Reads like those story apps- not a lot of depth and needs more editing- misspelled words, inconsistencies, unnecessary/over use of !, etc.

[Bethany]

So good

The way the authors wrote this story had me on the edge of my sest until the very end trying to figure out all the twists and turns. The characters are well written a d relatatable.

[Dani]

While I enjoyed the storyline, I found the book to be repetitive and difficult to read at times. There are A LOT of grammatical and punctuation errors that should’ve been easily caught. I can generally excuse a few errors but this was ridiculous and, for me, took away from the overall experience.

[Priscilla Marie]

For a first book that wasn’t sent to a editor it wasn’t that bad. The concept and everything thing was there but you can tell it wasn’t polished and felt repetitive and extremely predictable at times. I kinda want to give it 2 stars but for a first book maybe 3 will be ok.

[Lauren Head]

Such a good book. Some chapters are very short which I personally love. To me, it didn’t feel like it was over 40 chapters. Flows really well. Have to say my favorite character is yuri.

[JL Nick]

I thought the storyline was really interesting, and enjoyed the characters. Some grammatical errors, but overall a good read!

[Tiffany Heil]

Not a lot of spice in this one

I was also able to figure out a lot of the details before even continuing to read the book (predictable)

[Bre]

DNF
I loved the story and the potential plot. But the writing was not….smooth.

There were exclamation points when there shouldn’t have been. The use of contractions were sporadic. When they weren’t used, the writing was “cheesy”

The characters were hard to like, both their inner monologues were awkward.
Example: the MMC was supposed to be a mafia prince/boss and he had the same dialogue as the FMC with inappropriate exclamation points in his thoughts that made him sound.. flamboyant. He wasn’t confident in his speaking or mentality.

It was annoying to read a conversation between characters because it didn’t flow. After every quote it was
“I said” or “she said” “I say” instead of
“With a sigh I looked up, “ blah blah blah” “

The POV was more explaining than painting a picture.

Summary:
The writing was corny. There’s no other way to put it. Boring and repetitive. The same phrases, same tone, it wasn’t colorful.
Like I said, the storyline could’ve been amazing but the writing style was odd.