Books Like Twisted Love: 8 Spicy Romance Reads

Ana Huang’s Twisted Love launched one of the most popular contemporary romance series of recent years. Its blend of a brooding, possessive hero, a brother’s-best-friend setup, slow-burn tension, and a tight-knit friend group struck a nerve, and readers tore through the whole Twisted series in days. If you finished Twisted Love and need your next spicy, emotional, can’t-put-it-down romance, these eight books deliver.

Here is a quick comparison, followed by where to start with each.

Books Like Twisted Love at a Glance

What These Books Share

What unites the best read-alikes for Twisted Love is a specific cocktail: a brooding, possessive, secretly devoted hero; a slow-burn that finally boils over; high emotional stakes; and enough heat to earn the “spicy” label. Ana Huang built the Twisted series on that formula, and the books below each deliver a version of it. The rest of the Twisted series is the purest match, following the same friend group through new couples and dynamics — bodyguard romance, enemies-to-lovers, and a steamy finale. The outside picks split by what you loved most: if it was the protective, grumpy hero, Lucy Score and Elena Armas deliver him; if it was the banter and slow-burn tension, Ali Hazelwood and Sally Thorne are your authors; and if it was the addictive, binge-in-a-weekend pacing, Hannah Grace’s viral Icebreaker is the obvious next stop. Knowing whether you came for the hero, the tension, or the heat points you straight to the right book.

The Rest of the Twisted Series

The closest books to Twisted Love are the rest of Ana Huang’s series.

Twisted Games by Ana Huang

The second Twisted book pairs a stoic royal bodyguard with the princess he is sworn to protect. Forbidden, slow-burn, and swoony, it delivers everything that hooked you in Twisted Love with a fresh couple.

Twisted Hate by Ana Huang

An enemies-to-lovers romance between two characters who can’t stand each other — until they can. The banter and heat make it a fan favourite within the series.

Twisted Lies by Ana Huang

The series finale brings the steamiest, most emotional couple yet, with a possessive, devoted hero Huang fans adore. The perfect closer to the friend group’s story.

More Spicy Contemporary Romance

These three match Huang’s heat and emotional intensity.

Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

A figure skater and a hockey captain collide in this spicy, viral college sports romance. The forced proximity, banter, and steam make it a natural next read for Huang fans, and its enormous BookTok following means there are two sequels waiting once you finish.

The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas

A fake-dating, slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers romance with a grumpy hero and plenty of tension. The emotional build and payoff land squarely in Twisted Love territory, and the pining is dialled all the way up for readers who live for the slow burn.

Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score

A grumpy, protective hero and a small-town setting power this beloved romance. For Huang fans who love a brooding, devoted love interest, Score is an excellent match — and her Knockemout series gives you several more couples to fall for after this one.

Banter and Slow-Burn

Finally, two modern favourites built on crackling tension.

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

A fake-dating romance between a PhD student and a brooding professor, full of banter and slow-burn heat. Smart and swoony, with the emotional payoff Huang fans crave.

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

The enemies-to-lovers romance that set the modern template, pitting two rival co-workers in a war of wits that slowly turns to want. Sharp, funny, and full of slow-burn tension, it is a must-read for anyone who loves the combative chemistry of Twisted Hate.

Where to Start

If you want to stay in the same world, read Twisted Games next. For more spicy contemporary heat, go to Icebreaker or Things We Never Got Over. For fake-dating tension, read The Spanish Love Deception or The Love Hypothesis. And for the enemies-to-lovers blueprint, pick The Hating Game. Any of these eight will give you what Twisted Love does best: a brooding hero, slow-burn tension, and a romance you can binge in a single weekend.

A note for series readers: the Twisted books are best read in order — Twisted Love, Twisted Games, Twisted Hate, Twisted Lies — since the friend group’s relationships build across the four, even though each centres on a new couple. Once you have finished the series, the standalone picks here are the smoothest landing, and most of their authors have deep backlists of their own to binge next, from Lucy Score’s Knockemout novels to Ali Hazelwood’s STEM romances. For more, see our authors like Emily Henry guide and our best beach reads roundup.