Twisted PDF - Emily McIntire

Twisted by Emily McIntire is the fourth book in the Never After series, a dark contemporary romance inspired by Aladdin and built around power, obsession, forced proximity, and enemies-to-lovers tension. The story follows Yasmin Karam, the sheltered daughter of one of the richest men in the world, and Julian Faraci, her father’s ambitious right-hand man. When Yasmin’s father falls ill and expresses a final wish to see her married, Yasmin is pulled into a desperate arrangement that places her future in Julian’s hands. Published in 2023, the paperback edition is listed as a 400-page romance from Bloom Books/Sourcebooks.

A darker, sharper reimagining of Aladdin

In Twisted, Emily McIntire takes the familiar emotional ingredients of Aladdin—wealth, class difference, hidden motives, forbidden love, and the idea of a “diamond in the rough”—and transforms them into an adult dark romance where no one is entirely innocent. Yasmin’s heart belongs to someone her father would never approve of, a man outside the world of privilege and power she was born into. Yet her father’s illness places impossible pressure on her, forcing her to consider duty, family expectation, and the cost of pleasing a dying parent. This gives the novel a strong emotional foundation beneath its darker romantic tension. Readers searching for a dark Aladdin retelling, a Never After romance, or a story about love trapped between class, family, and control will find that Twisted uses its fairy-tale inspiration in a bold and contemporary way.

Julian Faraci and the danger of ambition

Julian Faraci is the villain at the heart of Yasmin’s story, and Twisted leans into that role with intensity. He wants power, inheritance, and control, and he is willing to use marriage as a weapon to secure the future he believes belongs to him. His history is marked by violence, survival, and emotional hardness, making him a classic morally grey dark romance hero whose desire is inseparable from ambition. Julian does not enter Yasmin’s life as a gentle rescuer; he enters as a threat, a strategist, and a man who sees weakness as something to exploit. Yet the tension between Julian and Yasmin is exactly what makes the novel compelling. Their relationship is not built on easy trust. It is built on resistance, manipulation, attraction, and the slow collapse of certainty.

Forced marriage, enemies-to-lovers tension, and emotional conflict

One of the strongest reader-intent elements in Twisted by Emily McIntire is its use of popular dark romance tropes, especially forced marriage, enemies to lovers, forced proximity, and the dangerous pull between two people who should never want each other. Yasmin is not simply a prize to be claimed; she is a woman caught between grief, loyalty, desire, and the sudden realization that the men around her all want something from her. Julian, meanwhile, becomes more than a calculating villain as the story explores what hunger for power can hide and what intimacy can expose. The romance is intense because it grows in an atmosphere of pressure. Every choice carries consequences, and every moment of attraction is complicated by motive, resentment, and fear.

A seductive entry in the Never After series

Twisted is ideal for readers who enjoy romance that is dramatic, morally complex, and emotionally charged. It offers the luxurious atmosphere of wealth and influence, the tension of a marriage arrangement, and the sharp edge of a heroine facing a man who may be both her worst nightmare and her most dangerous temptation. Like the other books in the Never After series, it can be read as part of McIntire’s broader world of villain-centered fairy tale reimaginings, where love is never simple and happy endings come at a cost. For fans of dark contemporary romance, fractured fairy tales, villain romance, and high-stakes emotional conflict, Twisted delivers a seductive, power-driven reading experience that turns a familiar tale into something ruthless, passionate, and unmistakably adult.