Twisted Games

Twisted Games (2021) is a new adult romance novel by Ana Huang. It is the second installment in the Twisted series, a quartet of interconnected love stories centered on four friends: Ava, Bridget, Jules, and Stella. The TikTok phenomenon is a USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and IndieReader bestseller. Told from alternating first-person perspectives, Twisted Games follows the enemies-to-lovers romance between Princess Bridget von Ascheberg and her bodyguard, Rhys Larsen. Bridget and Rhys both navigate social expectations, guilt, and professional duties as their forbidden romance progresses.

This guide refers to the Kindle edition self-published by Ana Huang in 2021.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide feature descriptions of child abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, gun violence, abduction, and sexism.

Plot Summary

Bridget von Ascheberg is a graduating senior at Thayer University. She also happens to be the granddaughter of the king of Eldorra, a small European kingdom for which she is second in line to the throne. At the beginning of the novel, her long-time bodyguard and friend goes on paternity leave, so the palace gets Bridget a new bodyguard: a handsome and serious ex-Navy SEAL named Rhys Larsen. Although Bridget and Rhys are immediately attracted to one another, they also conflict with each other from their first interaction because they are both strong-willed and stubborn.

Finding Bridget’s former security inadequate, Rhys increases her security protocols, which leaves her feeling restricted—just as she does in Eldorra when all eyes are on her. Despite being a princess, she feels and acts like a normal person at Thayer and with her friends (Ava, Jules, and Stella). Bridget ignores many of Rhys’s security restrictions and even sneaks out one night to see a concert with Ava. That night, Bridget and Ava are kidnapped by enemies of Ava’s dubious boyfriend, and Rhys is only able to find and recover the two women because he has put a tracking device in Bridget’s phone.

Bridget is furious that Rhys has been tracking her, and Rhys is equally angry that Bridget will not follow his security protocols. Bridget devises a truce; she promises to do as Rhys says if he removes the tracker from her phone. Although making this concession irritates the strong-willed princess, some of the contention between her and Rhys dissipates with their truce and as they learn more about each other. After Bridget’s graduation, they move to New York, and Bridget tries to date other men to get Rhys off her mind. Even so, their mutual attraction continues to grow.

One day, Bridget receives a call from her brother, the crown prince Nikolai, saying that their grandfather has collapsed and is in the hospital. Rhys and Bridget go to Eldorra, where they find King Edvard recovering. However, Bridget is shocked when Nikolai tells her that he plans to marry his American girlfriend. Under the Royal Marriages Law enacted centuries earlier, this is not permitted to royals. If Nikolai goes through with his plan, he will be forced to abdicate, leaving Bridget to be next in line for the throne: a role for which she was never prepared.

Knowing of the constraints that will arise when she becomes the crown princess, Bridget wants to live her life as freely as she can while she is still in America. She has a bucket list of several things she wants to do before she has to move back to Eldorra. When Rhys hears about this bucket list, he wants to help Bridget fulfill it to make her happy. However, despite his attraction for her, he knows that he cannot help her with the last item on her bucket list, as it would involve having sex with her.

Rhys takes Bridget to a secluded town in Costa Rica, where she is able to relax and have fun without the pressures of being a public figure. They grow closer to each other and learn about each other’s past traumas. On the last night of their trip, Rhys agrees when Bridget asks him to have sex with her. Though they agree to keep this a secret and resolve to never let it happen again, Bridget feels a notable shift in their relationship the next day. As they head back to New York, Bridget asks Rhys if he wants to extend his contract as her bodyguard and move to Eldorra, an offer that Rhys turns down shortly after.

A few weeks later, once Bridget has begun her training to inherit the throne, her grandfather tells her that Rhys has requested to become her permanent bodyguard. Bridget does not know what this means for her relationship with Rhys, especially since the palace is already planning for her to marry a nobleman. Rhys is jealous when he sees the attention that Bridget gets from her suitors, and he eventually admits that he came to Eldorra because he can’t stop thinking about her, even though he knows that they can’t be together.

Their lust is rekindled in the following weeks, and they sneak around the palace to find ways to be together. At the same time, Bridget is struggling with her public role as crown princess, especially when she has to deal with devious noblemen like her cousin Andreas and the speaker of Parliament, Lord Erhall. She tries to think of ways to repeal the Royal Marriages Law so that she and Rhys can be together and so that her marriage choices are not limited to those of a certain rank. However, this change would require her to sway both public and parliamentary opinion and convince Lord Erhall to bring the issue to the floor of Parliament.

News of Bridget and Rhys’s relationship is leaked to the media, and just after Bridget confirms the allegations to her grandfather, he has another heart attack. Days later at the hospital, Bridget breaks up with Rhys because she knows that their respective roles do no allow them to be together. She also plans to marry a duke in the following months because her grandfather will be stepping down and making her the queen of Eldorra. A few weeks later, her grandfather realizes how unhappy Bridget is, and he suggests that she still has a few months to repeal the Royal Marriages Law.

Bridget and Rhys both have useful contacts, leading them both to uncover information against Lord Erhall that they can use to blackmail him. Andreas tells Rhys that both he and Rhys are the illegitimate sons of Lord Erhall. They use this knowledge to compel Erhall to support their efforts to have the Royal Marriages Law repealed. Rhys and Bridget implement a scheme to sway public opinion in their favor by making their love story public, and they are eventually able to repeal the Royal Marriages Law. Months later, Bridget marries Rhys and is crowned queen of Eldorra.