Welcome to Story Deep Dive!
In this episode, Rachel and Dana dive into Twisted Love by Ana Huang from an editor’s lens—zooming in on wounds, lies, POV choices, and how to build a dark, steamy romance that still feels emotionally grounded.
Whether you’re a romance writer, storyteller, or editor, you’ll gain valuable insights on crafting devastating climaxes, earning your HEA, and writing with both marketing and craft in mind.
You can also watch the video version of this podcast on YouTube!
Estimate Timestamps
00:00 – Year-End Vibes & What’s Coming in December
Rachel and Dana open with their trademark banter about late-night recording energy and end-of-year brain fog. They share that Twisted Love is their final book pick for 2025 and introduce their plan for December: shorter “Best Of” episodes spotlighting the standout moments, patterns, and lessons from all their 2025 reads. They also frame December as intentional downtime—modeling rest and refuel for writers and business owners while still “keeping the party going” with weekly episodes.
06:30 – Kicking Off 2026 with Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
Rachel announces her January 2026 pick: Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. She explains why it’s her go-to teaching text for four-act structure, tightly nested plots, and hard magic systems. They talk about Sanderson’s career, his massive epics like The Way of Kings, and what writers can learn from watching a prolific author evolve over time. Dana marvels at the sheer commitment behind thousand-page books and the systems required to sustain them, and they riff on the joy of fully exploring character growth over enormous story canvases.
18:25 – Why Read Widely (Even If It’s Not “Your” Genre)?
They pivot from Sanderson back to the broader purpose of the show: studying books as writers. Rachel and Dana emphasize the value of reading outside your comfort zone—epic fantasy, dark romance, suspense—not just for entertainment, but as “creative cross-training.” Big, structurally ambitious books help writers understand emotional pacing, multi-layered plots, and character journeys in ways that can be applied to any genre.
19:10 – Story Summary: Twisted Love by Ana Huang
Dana delivers an evocative summary of Twisted Love: a steamy, emotionally charged contemporary dark romance about opposites bound by family secrets and obsession. When Ava Chen’s older brother leaves town, he asks his best friend—cold, calculating Alex Volkov—to look after her. Reluctant guardianship becomes forbidden attraction as both are forced to confront buried trauma. Their relationship becomes a collision of control and compassion, guilt and desire, light and darkness. The book reimagines grumpy/sunshine, brother’s best friend, and good girl/bad boy tropes for a modern, TikTok-era romance audience.
22:40 – High-Level Editor’s Takeaways: Balance, POV, and Marketing Awareness
Dana outlines the major craft angles she wants to explore:
The balance between a brutal climactic fallout and a fully earned HEA, including why a longer post-climax section works here.
POV selection as a power move—how Huang’s choices shape our experience of Alex, Ava, and key emotional beats.
Deciding what makes it onto the page vs. what’s summarized, and where Dana felt a few key moments might have landed harder as full scenes.
Writing with marketing in mind—how the tropes, trauma elements, and emotional intensity feel tailor-made for virality and BookTok, without sacrificing story integrity.
The way the book straddles contemporary, dark romance, and light suspense while still feeling firmly like a romance.
27:00 – Nested Plots & Character Problem Sets
Rachel picks up two big craft lessons:
Nested Plot Loops: Huang closes the suspense/revenge loop before the romance loop, keeping the HEA as the final emotional payoff. This honors romance genre priorities while still delivering satisfying external stakes.
Characters Built Around a Shared Problem: Drawing on John Truby’s The Anatomy of Story, Rachel explains how giving multiple characters variations on the same core problem (trauma, control, safety) creates thematic cohesion. Ava and Alex are opposites on the surface but united by similar wounds processed in different ways, making them uniquely right for each other.
31:00 – Wounds, Lies, and the Romance Arc
They dive deep into how wounds and lies function in romance:
A painful event creates a wound.
The character forms a lie about themselves, others, or the world.
Life then reinforces that lie until the story rips it apart.
Dana connects this to Michael Hauge’s teaching: characters build their lives around a false belief that must be dismantled for true transformation. In Twisted Love, both Ava and Alex have trauma-rooted lies; the romance doesn’t magically heal them, but it becomes the catalyst that makes them willing to face hard truths. They highlight how Huang avoids the trap of “good sex cures everything” and instead lets the emotional work show up on the page.
41:00 – The Climactic Blow-Up: When Everything Collides
They unpack the climactic moment where romance, dark elements, and suspense all converge in one devastating sequence. This is where all the crumbs left throughout the book pay off:
Long-buried secrets surface.
The cost of Alex’s revenge arc slams into the relationship.
Ava and Alex are forced to confront who they’ve become and what they’re willing to sacrifice.
Dana describes it as the kind of climax that “rips your heart out, stomps on it, and throws it against the wall,” and explains why letting all threads collide in one scene is so effective when you’ve built a strong foundation.
47:40 – Why Every Romance Needs a Breakup (and Time to Breathe)
Dana hops on her (beloved) soapbox about why a breakup is essential in romance:
Love isn’t the solution; love is the catalyst.
The breakup creates space for each character to face their wounds and lies without the comforting distraction of the relationship.
The HEA only feels earned if both characters complete their individual arcs and then choose each other again.
They compare Twisted Love to Things We Never Got Over, noting how both books force the love interest to sit in the mess of their choices. They applaud Huang for allowing the post-climax fallout and reconciliation to breathe, rather than rushing back to “I love you” too quickly.
54:20 – What Didn’t Quite Land: Summary vs. Scene in the Final Act
Dana points out her one main craft critique:
In the final act, some significant emotional and healing beats are told in summary rather than shown as full scenes.
A few mirrored scenes (echoing earlier moments) could have given readers direct evidence of Alex and Ava’s growth instead of relying on retrospective narration.
Rachel frames this as a classic revision question—how to cover time, maintain pacing, and decide which moments deserve full scene treatment versus montage-like summary.
1:01:30 – POV as a Revision Lever
Rachel explains that:
POV decisions and show/tell balance are often refined in revision, not perfected in draft one.
Writers should draft using their best instincts, then revisit key scenes later and ask:
What happens if this scene is in the other protagonist’s POV?
Does the emotional impact deepen if we switch perspectives?
She reassures first-draft writers not to get stuck fussing over POV mid-draft—those are “later problems.”
Dana ties this back to Twisted Love, noting how Huang’s strongest scenes lean heavily on smart POV choices that aim directly for the reader’s throat.
1:05:00 – Studying Across the Spectrum: Trauma, Tone, and Triggers
They emphasize that Twisted Love is a powerful study text even if dark, steamy romance isn’t your personal taste. It’s especially useful for:
Seeing how trauma and triggers can be handled in a way that still feels readable and contemporary.
Understanding how far to push intensity while keeping the story grounded in romance.
Exploring tone—how a book can feel like a contemporary romance while still carrying dark edges and thriller notes.
They suggest comparing this book with stories that are lighter and those that are darker to understand your own “spectrum” as a writer.
1:11:10 – Reader Promises, Brand, and Books That Stick
Dana closes the craft conversation by highlighting how Huang:
Makes clear promises to the reader (dark, steamy, emotionally loaded, HEA) and delivers.
Creates the kind of book people reference later: “Do you remember Twisted Love?”
They encourage writers to think about the type of emotional experience and brand promise they want readers to expect from them—and to commit to delivering it consistently.
1:17:00 – Creative Cross-Training & Looking Ahead
The episode winds down with a reminder:
Study within your genre so you know what your readers expect.
Study outside your genre to keep your creativity flexible, innovative, and well-fed.
Rachel and Dana invite listeners to carry this mindset into 2026—reading, studying, and writing with both heart and strategy.
About Book Selection
He has a heart of ice...but for her, he’d burn the world.
Alex Volkov is a devil blessed with the face of an angel and cursed with a past he can’t escape.
Driven by a tragedy that has haunted him for most of his life, his ruthless pursuits for success and vengeance leave little room for matters of the heart.
But when he’s forced to look after his best friend’s sister, he starts to feel something in his chest:
A crack.
A melt.
A fire that could end his world as he knew it.
***
Ava Chen is a free spirit trapped by nightmares of a childhood she can’t remember.
But despite her broken past, she’s never stopped seeing the beauty in the world…including the heart beneath the icy exterior of a man she shouldn’t want.
Her brother’s best friend.
Her neighbor.
Her savior and her downfall.
Theirs is a love that was never supposed to happen—but when it does, it unleashes secrets that could destroy them both…and everything they hold dear.
Where to Find the Book
Twisted Love by Ana Huang is available in several formats. It’s also widely available in libraries and online retailers. Details on her website.
Next Episode:
In the next episode, Rachel and Dana will kick off their December “Best Of 2025” series, revisiting the books they read this year and pulling out the juiciest lessons in structure, character, genre, and reader expectations. Expect comparisons, callbacks, and plenty of insights to help you decide which books to (re)visit—and what to steal for your own writing toolbox. Be sure to tune in!
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