BLOG TOUR STOP~TWISTED By N.L. Greene
Title: Twisted
By: N.L. Greene
Genre: NA Contemporary Romance
Release Date: September 13th, 2013
Blurb-
Growing up isn’t always easy. But for most teenage girls, they can rely on their best friend to help them get through the process. A BFF is something that is truly treasured and completely irreplaceable. You share all of your secrets, and are loyal and honest with each other, even when you’re acting just a little bit crazy. You have each other’s backs no matter what and you form a bond that is virtually unbreakable.
At least that’s what normal teenage girls experience.
Nat and Mel have been bestie’s since childhood and Nat has followed her blindly ever since. But as Nat’s friendship with Mel begins to lead her down the wrong path, she starts to question the sincerity of their relationship. Nat starts to see Mel’s manipulative, deceitful ways become more focused on her. Will Natalie hold on tight to the friendship she’s had her entire life, no matter what it cost her? Or will she let her heart lead her to a relationship that’s not so twisted.
Excerpt
My name is Natalie and I have a problem.
My problem isn’t one of the normal problems that teens come to their parents with or seek advice from a counselor for. I’m not failing school or worried about ending up in jail. I don’t have a drug or drinking problem. I’m not pregnant and there’s not an STD scare I need them to help me with.
No, it’s not that simple for me. Simple? What’s so simple about teen pregnancy or substance abuse in teens, you ask? Why am I brushing aside the gravity of becoming a juvenile delinquent or contracting an STD? Especially since any person with a lick of common sense can see that these things are no laughing matter. These problems keep parents up at night worrying about their children and thinking of ways to prevent them from falling victim to these exact things. They keep the police out patrolling the streets at all hours of night hoping to catch the evil culprits, or hoping to save maybe just one kid.
I say my problem isn’t that simple, because my problem is my best friend.
That makes even less sense, doesn’t it? I mean, how can anyone call their best friend a problem and then compare that to the problems I just listed? The statement alone is like an oxymoron or something, right? Best friends are those special people that you love almost more than yourself. They’re like sisters but better, because you actually want to be around them as much as possible. They’re that person you can never get enough of, who you share your deepest, darkest secrets with, and who you plan your entire future around. Who cares that the guy you marry one day won’t want a double wedding, complete with matching dresses and saying his vows to you at the exact same time as the couple standing right next to you at the altar? Does it really matter if he wants to live next door to that same couple, and spend every vacation and holiday for the rest of your lives together with his wife’s best friend? No! Because this person is your other half; the one person you know you can depend on no matter what, and therefore you plan for them to be a part of every aspect of your life for the rest of your life.
These are things that besties do. Well, they are if your best friend is all of those great, wonderful things. But the relationship with my BFF is a bit different; a bit twisted. My best friend is the meanest, most manipulative girl I have ever met. She treats everyone like shit, and thinks the world owes her big time. She takes what she wants, no matter who she hurts in the process… and she does it often.
Even to me.
But, I ask you - what sucks even more than having this sort of best friend? Not even knowing it.
My severe case of being oblivious started when I was in the fourth grade.
I don’t really remember a lot from that time period, but I do remember that life was pretty normal and less complicated. More importantly, I definitely remember the day I met my best friend. It was about midway through the school year when we got a new student. Her family had just moved here from another state. I don’t know where they moved from or why they moved, and still don’t to this day. But when you’re ten years old, those aren’t really questions you ask anyway. The burning questions at the age of ten are… Is it a boy or a girl? Where will they sit? The girls all say, “Yay! Our new student is a girl, so now there are more girls than boys!” That’s critical at this age, really.
And luckily, she got to sit by me. Our desks were arranged in small sections; four desks put together to make four separate table-like areas in the classroom. The only empty seat in the class was at my area, right across from me. And thank goodness, because I had been forced to sit with two other boys since Charlotte had left the month before. For that reason alone, I already loved the new girl and decided that she would be one of my best friends. It’s easy like that when you’re so young. You just ask if they want to be best friends, and BAM! Instant best friends.
That’s pretty much how it worked for me and Melanie, and we soon became inseparable. My parents even started giving her a ride to school in the mornings, even though she lived around the corner and not on our street. I wasn’t really at the age to start having sleepovers or anything like that yet, and my parents were kind of over-protective, so I never asked. But Melanie (who by the end of the school year had been dubbed ‘Mel’ and I became ‘Nat’) and I still spent as much time together as we could. We ate lunch together and played on the playground together, which were the sort of things that were critical when you’re in elementary school. Then fifth grade came and suddenly we were in different classes. We still said we were BFF’s and hung out on the playground together, but that was it. From what I can remember, the year was pretty uneventful. What can I say - I was like, eleven? What really happens when you’re that age, other than the occasional new kid coming into your class?
Toward the end of our fifth grade year things began to pick up a little. Excitement and nervousness began to build, due to the fact that we would be going to middle school the next year. Mel was still going to be at the same school as me, and we were even going to be riding on the same school bus. Our parents let us hang out more over that summer between, and now that we were older, we could ride our bikes to each other’s houses and Mel even came over sometimes to go swimming in our pool. We talked about how awesome middle school was going to be, and made plans to be best friends forever - no matter what.
Can you share your idea of the perfect soundtrack to ‘Twisted’ with us?
This was really hard for me. The songs I listened to while writing the book didn’t necessarily match the mood of the book. So here a some that I think best describes how the book flows and the mood of the characters.
1. Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield
2. Cornflake Girl by Tori Amos
3. Imagine Dragons - Radioactive
4. Breakeven - Script
5. We Can’t Stop - Miley Cyrus
6. Brass Monkey - Beastie Boys (I know I’m totally showing my age here, but I cannot imagine a high school party without the Beastie Boys!)
7. Blurred Lines - Rob Thicke
8. Friend of Mine by Lily Allen
9. Little Lady by Ed Sheeran
10. Summertime Sadness by Lana Del Ray
11. Roar by Katy Perry
Review
Nat is so completely naive. Her 'best friend' is the worst kind of friend you can have. Mel uses Nat and when she sees fit sabotages her relationships. She also doesn't put Nat in the best situations.
They weren't always like that. This all matured over time from elementary to high school. Nat believes there is no way her best friend can be so vindictive because she has always been her best friend. Even when she begins to question her own judgement she pushes it to the back of her mind because she can't stand the thought of being wrong about her friend and losing that friendship.
Twisted is written from Nat's point of view. It is well written and in so many ways an eye opener. It is honestly crazy how many people really struggle with circumstances similar to this. Nat honestly makes me wanna choke her with how naive she is. She knows Mel doesn't really care and yet thinks the amount of time to a friendship really matters. Mel I just don't care for at all, I have experienced friends that thought they could be like her. All she is is a bully. This is a good book for anyone to read because of the lesson behind the book, even given some of the content.
4.5 stars from Alyssa
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About the Author-
N.L. Greene, who is 1/2 of the author duo Riana Lucas, has decided to venture outside of the Fantasy world that she and her best friend created with Poppy and The Deadly Flowers Series to write a few books on her own. While she loves working with her best friend, writing solo has allowed her to explore interest that had solely been her own. She spends a lot of time reading her favorite authors which range all over the place and in every genre, but spends just as much time with her husband and two daughters, traveling, shopping, and playing video games. Nichole was born in Pennsylvania but grew up in Florida, where she and her high school sweetheart live with their two children.
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