11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
The Ana-verse unraveled: How every story connects in Ana Huang's world
(Written By Prachi Mishra)
Ana Huang has become a force in contemporary romance fiction, crafting emotionally rich, trope-filled stories that go far beyond standalone novels. Her books are set in a shared world known as the Ana Huang – Universe, and her fans love to call it the Ana-verse. She has either published or announced 15 books in total based on the themes of love, loyalty and ambition. Each series holds its own, but when taken together, they form a dynamic web of characters and relationships that make the experience incredibly rewarding for the readers.
The If Love series consists of – If We Ever Meet Again, If the Sun Never Sets, If Love Had a Price, If We Were Perfect. Originally planning a duet, Huang finished the story of Farrah and Blake in the first two books. And, you actually get to observe the character growth and evolvement as you jump from the first book to the next.
The series only gets better with the additional two books, which explores two different stories that of Kris-Nate and Sammy-Olivia. The series explores themes of giving love a second chance, introspection and keeps the reader turning pages without taking a break.
Twisted series include the books – Twisted Love, Twisted Games, Twisted Hate and Twisted Lies, and is suggested to be read in this sequence. Although, every book can be read as a standalone.
The Twisted Series is what garnered the fans attention the most and worked wonders in making Huang a popular Rom-Com writer. The series is centered around four best friends – Ava, Bridget, Jules and Stella. And, the readers get to see varied tropes including enemies to lovers, fake-dating, grumpy-sunshine and literally that of Bodyguard and Princess.
On January 9, 2025, Ana Huang herself took to her instagram account to announce that the Twisted Series would be soon brought onto the screens for the viewers.
Kings of Sin series is an ongoing one with seven books in total, out of which five books have already been published which includes – King of Wrath, King of Pride, King of Greed, King of Sloth and King of Envy, which is the most recent addition to the series published on 29 April, 2025. The series was inspired by the seven deadly sins or capital vices according to Catholicism.
Throughout the series we see powerful men falling for women who have the guts to challenge them and break their false egotism. We see the grovelling trope every now and then, which is quite hard to resist as a reader, and Huang seems to have mastered this art. Be it Dante-Vivian from King of Wrath or Isabella-Kai from King of Pride, the chemistry between the protagonists feels amazing.
Huang has announced two books in her Gods of The Game Series so far, The Striker and The Defender. Published on October 22, 2024,The Striker follows soccer star Asher Donovan and ballerina Scarlett's story. The plot is simple, and can be well explained by the first line Huang wrote in the synopsis, 'She's the only woman he wants, and the only one he can't have'. The Defender, on the other hand, is going to be the story of Asher's rival and Scarlett's brother Vincent and his love life, and is soon getting published on October 9, 2025.
One of the most adrenaline-inducing aspects of Huang-style storytelling is the dread when a reader realizes that no character is truly on his own. The Ana-verse is a carefully constructed environment where every cameo, passing reference, or veiled allusion could soon blossom into a whole story. Asher Donovan, for instance, the handsome footballer who is the protagonist of The Striker, was referenced and admired by some of Huang's female leads long before he had his own book written about him. He almost existed like an urban myth in the Ana-verse. So, when he finally steps up to take center stage, the reading public already feels like they have been long acquainted with him. That is interwoven narrative mastery that Ana Huang wields with precision.
And, most importantly we see that throughout the Ana-verse, characters meet in organic ways, nothing seems like a forced interaction. We find that the male leads are part of the Valhalla (the ultra-exclusive) club and their future interaction with each other therefore naturally plans out. Like Christian Harper (Twisted Lies) and Alex Volkov (Twisted Love), used to play chess at this club and therefore knew each other. Alex made an appearance in all the Twisted series books in one way or the other.
Similarly, the Twisted series female leads were connected because of Thayer University, where they become friends, and, then later we observe that Dominic and Alessandra from King of Greed, also attended the same University. All these details are very subtly planted by Huang.
And, sometimes these connections are fleeting yet unforgettable. For instance, In King of Greed, Dominic and Alessandra bump into Josh and Jules (Twisted Hate) while in Spain. In King of Sloth, Xavier's journey to open a nightclub becomes a collaborative effort involving Jules (as his lawyer), Alex (whose bank vault he wants to buy), and Kai (who supplies the right contacts). The icing on the cake is when Sloane, Xavier's love interest, casually refers to Eldorra's royal couple, Bridget and Rhys (Twisted Games), grounding fantasy in familiar names.
A lot of such references keep popping in her novels linking her previous characters to the new ones. And, therefore it feels what Ana Huang has done is nothing short of genius. She's built a world where everyone feels like they belong to something bigger. The romantic arcs may end, but the characters live on, evolving, interacting, and leaving breadcrumbs for what's to come. For readers, it turns every book into more than just a love story. It becomes a reunion, a glimpse into a larger world that's still unfolding.
(The author is an intern with The Indian Express)
