R E V I E W ➠ 365 Days by Blanka Lipińska

---

---

---

The sexy and deeply romantic internationally bestselling novel that inspired the blockbuster movie.
Laura Biel and her boyfriend are on a dream vacation in beautiful Sicily. On the second day of their trip, her twenty-ninth birthday, she is kidnapped. Her kidnapper is none other than the head of a powerful Sicilian crime family, the incredibly handsome, young Don Massimo Torricelli, who is determined to possess her at all costs. Massimo has his reasons. During an earlier attempt on his life, a vision appeared before his eyes: a beautiful woman, identical to Laura. After surviving the attack, he vows that he will find the woman in his vision and make her his own. No matter what.
For 365 days, Massimo will keep Laura captive in his palatial estate and attempt to win her heart. If she doesn’t fall in love with him during this time, he will let her go. But if she tries to escape at any point, he will track her down and kill her entire family.
Soon Laura develops a fascination with her handsome and powerful captor. But as a precarious, risky relationship forms between them, forces outside their control threaten to tear them apart…

RELEASE DATE: January 26th 2021

---

NEW to me author and books. This is going to be a lengthy REVIEW I am just putting this out there from the start. I have watched the movie and this is my first time reading the book, fair warning I have read many review’s about the original language books and was kind of hoping the English version would pump it up a little. Little background so I am foreign myself and speak 6 languages and I have read in many different languages when it comes to romance, this has the potential for romance but it’s more a European version of a book JUST put together. I can’t say that I speak the language of the author so maybe in the natives language the book itself is more enriched, but I will also say that I did not enjoy the movie. Yes the actor was dark and sexy, and the heroine beautiful but I always base my opinions based on the book, hence why I am here reviewing the book. I am hugely disappointed in the translation portion of this story/book…I mean HUGELY disappointed! To be honest the fact that this was a big market movie that shook the nation a little, I was expecting perfection in the English version, what I got it the knock of version, and I don’t say that to be mean just realistic, when reading it was really hard to keep focused, to keep engaged and it actually made it worse for me the more I read. To be fair this does contain a huge huge TRIGGER for me, the hero/heroine being with other people so that didn’t help either.

We all know the actual story because I am certain a lot of people have seen the movie, and yes though the movie was very sexual, the book did contain it as well just not very well. Here is why: the hero comes off as a douche-waffle in the book, there are scenes where he is the weak one, scenes where he is the slimy one, scenes where he is the heartless one and scenes where he is the sweet one. It did not flow well for me therefore all I remembered from the book is how uncoordinated the hero came off. We all loved Massimo the actor but I for one was an ever more lesser fan of Massimo in the book.

p.s. Should have kept the original “You seem to be lost” instead of “Are you lost babygirl”

I want to very much touch base about the heroine in the book. Having watched the movie, wow what a difference and I mean the heroine in the movie is 10 times better than the actual heroine in the book. I want to emphasize on the fact that this heroine has a heart condition, I didn’t get what kind until they kept giving her meds to go under her tongue (Nitroglycerin) is a medicine used to treat Angina (a symptom of coronary artery disease) to which yes what the heroine was feeling was correct BUT taking alcohol in which the heroine DOES A LOT and I mean A LOT in the story, can cause harm. That said, I really wish the author gave us more about her condition in the beginning, to me it just seemed made up like, ‘oh she ha s a heart problem’ like what, who where and when. Maybe that’s just the American way of me by living here too long but I would like to know that type of things when reading. I could not stand the heroine through out the whole book she was fake to me, blotchy, unstable, weak, just plain weird. The things she did, thought and went through in her mind, I would never want to read about nor meet a person like that. That to me was unstable and unattractive in a heroine.

Aside the fact that I HATED that the hero did things with other woman, okay yes this is a dark mafia style romance so I can kind of get it, not for me but I get it. Massimo kept leaving Laura through out the book, then they would fight, then Laura would smack Massimo SO MUCH it made me angry, at one point in the scene Massimo begged or asked her to hit him, it was not attractive because it just came off at a weird time. Every scene the heroine seems to retaliate, but then it would turn around and they were sweet one each other. The time line was not straight for me, I felt like being the little ball in a ping pong game, transitions I can’t even remember because I was so focus on it being EVERYWHERE. That’s what I remember from this I WAS EVERYWHERE, and not just in the story line but the power struggle as well, between Don Massimo and Laura.

P.s. Could not get with Laura calling Massimo ‘Man in Black’ and ‘Don Massimo’ which I know if a native way of calling a Mafia Boss.

I was truly disappointed because again watching a Movie and reading to me are two different lives, and this was for sure, Unfortunately both for me were in the NO GO ZONE. I get this got a lot of hype and I am sure some will get mad at my review but I am always an honest reviewer no matter who you are, big author, small, new, famous, popular. I don’t care, I read books because I want to truly experience them, whether that is good or bad. I am not bashing anything but simply expressing my feelings towards this. I really was holding out hope for the book and understand that this is originally made and published in the author’s native language, that said, I have also read many books in different languages, some loved some did not, this to me was not well translated, I couldn’t get hooked or stay hooked and some of the words threw me off as well as some sentences.

The following are two scenes that both REVOLTED me:

I need to have her. Laura. I need her to be mine, I thought, straightening and impaling Anna with my throbbing cock. She bent her back into an arch and then lowered herself to the wooden table, now wet with sweat. I fucked her hard, keeping my gaze fixed on Laura. It won‘t be long now. Soon, those black eyes will look at me as she kneels before me. “You bitch!” I clenched my teeth, feeling Anna’s body go rigid. I pushed myself inside her hard and aggressive, heedless of the orgasmic waves rippling all over her body . I didn’t care. Laura’s eyes made me want more, but at the same time I couldn’t last any longer. I needed to feel more. Experience everything fully. I slid my cock out of her pussy and slammed it into her tight ass. I heard her scream wildly in pain and ecstasy and felt her tighten around me. My prick exploded with cum, but the only thing I could see was my Mistress.

&

“When you were asleep that first night, I ordered it implanted. I didn’t want to risk anything. It’ll work for three years, but you can remove it after the first,” he explained with a smile.

The book does give you more yes, and if you ignore the red flag and warning signs and enjoy this style just to enjoy it then yeah, I can see someone loving this of course and again in the native language it may come off different, I’ll never know but for me it is a hard NO, I wanted to give this a full shot and didn’t DNF it right away, I truly believed that the book was going to give me more light than the movie. Best of luck to everyone either way.

Romance: ♡♡♡
Steamy: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Triggers: Hero/Heroine with other people, Killing
Standalone/Series: Book 1 in Series
Type: All Tags on top of this page!