Ok so a few things.

1. I have not seen the movie on Netflix. I know I know.
2. You have to remember that this has been translated into English.
3. It could have been better formatted for the English readers. I think it would have done better with some more time and not so rushed.
4. Everyone wanted this book to come out so quick so be kind when reviewing.
5. This book is hot

The Man in Black!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: ❤️💙💜💛💚
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙
World building: 🌎🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: 👤👤👤👤

The setting: Italy

The Hero(s): Don Massimo Toricelli - Boss in the Sicilian mafia. Massimo had a dream after being shot, or possibly a near death experience in which he saw the face of a woman and ever since he has been searching for this woman.

The heroine: Laura Biel - After achieving her dream job, she realizes she is bored and quits work for a while. She is on vacation in Italy with her boyfriend and some friends. While in Italy, she meets Massimo at a few different places and is both intrigued by him and scared of him.

The Love Story:Massimo kidnaps Laura and threatens her loved ones if she tries to escape. He proposes that she stay with him for 365 days in which he will try to get her to fall in love with him. He says he won’t force her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. Though in making her stay and threatening her family, isn’t he doing just that???

Someone told me the Netflix movie is basically porn. I am not really a watcher of porn, but I am now wanting to see the movie after picturing Massimo doing all the things he has done in this book. The book is somewhat porn, but not strictly smutty porn. There is definitely a story and I enjoyed it. Though I must say since many people hate captive romance books due to the whole force and/or Stockholm syndrome aspects, I am not bothered by them.

I like dark and twisty books and characters. Though Massimo wasn’t nearly as bad as many of the anti-hero’s of captive romance that I have read. Also unlike many people, I don’t think romance novels need to be seen as a purveyor of what the world should be like and I don’t think romance authors should only write characters that are good to make some sort of statement about what is right and what is wrong. I think they can be just plain entertainment and I like dark sexy men in my books even when they do wrong.

Massimo grew up in a violent world, he is used to being violent in many ways, especially in bed. But he has real feelings for Laura and he wants her to fall in love with him. So he is trying to be gentle with her. However, Laura is being held hostage, so she fights Massimo at every turn. He sees her fight (including being insolent and slapping him) as her disrespecting him. As a Don, he is not used to being shown disrespect so he often reacts violently.

Though not as violently as I expected. Massimo’s mood often turns on a dime and he will go from walking or sitting peacefully to jumping on her and speaking or doing something harshly. However, he notices when she shows fear and tends to back off. It gets to the point where Massimo backing off isn’t always what Laura really wants.

Like I said, and like many books with BDSM elements, there are a ton of steamy situations and sizzling content in this book. I was surprised that with 476 ratings on GR, the overall rating is less than 4 stars. Though since I am reading an ARC from Netgalley, I assume that many of those are reviews polish version. Possibly it was improved for the English version or maybe I just liked it better than most. Either way, I did think the story was terrific. My overall rating is 4.6, rounded up to 5 stars. It is sexy, romantic and I do plan to continue reading the series, so there you have it!

Lastly for those that compared this book to Fifty Shades, there are some BDSM elements so if that is enough to compare one book to another then they are alike in that only. Massimo is much more alpha male (in my opinion) than Christian Grey and he isn’t damaged like Christian is damaged by his early abuse and his mother’s friend. Massimo is a Mafia Kingpin and is used to having his way and he doesn’t have a red room. So other than some kinky sexual proclivities, I didn’t really see any comparison!

I voluntarily read & reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

Rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

My Review: I'll start with a warning, this book is not for those easily triggered or for those looking for a typical HEA.

I was beyond excited to get the opportunity to read this book, I've been searching for the English translation from the day the Netflix movie came out. I can honestly sayi was not disappointed in the least. I actually liked the book a little bit better than the movie which is typically the case for me. Yes, this book is full of triggers such as kidnapping, a lack of complete consent in a few cases, murder, Italian mafia, stalking. However, for those that are less faint of heart and those that enjoy a dark twisted story this book is great. The sex scenes are rather hot and steamy. I liked how Laura ended up falling for Massimo once he let down his guard a little and confided in her, I enjoyed seeing their relationship develop. She overcame her anger over being kidnapped and ended up falling in love with him. Some may say it's Stockholm Syndrome, but I didn't see it that way. For a mafioso like Massimo it was just a way of life and getting what he wanted and Laura came to accept that. I loved the main supporting character, Domenico, he was so wonderful at taking care of Laura and being a friend to her. There were several parts that had me on the edge of my seat in anticipation and the story kept me drawn in throughout the entire book. I can't wait til the next two books in the series are translated so I can find out what happens next.

I also want to say that I do not condone the actions of any of the characters in the book. I simply can appreciate the mentality behind their actions and appreciate the story for what it is, a piece of fiction

I’m not sure how I felt about this book. I was intrigued enough to finish it in less than a day, but I feel like the chemistry and supposed feelings of love between the two main characters were forced and not genuine. There was much about this story that was problematic, but, it is a story. Anyone who loved 50 Shades will probably enjoy this.

Thank you NetGalley & Publisher for the APPROVAL ARC.

THE GUIDE TO ROMANCE NOVELS
Unfortunately I did not enjoy the book and my FULL REVIEW can be found on my Blog, due to it's size, graphic words and book quotes I chose not to post my full review on here. I did give it a try, and read the whole story.

Best of luck to all.
REVIEW: https://tgtrnbookreviews.com/2020/12/22/r-e-v-i-e-w-%E2%9E%A0-365-days-by-blanka-lipinska/

so i literally just watched the first part of this movie on netflix.. and then saw this on Netgally. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to read this. I really enjoyed the characters in this book. As I have read.. i have seen a lot of negative reviews I'm not sure why .. I mean I understand it may not be up to everyone's liking.. but I enjoyed it.

Let me say... if you are a fan of the Fifty Shades books, I think you will like this book.. The sex scenes are very ummm graphic. Massimo (yummm) has taken Laura and held her captive. told her that he is keeping her for 365 days.. and if in that time she does not fall in love with him he will let her go.. Laura is on Vaca with her boyfriend and other friends.. she wakes up in Massimo's home... She has a tendency to drink and do anything and everything to provoke Massimo..


This was my first read from this author.. I can not wait to read the next in the series. I did just watch the movie last weekend too and i hope we get a second move... because i was sad with the way it ended...

I've been dying to read Blanka Lipinska's 365 Days ever since I saw the Netflix adaptation. Finally, it's been translated into English!!! I really wasn't sure what to expect when I started it as I wasn't completely sold on the writing but it definitely grew on me and I couldn't put it down.

I really like the characters in this book. I've read a lot of negative reviews and honestly I'm not sure why it received so much negativity. Yes, there is violence, it is about a mobster after all. But there was nothing that I found over the top. Again…Fiction. If you are looking for a flowery romance, this might not be what you are looking for. But know that 365 Days is a romance, just a darker romance.

I did have a few issues, the first being the accent of a certain character, this really threw me off. The next issue I had was terminology used during the sexy scenes. 365 Days is very hot, but terminology did spoil it a bit for me.

All in all, I enjoyed 365 Days and can't wait to read the next book in the series, especially since I was left hanging. For those of you who watched the film, the book ending is nothing like the film. You should check it out.

This book is A LOT! I admit that I saw the Netflix movie before reading the book, so it wasn’t as shocking to me as it would be if I went in unprepared. And I definitely think that this book is not for everyone. Having said that, I enjoyed it. If you were a fan of the Fifty Shades books, I think you will like it. The sex scenes are very graphic.

I know that the premise of the book is very controversial, but there is very much an audience for dark erotica. You don’t have to endorse behaviors in real life to enjoy reading a fictional story about them. Massimo is a kidnapper, a possible rapist and Laura abuses alcohol and provokes Massimo at every turn. This is a book of extremes: extreme obsession, passion, wealth and violence. This is not portrayed as realism in any way. And this is in no way a road map for having a healthy, happy relationship. But was is titillating and interesting to read? You bet it was!

It will not be winning any literary awards, but for a translated book I thought they did a good job. I did have to look up a few phrases because it’s still in a European dialect - I now know what a “French exit” is!

If you think you might like this book, read it. I won’t judge you!!
I received any advance reader copy from the publisher via NetGalley and these are my honest opinions.

All righty, my smutty book friends! Buckle up cause I'm gonna give you the down and dirty. (giggle-snort) Have I already seen the movie? Yes. Did I want to read this because of Netflix? Double yes. Is it a masterpiece of literature? No. Will I still read and while having a fan handy? YES!

It's what I call a candy type of reading. Fun, a little bad for you, and just yummy goodness. Sometimes a girl needs a little something to sink her teeth into.

Releasing in the U.S. February 2nd in English from Atria Publishing. Don't get lost on the way to the book store, baby girl!

5 smutty book kisses!
~Tanja

*Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this novel. All Opinions are my own.*

Well, I did it. I tried to read this one.

This actually makes me wonder what the hell was going on with this.... I liked the Netflix movie, but in that way that makes us fascinated by cult movies. It wasn't great. But as a lover of Mafia Romances and Dark Romances, I stand by people's right to enjoy dark, sexy things.

However...... I am still a book reviewer and I can't in good conscious say that I enjoyed this book. There was just so much wrong with how it was written and how it was set up... It was just... not great. Not even good. Not even a little bit.

In the same vein of a 50 Shades though, I hope people will read this and then go looking for recommendation. Because there are some great Mafia and Dark Romances out there. This was just not one of them.

1 star.

Unfortunately this book just did not do it for me and I'll be sticking to the movie. Further editing via Atria? Not exactly sure. It was messy and just not for me.

365 Days is a translated book from Polish to English and one must keep that in mind while reading. There are some phrases that don't quite work and some dialogue that just didn't work for me. However, I reminded myself of this and carried on. :)

I really wanted to read this book and was excited to start. Don Massimo Torricelli is the head of a mafia family and has dreamed of Laura for years and when he sees her, in real life, in Sicily, he must have her. So he takes her.

Now, I've read many a book with a similar kidnapping plot and loved the overall stories. However, with this one it just falls a bit short --for me, that happened mostly at the end of the book. I kept wanting "something" to happen but nothing ever did. For that, I had to give this 3 stars.

This book is a highly popular movie (which I hadn't seen because I knew the book was coming and wanted to read the story first) so now I'll head on over to Netflix and see if they movie lives up to the hype. :)

Unfortunately, the translation job on this one does not work for me. It's not clean, it doesn't scan at times, and anything that might have been poetic or lovely in the original is lost here. As for the story itself, I can handle dark romance with mature themes, but this book just wasn't for me.

DNF at 14%

I gave it two chapters. Having watched the Netflix movie, I knew what I was getting into, but hoped that the book would make these characters more 3-dimensional and believable. Without the distraction of gorgeous Italian vistas you can't escape the super cringey, first person dual perspective. It turns out I didn't want to hear what these characters were thinking.

Some of it (even in just two chapters) made no sense. Who wakes up in an unknown, though opulent location, and goes from, "Where am I? Why am I here?" in one moment to I looked good...tanned and well-rested" in the next? What?!

Bottom line: There is much much better erotic fiction out there. This one just wasn't for me.

Thanks to NetGalley fornthe advance copy for review.

I watched this movie first on Netflix and it was problematic and over the top, but sometimes that's what you need. I'm not a great fan of either main character, but some of the secondary characters appealed to me and I was a sucker for the Italian setting.
I've read a lot of mafia romances and this one holds it's own through the first book. I'm glad to see it was translated and enjoyed the style and story enough to continue with it.
Fifty Shades of Grey fans will really like this one and in all honestly its written way better than the E.L James series.
365 isnt for everyone, most dark romances arent, but it will be a hit once it's out there and I'm sure the movie will pop back up into Netflix's Top Ten in February.

So I knew there was a movie and I didn’t know anything about the movie nor the book. It is a polish translation and some things were lost in context. It was an easy read, a mafia version of fifty shades of grey, that ends on a cliffhanger...... I like to read my cliffhangers back to back.
Thank You to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I feel like some things were lost in the translation of this. Some of the wording and syntax was off which disrupted the flow for me a bit. The story overall was good but it felt forced. I’ve read many dark mafia romances and this one was okay but didn’t have enough of a backstory or focus on the mafia part of things. The relationship felt fake though the steamy scenes were well done and hot. The back and forth banter between the characters was good and as the story went along it seemed to find its footing and had a better flow. The ending is what did it for me. The cliffhanger sucked but it made me want to continue with the series. I give this three and a half stars. I’m hoping the next book has better continuity and isn’t as forced.

What the heck did I just read? Before I even knew that there was a book, I had heard about the Netflix movie that's based off this book. I had no idea what either of them were about. I read the book description on NetGalley and it intrigued me. I knew that this was a romance but was not expecting it to be more like erotica - essentially a Polish version of Fifty Shades of Grey but in a mafia setting. The book is so over the top, but like a car crash, I couldn't stop reading. Like Fifty Shades, this is the first book of a trilogy, and the book ends in a cliffhanger - so no HEA.

The premise of the book is about a "Don" of a powerful Sicilian crime family, named Massimo Torricelli, that kidnaps a Polish woman, called Laura Biel, who is on vacation with her boyfriend in Sicily. The woman looks identical to a beautiful woman that he envisioned during an earlier attempt on his life. Incredulous that the woman he had envisioned is real, he kidnaps her and is determined to make her his - no matter the cost. For 365 days (hence the name of the book), Massimo will keep Laura captive in his 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. (I know...)

So lo and behold, and very predictably, Laura falls obsessively in love with Massimo very quickly (can we say Stockholm Syndrome?). What bothers me about this book is that I think the author has a loose interpretation of what the word "consent" means. Initially, Massimo says that he will not touch Laura without her consent - but then his dominance takes over and he does what he wants with her anyway (Wtf, right?). Plus, the fact that he is keeping Laura there against her will is clearly not consent.

I'm giving this 2 stars because I did find the book entertaining. And as much of a train wreck this book is, I still kind of want to know what happens in the rest of the series - color me curious.

Thank you, NetGalley, Atria Books and Blanka Lipinska for giving me the opportunity to review this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Well, this is a thing that I read. I'm begging all bookstores/libraries/whatever to please not shelve this in a romance because it is certainly not a romance (cliff hanger, no HEA). Definitely angsty and with a lot of sex that I would not call romantic but is certainly titillating and definitely toeing the non-consensual line. I'm sure there will be some buzz and demand, but this is not going to be one I recommend except for those who are intrigued.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

*NOTE* This is a translated book and Polish to English does not translate cleanly.

365 Days reminds me a lot of Fifty Shades of Gray but with a mafia flare. The heroine has a flare for the dramatic but I suppose I might as well if I was kidnapped in a foreign country by a guy that kept popping up everywhere.

don Massiimo is the head of one of the Italian mob families in Italy. He has dreamed of Laura for years. Never to be thought real until she spots her in person in his country. Of course like any mob boss, he must have her any way he can get her.

Laura is a tourist in Italy - on vacation for her birthday. There are several events that lead up to her meeting Massimo and ultimately becoming his girlfriend. You'll find her character to range from whiny, to bratty, to scared, then finally into her self-assured self.

I enjoyed reading the book. There's a lot of sex in here. If you love books with a lot of spice this one will definitely hand it to you on a platter. If you like books that are fast paced laced with drama and trouble this is the book for you.

Just remember the English version of the story has been translated from it's primary language. There are some things that might not make sense or you may find some inconsistencies. Don't hold that against the author and English is not her primary language.