Okay so I knew this one was going to be extra steamy, but I had to DNF this one. I love steam but I do not condone any sexual acts being initiated without prior consent. I was really disappointed that not 5 minutes into this one there were sexual acts being initiated without prior consent. Also the abuse of power was not okay.

The hype behind the foreign version of this story had me intrigued. After finishing I will say it wasn’t what I thought it would be. It entertained but wasn’t a grab you and take hold read. The storyline was a little bit of a stretch and I felt there could have been more meat but that could have been due to the translation. There was enough to make me want to read book two so over all I would say it was worth the read.

After experiencing the movie on Netflix, I just had to know everything about this story! I wanted a deeper understanding of why the characters made the choices that they did, and I was sure that the book would provide the insight that I craved. But I was just a little surprised by what I found.

The spirited Laura Biel of the film was suddenly one-dimensional. Her endless tantrums and materialistic tendencies becoming ever more tiring as the story progressed. In contrast, the character of Massimo seemed to soften. His intensity – as well as the chemistry that burned so brightly between them - was somehow lost in the translation.

“Why do I get the feeling you’re following me?” I asked, crossing my arms. He raised his right hand and slowly took my glasses off to see my eyes. It felt like he was taking away my shield. Suddenly I was out in the open. “It’s not a feeling,” he said, looking me straight in the eyes. “It’s not coincidence either. Happy twenty-ninth birthday, Laura. May the coming year be the best in your life,” he whispered, and placed a delicate kiss on my cheek.”

365 Days could have been vastly different if it had been tailored for a wider audience rather than just adapted from its original Polish version. Lapińska clearly isn’t a born wordsmith but her work could have been molded into something far more entertaining by the hands of a skilled editor.

It’s the only time when I can honestly say that I preferred the movie to the book. And for me, that’s saying something…

First off I want to say if you liked the movie and hope the book will be better, it's not. That's just my opinion though. I was really excited for the English translation but I was extremely let down. Its exactly like the movie except the movie left out the super cringy sex scenes and the bad writing.
If I had read the book first I would have likely skipped the movie.
Massimo is so creepy and honestly too much when it comes to the possessive side. And Laura feels like she has Stockholm syndrome. She falls far too fast for him.
I feel the story fell really flat and I had a hard time pushing through it.

I did not finish this book. This is trigger heavy, heavy with sexual abuse & misogynistic. I had high hopes because I heard it was good and Netflix has the movie adaptation but no way in hell will I read it. It is by no means okay in my book.

I couldn’t finish this book.
It was choppy and confusing.
Massimo is an unkind brute.
Sorry but I gave up on it.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an arc in exchange for my honest review.

Massimo, an Italian don, has a dream of a woman. He spends years searching for her. When he finally finds Laura, he kidnaps her and gives her 365 days to fall in love with him.
Opinion
I got this book because I saw the movie and had enjoyed it. The book is pretty close to the movie but has some differences. (The beginning and the end are different as well as some in the middle.).
I think it was well written. The characters make choices that do not surprise you based off of how well they were developed. The world Massimo lives in is intriguing.
This book was translated from Polish. Several times throughout the book, a word choice was odd for the English language. I’m not sure if the translators did not know a better option or if the original in Polish directly translated that way. It did not deter from the book but did give me pause.
I’d like to thank Simon and Schuster and Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

So, this isn't going to be a review, per se. I will compare this to 50 shades, but not just because of the erotic elements. This book will have a polarizing effect like 50 shades. Some readers will LOVE it and some will HATE it. I don't think there will be much middle ground. Me-50 shades wasn't f0r me and neither was 365 Days, but I don't think that makes it a bad book.

The story has the Italian Mafia, kinky sex, Stockholm syndrome-Its like an episode of a TV show except the villain is a hottie. It made me think about Criminal Minds. If Mossimo and Christian were fat, ugly guys living in a trailer, the story would be an episode of Criminal Minds. But, because they are hot billionaires, we make it a romance where they are the hero. Again, no judgement here. The story is dark; darker than 50 shades. Readers gobbled up 50 shades and there is certainly a market for it! There is plenty of hot sex and dark romance here that readers will enjoy.

The story ends with quite a cliffhanger that will have you wishing you read Polish to get the next book. If you decide to read this, know that it is a translation. It's a Polish woman writing writing about an Italian mafia man. The content is dark and there is a lot of dubious consent (frankly, some straight up non consent) issues in my opinion. So, as I said before, I'm not actually rating this book because it isn't my type of read. I think there is a market out there, but because its super dark, I think it will be smaller than the 50 shades market.

If you are looking for a total escape read and are willing to suspend reality and wished 50 shades was darker, give 365 Days a shot! If you are curious, give it a shot. If it's not for you, check out another book and move on, happy in your decision.

Yes, I have watched the movie and a small, small part of me was hoping that the book would be better than that, however, I was completely disappointed with this book, but not surprised.

This story is translator from Polish to English and there are some issues when it comes to that, but for the most part it was easy for me to ignore them. However, the story itself is just not something I could enjoy. I love mafia, dark, bdsm books but this book was just lacking in a lot of aspects of the story.

365 Days had potential and could have been amazing, however the story just fell flat for me. I’m sure there are people who will love this story and people who don’t. Just not for me.

Laura is living a contented, relatively uneventful life in Warsaw until a trip to Sicily with some friends for her birthday. A man sees her arriving at the airport and swears she is the woman of his literal dreams. Now that he’s found her, it’s time for her to belong to him.

If a man is obsessed with a woman, kidnaps her, stops others from coming to her rescue, and threatens to kill her family if she tries to escape, this is not romantic, no matter how rich he is. Someone wanting to be with a woman that much sounds like he may truly love her, but taking these actions to eliminate her choice in the matter makes it abuse instead of devotion.

That being said, the steamy scenes were definitely steamy, if a little repetitive. Hopefully Laura and Massimo can find that they have something in common besides chemistry as the series progresses. The cliffhanger at the end definitely left this book open to proceed in a variety of directions for books two and three in the trilogy.

Overall, I give this book 2.5 out of 5 stars. Those reading it should be under no illusions of it being a romance. Rape is depicted repeatedly, even if Laura claims to have changed her mind as the act progresses. A reader who understands what they’re getting into and likes similar fiction stories may enjoy this one as well.

I wanted to like this. My friend saw the movie, and, knowing how much I love a steamy romance, suggested it to me. Well, I'd always prefer the book so I was glad to get a chance to read it. Now, I don't know if the translation just was off or what, but I didn't love it. Things happened abruptly and not in a delicious build up kind of way. And, I kind of ended up skimming a lot. It is a dark mafia romance and people went crazy over the movie, and I did like some things. Like how the heroine is always smacking him and she's pretty sassy. Just wasn't for me, I guess.

Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for the #gifted ARC of this ebook.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 Stars
🔥🔥🔥🔥 4/5 Steam Rating
𝙲𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚜 𝚃𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚐𝚎𝚛𝚜

Let me start off by saying that this is a Dark Steamy Romance. If that is not your thing, then this is NOT a book for you. If you do not like to read about roughness or sometimes questionable acts, this is definitely not a book for you. This is not a book that contains characters that you’d want for your children to hook up with, there is no Prince Charming among these pages.

In this book, Massimo (head of a Mafia family) kidnaps Laura and make her commit to staying with him for 365days, in the hopes that she falls in love with him.

I’ve been hearing about this movie for MONTHS, so when I saw that it was also a book I jumped on it! This book is the first in a trilogy that was originally written in Polish, so I did give a bit of leeway to the writing as I would any other translated book.

Overall I thought this book was interesting. Let’s be real... when I read smutty books (especially dark smut), I’m not looking for writing that’s earth shattering or revolutionary, I just want a story I can escape into for a little while. I appreciated that this sorry tried to balance a story both inside of the bedroom and outside of it. There were some parts that could have been edited down a bit since they weren’t overly relevant to the story as a whole, but I also appreciated that the author didn’t get lost in the weeds and overly describe situations that’s weren’t needed. I was surprised that there wasn’t a bit more steam to this book, I expected more time to be spent in the bedroom than they did. With that said, I still thought it was an entertaining read and had a fair amount of steam.

Now let’s talk about the show... don’t do it!! It was TERRIBLE!! I was so disappointed, it felt like a cliff note version with bad acting and a completely different ending. Don’t waste your 2hrs.

Yes I saw the movie first.
Enjoyed it somewhat but felt the movie was too choppy in storyline so I requested to read the book because I wanted to find out more about the world the author created.

This book was a very slow read. It was hard to keep focused trying to grasp the story. It just did not grab me.

Storyline is choppy like the movie, characters are too fixated on fashion and brand names. For Laura's illness described in book, I found it hard to follow this story with her being drunk or passed out all the time.
Massimo is another story. His chemistry with Laura was lacking. I thought they would be hot and heavy but they just fell flat.
I almost DNF but I stuck it out and finished because my curiosity of wanting to know how it ended and if it was like the movie. Nope not what I was expecting in this book.

Disappointed because with all the hype of this book because of the movie, I thought the translation of this book would be a good but it just didn't. Still missing tons in the plot and felt the translation of this book may have been rushed or literally lost in translation.

I say watch the movie instead of reading the book

While I watched the movie before the book, I was excited to read the actual book. Translation was spot on. The only downfall is I felt it read to literal. The concept is there but something was missing for me. There was no magic in the concept as it all felt stilted and forced. I did really enjoy the storyline though.

Very Poorly written, even with a translation. Requested based on the excitement for the story and the talk about the Netflix series. Incredibly disappointed. Story was disjointed, characters flat, and story just boring.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

I decided to request this one after watching the movie on Netflix then learning it was based off a book! Of course I had to get my hands on it. Total 🔥🔥.

I went on a requesting binge on NetGalley and 365 Days has an interesting cover proclaiming it a #1 international bestseller with a Netflix movie based on it. Obviously I was out of my mind with covid brain fog when I requested this book since I don't remember reading the synopsis. I never would have seeing that I absolutely detested Fifty Shades.
I was going to dnf, but after discussing this with another Netgalley user, I decided to give it another try. While it's still not really my thing, it's not as bad as I originally thought it would be. I will upgrade my original rating to a 3 star and apologize for not giving this book a fair chance.

Where to start? Where to start????

Last year when the movie was hyped and hyped and hyped, I was there for all the little previews. I'm sure I would have watched without subtitles just b/c YES! Then Netflix picked it up and I waited and wanted. Still watching little bits and pieces floating around the interwebs.

Netflix hit and BOY I made a night of it. And was hugely disappointed. I found Laura so weak and not a herione at all, mostly a damsel in distress the entire time. Yes Massimo was/is hot and ALPHA, but he was also sorta kinda and loving. HE had character growth, she did not. So I thought well, the book is always better than the movie so I'll wait for the book to see what was removed and hoped Laura was just written wrong for the movie.

NOPE! The book is just as bad if not worse. I'm not sure if it's the translation or not. But the first few chapters felt like someone just watched the movie and typed out what was happening. Laura is still horrible. Massimo is still HOT but there is zero likeability for really either. Add in the very huge lack of sex like the movie and well. DISAPPOINTMENT of the highest level.

Ok onto the horribleness of Laura. She complains to Martin about his drinking. Yet she is either drunk, passed out, or worse BLACK OUT DRUNK most of the book. She flees and runs. She SLEEPS a lot. She has a heart condition yet is always drunk. I just could not relate to her at all and wanted to slap her, and take Massimo for myself.

I was expecting a HUGE cliffhanger (again the movie) this was so lack luster. The book just isn't better and the movie wasn't that great to begin with.

I love Domenico. If HE were a main character then YES please.

First off, this book needs triggers. It was horrible. The plot was terrible, the writing was horrible and the characters were flat. Do not recommend.