365 Days

365 Days by Blanka Linińska

Translated by Filip Sporczyk

Published in 2018

Main Couple: Laura and Massimo

The Story: Mob boss who thinks he’s seen woman in his dreams kidnaps her in real life and gives her 365 days to fall in love with him. Which he does. What the fuck?

The Sex: Problematic at best is how I can describe the sex in this book. It feels like a book based on the idea that “no means yes.” There is very little verbal consent and none of it is enthusiastic. I disagree with the implication that because you had an orgasm whatever happened is okay. If you’ve watched the movie and wondered how and when Laura changed her mind about Massimo…the book is no clearer. While there are implied kinks, nothing is that non-vanilla. There’s a little light bondage which implies a kink, but it’s never discussed. Like anything else in this book. This was a very, very uncomfortable read.

Favorite Lines:

“Annoyed with people’s lack of openness about sex, she took it upon herself to start a discussion about the many sides of love. She likes to say that talking about sex is as easy as preparing dinner.” Author’s bio What does it say that it’s the bio that I like….

“I panicked and couldn’t think of anything to say. The only thing I could think of was sucking his dick.” Chapter 5 It’s a fun line, but I don’t know why that’s what she was thinking about.

“I loved rough sex, and the threat of it was something I treated more like a promise worth waiting for.” Chapter 14 Maybe you should talk about kink…

Least Favorite Lines:

It’s time to accept your situation, Laura, I thought, standing up.” Chapter 4 WHY??? You shouldn’t’ve kidnapped her!

“I’m not doing anything against your wishes. I’m just making sure your hands aren’t in pain anymore.” chapter 6 This annoyed me because she’s not saying yes!

“He always turned me on when he was so commanding. I liked it that he didn’t ask for my permission, instead just telling me what he’d do.” Chapter 16 EWWWWWW!

“‘I need to get inside you. I’ll go crazy if I don’t,” he said, nearing his hips to mine, his cock resting on my buttocks. | ‘I don’t want you to.’ | ‘I know,” he said, and he impaled me.” Chapter 16 Are you fucking kidding me? She literally just said NO!

Final Thoughts:

I was so difficult finishing this book. Honestly, I watched the movie first. It wasn’t great. But I made a lot of excuses. Multiple languages, censoring the content, the inevitable challenge of turning a book of any kind into a movie. The reality was that the book was just as terrible. The characters were unfleshed out. Whenever a new “aspect” of them was introduced, it was without any pretext. I found myself just as confused by the emotional journey of Laura in the book as I was in the movie. But the most problematic part of this book is the lack of enthusiastic consent, and really any consent in this book. Massimo kidnaps a woman, claims he won’t do anything sexual against her consent, and then DOESN’T WAIT FOR HER EXPLICIT CONSENT! Oh yeah. As the book is from her point of view, we know she’s…kind of into it, but that doesn’t fucking matter because she doesn’t actually say it. She’s eaten out from him as a punishment as their first “sexual” encounter. Where’s the consent you fucker??? She smacks him a ton, and when that gets her over the edge for an orgasm that aspect of sexuality is never discussed. He uses bondage equipment Without. Her. Consent. only once. Doesn’t seem like it’s a part of his sexuality, but never discussed. Massimo puts a tracker in her arm and tells her it’s a…I can’t. It was just so bad.

Spice Level: 4/5

Kinks Explored: None (though bondage equipment is mentioned)

Voices Heard: All white

Did I like it? Ya’ll I had to force myself to finish this book. So…no. I’m not even posting a link to the book.

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