Review: This Day

This Day by Blanka Lipińska
My rating: 1.5 of 5 stars

Following the fad for once, I watched the movie 365 Days on Netflix.  Specifically I was told to watch the boat scene.  Meh.  The story ended in a cliff hanger so I researched the books that the movie was based on.  To my surprise this is a trilogy. To my even greater surprise, I was contacted to read the next two books - translated into English.  Why not?

Well, what I can say is that Laura and Massimo are pretty accurately depicted in the movie.  I am quite frankly puzzled at how an accomplished business woman as the movie portrays Laura would be such a ditz in her personal life.  It does not make sense to me at all.  Massimo seems to be true to his character.

The plot of this book is messy and the relationship between Laura and Massimo, even more so. It was difficult for me to read this book and I had to stop/start it several times.  I finally made it through it by reading it in increments when I was on my treadmill every morning.  Suffice to say, it was a brutal and long couple of weeks as I am only on my treadmill for about 25 minutes a day.

The sex in this book is okay.  Is it a bit rough and kinky?  Yes.  Is it a healthy BDSM relationship, let alone a non-BDSM relationship, hell no.  I think that's the point?  This is all passion - the stereotype of mafia men all machismo and irrational about the pussy. If this was supposed to be a caricature of what American females want to read, then it succeeded.  If this was supposed to be a well written erotica, it missed the mark for me.  The lack of character development, plot, and world building make this story difficult for me.  Usually I can be bribed with good sex.  This... left me dry.  It will be interesting to see if a NetFlix movie will be able to inject better sex into the 2nd book in this trilogy.  I have to admit, good sex music helped the 1st movie. 

 *provided by https://www.netgalley.com