The Next 365 Days: A Novel by Blanka Lipińska
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The global phenomenon and USA TODAY bestselling inspiration behind the Netflix film of the same name—the 365 Days series—continues as it follows the sizzling story of Laura and Massimo.
As the wife of Don Massimo Torricelli, one of the most dangerous Mafia bosses in Sicily, Laura’s life is a rollercoaster. She is often at risk, the potential target of Massimo’s unscrupulous enemies who will stop at nothing to destroy the powerful man. And when Laura is seriously injured in an attack, pregnant and fighting to survive, Massimo faces the toughest decision of his life. What will his life be without Laura? Will he be able to raise their child alone? What will the fate of his family be, and whose 365 days may come to a close?
The Next 365 Days
Man Trouble!
The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💚🖤💙💜❤️
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘📔
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌍🌏
Character development: 😤😥😊🤩😘
This review may contain minor spoilers from the two prior books.
In my reviews, I usually list the names and some background information on the heroine, then the Hero. Though since this is the third book in a series which have been made in to hugely popular Netflix movies, I won’t do my usual format. Though I will give some background on the prior two books. Don Massimo Torricelli is a Sicilian Mafia Don who had a near death experience and dreamed of a beautiful woman. When he saw that woman alive and in his city, he kidnapped her and said he would keep her for 365 days and if she wasn’t in love with him by the end of that time, he would let her go.
Suffice it to say, Laura did fall for Massimo, they married and she got pregnant with his son. Though life was not always rainbows and roses. The Don had many enemies and people out to get at him through her. One of which was Spanish Mafia Don Fernando Matos and his son-in-law, Flavio whom had a huge grudge against Massimo. The Spanish Don sent his son Marcelo (a.k.a. Nacho) to kidnap Laura, in order to force a meeting with Massimo.
Marcelo kept Laura with him until the meeting, he and Laura becoming friends during that time, and were attracted to each other. Though she thought it might be pregnancy hormones which made her horny, she was still in love with Massimo after all. Then everything changed at the meeting and here we begin this book.
I must say that at the end of the last book, I didn’t like that Laura was starting to become attracted to Nacho when she had such strong feelings for Massimo. I mean it is one thing to appreciate the attractiveness of someone else while you are in love with one person and something else to be thinking of kissing or making love to that someone else. Though I was happy she ended up feeling only friendship toward him before everything blew up.
I can also say that I really liked Marcelo until the meeting at the end of the last book when he seemed to be just a puppet for his father. I saw the cover to this book and knew it was Marcelo right away since he is nearly bald, tattooed and has some Swedish in his heritage along with the Spanish. I was hoping this was his story and that he found a new woman of his own, though I knew that since the last book had a cliffhanger, that Laura and Massimo’s story wasn’t done, and the blurb confirmed that, so I was a bit confused.
This book does delve into the feelings of attraction and friendship that Laura and Marcelo had for each other. I usually hate love triangle’s in romance but I know they occur more in movies and TV than in romance novels since many romance readers hate any kind of cheating when two people are in love even if they aren’t together, as evidenced by more than a few one star reviews I have seen, but I kept an open mind going in to this one. Laura romanticized her time with Marcelo before everything happened and was resentful that being with Massimo had put her in danger to begin with. It wasn’t helped by the fact that Massimo was crushed with grief and guilt and pulled away from her.
I got being pulled into the story like I never expected and found myself even rooting for something to happen between Laura and Marcelo. I liked the fact that Laura didn’t just all the sudden fall for someone else, but it happened slowly and naturally, as she felt more distance between herself and Massimo. That is all that I will say about the plot of this book since I don’t want to give to much away, but it definitely is one worth reading and I enjoyed it much more than I expected.
I love the fact that all of these books are romantic, sexy, super steamy and have storylines that integrate well together. Another thing I really enjoyed was the travel, from the Canary Islands, to Sicily, Portugal, Poland and Ibiza. So many romance books take place in one city or even one neighborhood, I really enjoyed living the high life vicariously, Laura has great taste in designer clothes, shoes and accessories, and don’t even get me started on the motorcycles and cars.
I voluntarily read & reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts & opinions are my own.
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