Fragile Longing

A perfect but stupid example of what you get when stuck up in the past.

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1. FRAGILE LONGING by Cora Reilly

SYNOPSIS

Sofia knows how it feels to be the consolation prize. Too young. Not blond. And definitely not an ice princess. Her sister is—was all those things. Perfection. Until she wasn’t. Until she ran off to be with the enemy and left her fiancé behind.

Now Sofia is given to Danilo in her sister’s stead, knowing she’ll never be more than second best. Yet, she can’t stop longing for the love of the man she’s been crushing on even when he was still her sister’s.

Danilo is a man who’s used to getting what he wants. Power. Respect. The sought-after ice princess. Until another man steals his bride-to-be. Danilo knows that for a man in his position losing his woman can lead to a loss of face. Wounded pride. Thirst for revenge. A dangerous combination—one Danilo can’t leave behind, not even when a girl just as precious takes her sister’s place to placate him. Yet, she’s got one flaw: she’s not her sister.

Unable to forget what he lost, Danilo might lose what he’s been given.

BOOK REVIEW

“In this world, we women get so few choices, so little freedom. We have to grasp happiness by the collar and drag it with us. We can’t hope for happiness to jump into our lap. Be selfish. You deserve it.”

Although Fragile Longing is included in neither the Born in Blood Mafia Chronicles nor the Camorra Chronicles, the main characters had a number of cameos in some of them. The book was an anticipated one, especially if you read the story about Remo and Serafina. Unfortunately, I didn’t like it… The only thing that was appreciated by my fangirl of the series self was the friendship between Sofia and Anna (and also a glimpse of Anna’s love interest, Santino yay). Aside from that, Fragile Longing was everything I didn’t want in the book, and it’s really painful for me to even say it…

Usually, I write my reviews without major spoilers in order not to spoil the plot and thus, the overall reading experience. But this time around, I feel like I need to go into specifics so that my point is proven in the most proper and constructive way possible.

SPOILER!

Let’s start with Danilo who was a very inconsistent character. Hate-fucking blonde girls who at least somehow reminded him of Serafina after the engagement with Sofia up until the very wedding was an absolute disaster of scaring proportions. And then claiming that he actually didn’t like Fina even the slightest bit was confusing, to put it mildly (you need to get aroused in order to fuck but you do you, Danilo). Blaming everything on pride was disappointing and not at all believable or understandable...

Now, Sofia was also weird af. Her childish insecurities and unhealthy obsession to be like her sister freaked me out. And the way she all of a sudden changed her demeanor after her own stupid decision? Regretful that a character with so much potential was wasted so tastelessly…

“I’m going to fuck you hard against this tree. I’m not in the mood for fucking foreplay, so you better tell me now if your pussy is ready to take my cock.”

And let’s not forget about one of the most traumatizing sex scenes I’ve read in a long while. What kind of a person in her right mind would dress up like a pretty slut and wear a blonde wig alongside the favourite perfume of her older sister just to find out how her future husband treated his hookups? Well, Sofia was lucky that they didn’t have a bloody sheets tradition in Chicago Outfit…

Sigh… Now that I think about it, every single chapter in Fragile Longing felt like a raw draft put clumsily together with no structural idea of how things were supposed to turn out. The relationship between Danilo and Sofia was non-existent. I don’t fucking care that he was waiting for her to be comfortable around him after the wedding. Throwing in a number of filthy encounters like the one with strawberries didn’t solidify chemistry, which I also found absent for the most part. And the romance itself was lacking because two-thirds of the book was dedicated to discovering the pre-relationship period that was spent separately anyway.

In conclusion, I would say even the biggest fans can pass on this one. Bye!