Our marriage wasn’t just in trouble—mere threads were all that held it together.What was once my perfect happily ever after had dissolved right before my eyes.I can tell you when it started to happen.What I can’t tell you is why. And after seven months of watching my husband turn into someone I didn’t recognize, I’d given up hope in finding answers. So I decided to break his heart… and he did … break his heart
… and he did nothing to stop me.
This book contains sensitive subject matter.
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Absolutely a 5 star read for me
Ok let me start off by saying I am not usually a big fan of cheating in books. This is because it’s usually handled poorly and quickly forgiven with little thought on why it happened and what it means for the characters afterwards. Not here. Nope. This author achieved the impossible – she got me to not only overlook the cheating but to actively support the character in her choices. This is a raw, heartbreaking story with plot twists you won’t see coming. I can’t tell you much without ruining the story and I don’t want to do that because it’s rare these days an author can make me genuinely gasp while reading a book and Ella Fields managed that – more than once.
The book has beautiful dialogue, moments where the character’s pain is so real you can feel it. The characters are allowed to be flawed and tell the story as it comes – with absolutely no sugar coating.
She also wrote some of the hottest sex scenes I have read this year, and really if we’re honest, who doesn’t want hot sex in their books.
This is definitely not your average predictable HEA Love Story but it’s ABSOLUTELY a Love Story. A real, raw, beautiful love story. So I hope that readers don’t let the cheating warning put them off. It’s a story of what love really looks like when awful things happen, daily life gets in your way and how your actions have consequences. I definitely recommend you read this book.
** spoiler alert ** (I know, run-on sentences ahead, whatever.) I’m a sucker for first person female narratives – it’s easier for me to live vicariously through the protagonist’s experience if I’m just as limited in her access to the hero. Translation: it’s easier for me to pretend I’m the MC and this is my happy ending on the line. And Frayed Silk made me feel like I was the one walking a tight rope through a sea of fire to earn my HEA. I learned a lot from the high stakes, acrobatic adventure Miss Ella Fields sent me on. For instance, I learned the Marriage In Trouble trope is an adrenaline rush I can’t get enough of! After finishing this book, I assembled a hearty list of romances in this subgroup to dive into and I can’t wait. There’s something about spending time in the aftermath of “couple meets, falls in love, the end” that just exfoliates you. The gritty texture and uncertainties of self that this book explores is evocative and at times, the prose is pure poetry. I saw a lot of myself in Lia and Leo. The layers of struggling with your partner, not just romantically, but as parents are well tended to here. I’m going to talk about the sex now, because there was lots of juicy sex – and some of it was more the tease of chemistry that happens when two people love each other, are attracted to one another, but in the moment, can’t fucking stand each other. Seriously, I found myself picking fights in my own relationship just to try and recreate some of this angsty arousal ‘cause at the end of the day, I’m a juvenile and that’s the kind of thing I do. In summation: Love this story, love that I’ve found a new trope I can dig into. And above all, love that I now have a new author I can turn to for romances that deliver on depth and steam.
p.s. Regarding the earlier topic of things I learned from Ella Fields: I learned sometimes it’s okay to kinda have lusty feelings for someone other than your husband because your husband is a dick, but not really, he’s just going through something he doesn’t know how to talk about. Okay, I’m done now.
REVIEW: 4 “Only Ever You” STARS
“My eyes beg him for things my mouth is sick of asking for.”
I love finding a new to me author that can speak to me. One that can tell a story that hijacks my mind and makes me feel what is going on in a book with just their words. And if you know me, this synopsis immediately grabbed me. This book was the perfect introduction to Ella Fields for me and I am SO happy I read it! This book had a very well thought out storyline and some heartache to boot! Not too angsty, but there was a good dose of it in there, and we all know how much I love angst. Happy reader here.
I know we all like different genres, but I especially love a cheater/triangle love story that is told with depth and emotion. I was shocked at how this one affected me the way it did, to be completely honest. It was an emotional take on one woman’s struggle through her confusing emotions and her battered mentality, to come to grips with what was happening in her marriage. Her feelings were raw and legit for what was going on. She was easily understood in her heartache, but I was also very angry at some of her actions, justified or not. She was an emotional mess, which made her decisions that much more reckless….and that’s what I love about a book like this. Because it happens. It’s real. Emotions get taken advantage of, your mind and heart do NOT speak to each other, and you begin to question reality. Again, these actions were the catalyst for the story and everything meshed so well to tell the story, but it definitely led to some angry thoughts. Having said that, I think one of my favorite things about this book was the fact that it was told entirely in a single POV. Reading it that way allowed me to sink into and feel everything Lia was going through; the pain, the anguish, the desperate need to feel loved again. It was the perfect way to tell this story, and what a story it was.
LOOKING IN: This was such a sad world to be peeking in on; watching an emotionally wrought woman while she desperately tries to save her sanity and her marriage. But it begged the question: at what cost? What order of responsibility did she owe herself? Save herself, her sanity, and her kids? Save her marriage that was crumbling, quite rapidly, right in front of her, no matter what she did? Or should she save herself, move forward and pick up the pieces since there was no fight left? It was a heavy read; it was even a sad read at some points. But man, it was a goooood read. I really enjoyed this one a lot.
I have to say, I absolutely, unequivocally fell in love with Leo, her husband. The twist broke my heart in this book, but it made me see him in a whole new light. I understood his actions. I understood his pain. But Lia and Leo had a love that did not have an expiration date. They needed to fight for what they knew was true in their hearts. It was a journey, one that I needed to take with them and feel alongside them. I. Loved. This. Story.
REAL TALK: In the beginning, I had a very hard time with the way the scenes just abruptly ended; there wasn’t any follow through. A big fight would happen and then nothing was done, we’d just move on. The angst would be building perfectly, the tension would be mounting and then…..nothing. It would just quit. It made for choppy feelings in some parts and made me pause for thinking. But after reading the entire book, I understood exactly why she did that. It aided in the storytelling, added a bit of intrigue, but in the beginning, it was a rough start for me. So please don’t let that stop you….push through it and keep going. This one was truly a great story and I can’t wait to discuss it.
This one also took me a little longer to read. Once or twice I was able to put it down and walk away, but not because it was bad. Gosh, no. I wasn’t completely taken in the beginning because, while it was a new voice for me, it was also a new cadence. It flowed just fine, but it was still an adjustment period for me. The synopsis piqued my interest immediately, so that wasn’t an issue for me. I was able to walk away at first, but not completely. My mind was still held captive. I thought about the story the entire time I was away, busying myself with my thoughts while I debated what was happening. It drew me back each time, and I am so glad I finished this one. Look, I know cheating is a trigger for some and it pisses off many readers, but it doesn’t for me. Not even a little bit, because I’m a firm believer that there are always three sides to every story: yours, theirs and the truth. But when cheating is the drive, the catalyst for the emotions in the book, I like to look at the reasons, the circumstances, the emotions that are happening during the book so I can better understand the WHY. And Ella told this story with all that in mind. All my questions were answered. It felt real. It felt heartbreaking and true. I love the intricacies of cheating/triangles, and why the heart gets so caught up when the mind isn’t always on board. The why is what drives me to seek answers. I love that part and I loved that about this book.
I will say this much; this quote right here summed up the emotions in the story for me quite literally. It was a passage that made me pause because after seeing what Lia and her husband went through, this just spoke to me. It doesn’t give anything away, but it makes you think:
Memories are funny things. Some are so palpable that you feel as if you’re right there, experiencing everything all over again. The scents, tastes, the weather, the sliding of skin on skin, and the feelings that made your heart swell double in size.
Whereas others flit away, like cast off threads in your mind, feeling forever out of reach. Forgotten. Until one day, they decide to unravel from your conscience and knock you sideways by taking you back. Back to someplace you’d give anything to forget, or that you’d sell a piece of your soul to revisit just one more time.
~BEE
Let me just start saying, I don’t read books that have this type of triggers, i tend to get pretty emotional but i wanted to read Frayed Silk because i was already around 20% of Cyanide book when i read Ella saying we should read Frayed first so we could understand more of Jared story.. so i did that..
I’m so glad i did.. i’m so glad i took the courage and read it.. it was really painful and i was crying so much specially when Lia was describing her feelings.. i literally felt her loneliness, her desperation, her sadness, her need for her husband.. every emotion she felt was like a knife to my heart, really!!!
it was painful.. BUT no matter what happened, no matter the cheating part, the sadness or the fights, In the entired Book, you ALWAYS feel the love Lia has for Leo.. ALWAYS!!!! no matter what is happening .. her love is strong and she is suffering in silence…
One of the things that i really like about the story is, how Lia would drooling for Leo, she would want him and need him so badly.. she would described how he looks after swimming or after taking a shower.. that make him so freaking hot and that also made you feel how much she was in love with him, how much she wanted him and was having a hard time keeping her distance from Leo… i even drool a little when she described this type of scenes… her love was there, there was never a doubt..
I suffered with her the entire book.. even thou sometimes i want to scream to Lia and say NOOOO!! don’t do that but she was a strong heroine, someone that i definitely respect if it was my friend..
what can i say about her friends, Lia’s friends some of them were annoying and some of them where cool.. that town was hell.. pure gossip, the typical, i have more money than you and i drive and wear better things than you.. but still Lia was a very down to earth girl.. no matter that Leo had so much money and great house and car.. Lia didn’t take anything for granted.. she continue to clean and cook and do everything for herself.. she was a great mom and a great wife..
Leo, wow i never saw that one coming.. when i started the book i was having so many guesses just to make the pain more bearable.. so i was kind of brainwashing myself not to feel the pain lol anyway i love the twist!! i didn’t see that coming and it totally made sense, it made sense why Leo was so distant.. why he was silence and didn’t want to have any closeness with Lia.. but i also wanted to Scream because he didn’t say a word of what happened, he was drowning in his own sadness..
I love when we see the breaking point of Lia.. when she finally says enough is enough and i have to save my marriage.. i love it, i love when she tells him she knows and bares her soul to him.. i love how Leo reacts when he finally sees that is also his fault that part of what is happening is because his silence.. and when you get around 60% damn!! lets just say Leo is mega super Alpha in the sex..
he didn’t disappoint at all and he really was everything we’ve been reading in the words of Lia…
again it was a very hard books to read but I LOVE IT!! it was a great story and both characters Lia and Leo where amazing… It was my first book from Ella Fields and i love it!!
Amazingly, achingly heartfelt with just the right amount of everything!!!
This was my first read of author Ella Fields. I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought she did a superb job with the content, emotional investment and keeping me engaged throughout.
This story tugged at my heart strings right from the beginning sentence “I want a divorce.” The lead female character, Dahlia, or Lia as her family called her, was lost. She didn’t know what had happened to her husband, his was disengaged, seemingly had lost interest in nearly everything as Lia saw it. She didn’t understand what happened to THEM, and she boldly stated to him she wanted a divorce. Something had to change. Leo, her husband, had withdrawn, become very distant, wasn’t in any way engaged in their married life, their intimate life or their family life with their children. Lia was hurt beyond words. She tried and tried, and after asking for the divorce and repeatedly asking him what was going on, she was incredibly exhausted. Her frustration, the deep, aching hurt she felt, and the distance she now felt between herself and Leo left her extremely saddened and seemingly beyond repair. So when she felt like she had lost Leo somewhere in a mess of problems, he wouldn’t talk to her about any of it, she wasn’t able to find happiness, love, warmth, intimacy, or some sort of resolve, ANYTHING to fix their marriage, she stepped out on her marriage.
I would highly recommend, no matter your viewpoint on infidelity and cheating, to give Ella Fields a chance and read “Frayed Silk”, her debut book. She did an amazing job broaching the subject matter carefully and thoughtfully, while still telling a story that was meaningful, fulfilling, emotional, intense, and the realities of a relationship and marriage falling apart at the seams. I was completely immersed from the very beginning, I was enveloped in the ups and downs of the emotional roller coaster, and I found so much of this to be incredibly relatable. Her theme and character development, along with the way she represented the reasoning and decisions, was masterful. It was a stunning work of fiction with so much reality and actuality that many of us have gone through but never want to verbalize. This was an incredible read, I was engaged and fully invested in this book, and I read it in one sitting because I had to know what was going to happen. I couldn’t put this book down. I loved every, single second. I LOVED everything “Frayed Silk” was written about and stood for, and I could not resist everything Ella Fields made me believe and feel in this story. I felt a level of understanding, and I greatly appreciated how she connected me, as the reader, so well to the characters, the content, the emotions, and how life was handled. It was amazingly, achingly heartfelt with just the right amount of EVERYTHING!!! I was absolutely and thoroughly impressed this was Ella Fields’s first book, and I cannot wait to read more of her work. This was undoubtedly, absolutely an A+++++ performance, Ella Fields! Beautiful, stunning, perfect!
Beautifully Written Debut Novel!