Frayed Silk Paperback – July 10, 2017

"It's not love you should fear but, rather, the things you might do for it."^^ You know it's a good sign when you're highlighting the epigraph :)To say I loved this story would been an understatement. And the ironic thing about it is I don't gravitate toward stories with cheating and/or love triangles. Not because I hate the content, but because I typically don't enjoy how authors portray such stories. I don't believe all infidelity is black-and-white. Frayed Silk is a perfect example of this!Dahlia (Lia) broke my heart! It's pretty rare for me to be satisfied with a single POV lately, but she had me completely enthralled. She's the last person you'd think of if you heard the word "cheater." She loves her husband and is devoted to her children. All she wants is to keep her family together..."I don't really want a divorce. Far from it. I just want my husband back. I just want my heart to stop hurting every time I look at him, and he looks away from me."But Leo is constantly pushing her away, and she doesn't understand why. There are a few flashback scenes and he clearly adores her, so it's easy to see why Lia is confused. And while cheating isn't the right answer, it's also easy to see how she got there."I can't keep waiting on him. I can't keep hanging on by a frayed thread. I think it needs to snap, once and for all. Let the pieces fall where they may."Lia is desperate. Alone. In pain. And she turns to a man—Jared—who is paying attention to her."My conscience is screaming at me. But this stupid need for some form of happiness and vengeance, I don't even know—wins out.""It feels too good to be cared for like this again for me to simply run out the door. Back to my cold house and even colder husband."I loved Jared's character! One, because he was a lot of fun, and two, because he was actually very similar to past Leo. Ella did an amazing job of crafting his character. It was obvious (to me) that Lia was falling for the parts of Leo that he'd been keeping from her. His affection, his lightheartedness, his love.But once she gets what she wants from Jared, and Leo finds out, she doesn't want the pieces to fall anymore. She doesn't know what to do or how to fix anything."In a daze, I stare at the mess, wondering why, when there's so many missing pieces, so many irreparably broken fragments, you would even contemplate trying to piece it all back together. It'd be a misshapen cluster of desperation. A warped memory of what it once was, never to be the same again."When we eventually find out why Leo pulled away, the situation becomes even more complicated. We didn't get Leo's POV, but I fell for him just as hard! He didn't immediately forgive Lia, but he didn't make her suffer either. He was willing to own up to his mistakes."We're in this together. Like we used to be, like we always should've been," he says.I enjoyed many aspects of this book, but watching them work through their problems—both admitting their share of the blame—was one of my favorites!"And while I understand that some things can't be repaired, they can always be remade into something better."^ This is undoubtedly my FAVORITE QUOTE!!!!Obviously if you're a strict safety ganger, I wouldn't recommend this book. But if you're like me, if you occasionally enjoy cheating/love triangle storylines but are wary of them, this is the book you should take a chance!The only complaint I had (hence the obnoxious 0.5 deduction) was that I wish the situation surrounding Leo was a little more fleshed out.This was slight in comparison to everything else, though. It's hard to believe it's Ella's debut novel, that's how good it is. The characters were amazing and the storyline was well-developed and intriguing. Add in stunning writing and a gorgeous cover, and this was a complete winner for me!I've already devoured Cyanide and I'm FREAKING READY FOR Corrode! <3 Ella Fields has quickly, and easily, become one of my go-to authors!

❤️ Marriage in trouble🖤 Cheating❤️ Groveling🖤 Betrayal❤️ Triggers (🍇 and cheating) as I cannot find a TW list for this book.🗺 Plot: 3.75/5🌎 World Building: 4/5📔 Cover: 5/5💁🏻‍♂️ MMC, Leo: 4/5💁‍♀️ FMC, Dahlia: 4/5🌶 Spice: 2/5♥️ Pulls at heart strings: 5/5📄 Page Turner: 5/5🫣 Angst: 4/5🤍🖤 Dark: 5/5🔚 Ending: 5/5⚠️ Triggers: 5/5🥰 Overall view: 4/5🫶🏼 HEA: Yes✖️ Multiple POVs: Yes🥉 Act Break Up: No🤥 Cheating: Yes, the wife cheats🎭 OW/OM Drama: YesThis is the first book I have read where the wife is the one that steps out on the marriage. Leo and Dahlia have been married for 10 years and all of a sudden Leo won't pay her any attention. She asks for a divorce he says no. She tells him she's having an affair before it got physical and he didn't care so she went through with the affair because someone was giving her what she was craving. That probably tore me up the most was she was so desperate to be seen and the OM saw her. I liked that she was very honest with Leo.It broke my heart what happened to Leo and I am so happy that the author made that lady pay for it. I think the groveling was well done and I think they both played a role in the affair happening. Not everyone will see it that way but 🤷‍♀️I think the book dragged in a few spots but overall, I still think this is a great book.

I read it pretty fast, wanted to see what happened, so it was good in that aspect.. but what the hell? She was just like oopsie haha that sucks. The end. Definitely left me scratching my head.

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!