Review - Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James

Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Source: Own copy
Challenges: Mt TBR Challenge

Synopsis:
'When unworldly student Anastasia Steele first encountered the driven and dazzling young entrepreneur Christian Grey it sparked a sensual affair that changed both of their lives irrevocably. Shocked, intrigued, and, ultimately, repelled by Christian’s singular erotic tastes, Ana demands a deeper commitment. Determined to keep her, Christian agrees.

Now, Ana and Christian have it all—love, passion, intimacy, wealth, and a world of possibilities for their future. But Ana knows that loving her Fifty Shades will not be easy, and that being together will pose challenges that neither of them would anticipate. Ana must somehow learn to share Christian’s opulent lifestyle without sacrificing her own identity. And Christian must overcome his compulsion to control as he wrestles with the demons of a tormented past.

Just when it seems that their strength together will eclipse any obstacle, misfortune, malice, and fate conspire to make Ana’s deepest fears turn to reality.'
My Thoughts:
Wow, I have to admit that I am so glad this series is finally over and there will never, ever be any more of Christian or Ana to read about in the future.

In my opinion, this story dragged on for far too long and this was only because of a truck-load of repetition that was starting to make me angry about reading it.

Truthfully, I was totally over Ana's constant immaturity and supposed asserting of her independence, Christian's constant insecurity and dominating nature and the sex scenes were getting to the point of being ridiculous, especially since there was one at almost every fifth page or so.

If I ever hear anyone exclaim 'Oh My!' or talk about their Inner Goddess again, I will most likely turn and walk the other way.

The only reason I ended up finishing this series was because I already had this book at home and wanted to just get it over and done with.

At least now I can say I have read them and can move on with my life. I feel so free!

I'd love to know what everyone else thought of this series!

Review - Fifty Shades Darker by E.L. James

Fifty Shades Darker by E.L. James
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Paperback, 532 pages

Published April 17th 2012 by Vintage (first published January 1st 2011)

Source: Own copy

Synopsis:
'Daunted by the singular tastes and dark secrets of the beautiful, tormented young entrepreneur Christian Grey, Anastasia Steele has broken off their relationship to start a new career with a Seattle publishing house.

But desire for Christian still dominates her every waking thought, and when he proposes a new arrangement, Anastasia cannot resist. They rekindle their searing sensual affair, and Anastasia learns more about the harrowing past of her damaged, driven and demanding Fifty Shades.

While Christian wrestles with his inner demons, Anastasia must confront the anger and envy of the women who came before her, and make the most important decision of her life.'

My Thoughts:
So ok, for some reason it has taken me a while to get up the energy to finally review this book. For some reason it just didn't grab my attention like the first one did and kind of left me a little disappointed and, dare I say it, bored in some parts.

This instalment starts off with the aftermath of the break up of Anastasia and Christian. Anastasia is an absolute mess and still thinks of Christian practically every minute of her waking hours.

After a little while apart, Christian re-enters Ana's life with a new proposition. He wants to offer her a chance at the type of relationship she really wants and promises to give 'vanilla' a wholehearted attempt.

The main theme of this book centres around the opening up of Christian and the discovery of what has shaped him to be the person he is and why he has developed his dominant/submissive persona.

Ana is a much stronger and verbal person in this book but still grates on my nerves a little with the constant repetition of certain phrases and how she has a tendency to say way too much in her head instead of out loud. I found myself screaming at her sometimes to just 'Speak up!' rather than mumble to herself and this frustrated me quite a bit.

This book still centres around a massive amount of sex between Christian and Ana and by the end I was sick of reading about the sex scenes to tell the truth. I am definitely no prude and have an open mind about practically anything but I really did want more actual storyline and character development and less sex and found myself starting to skim over certain scenes. I felt like the poor girl just needed to be given a rest now and then.
Overall this book is a bit like the more mature sister to Fifty Shades of Grey as it has a much slower pace and doesn't contain as many jaw dropping scenes.

I was left intrigued by the ending of this one as there is a bit of a twist which I didn't see coming so I am interested to see how the story is developed in the final instalment.
Links:
Review - Fifty Shades of Grey (Book 1)
Amazon
The Book Depository

Review - Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Paperback, 528 pages

Published April 3rd 2012 by Vintage (first published May 25th 2011)

Source: Own copy

Synopsis:
'When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.'

My Thoughts:
So, I have to admit that I went into reading this book with a VERY open mind. This was mainly due to knowing what the subject matter was and hearing so much hype about this book along with an equal mix of good and bad reviews. Some people passionately hated this book and others thoroughly enjoyed it. Well, I actually am one of those that enjoyed it.

Aside from the BDSM theme and the extreme amounts of sex in this book, it actually had quite a good underlying storyline that I found interesting and was what ultimately kept me reading through to the end.

The first main character, Christian Grey, has had a hard start to life and this has in turn made him into a very controlling and egotistical human being. He's never let a person into his life and has always been the one to set the rules.

I found Christian's character just captivating and fascinating. You can't help but be affected by him and his strong personality and confidence. That is until you realise that it's all a bit of a front and underneath is actually a needy boy who is scared of being rejected and alone.

The other main character, Anastasia Steele, is a very innocent and nervous person who gets completely overwhelmed when she meets Christian. He is totally out of her league but she finds herself drawn to him in a way she has never felt with another man before.

I found that I got a bit annoyed with Ana's character a lot throughout the book, but I think it was just the repetitive writing and the way some conversations were structured that were the main reasons for this. She seemed to repeat the same phrases an awful lot and talks about an 'inner goddess' on pratically every second page.

Overall, this book certainly revolves around sex and has an awful lot of it in there. I realised that by about halfway through I was actually getting extremely bored with the sex scenes and just wanted more of the base story instead.

This is certainly not a book to read if you get offended easily and are a bit squeamish about certain 'taboo' subjects. On the other hand, if you have an open mind and don't get offended all too easily I think it's definitely an entertaining read and I am now looking forward to reading the next two books in the series.

Links:
Amazon
The Book Depository