I read them. All of them.
Normally I do one book review per post, but don’t feel like I can drag the series out for three individual posts since my thoughts are the same on all of them. Spoiler alert: if you plan on reading the book/s, you should skip this review.
I have so many random observations and thoughts bouncing around in my head about these books that I’m just going to bullet this post since I’m not sure I can segway from one topic to the next fluidly.
-I decided to jump on the Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James bandwagon because I felt left out when people were discussing them. I needed to have an opinion and didn’t want to take other people’s love or hatred for them as my own. I really wanted to know about it first hand.
-Wow. There’s some really kinky stuff in there. Sometimes it was fun to read it and other times, I just skimmed if briefly before getting back to the rest of the story. I was intrigued by Christian and Ana, their relationship, Christian’s past and present, and all their drama that sometimes I felt the sex was getting in the way. But in the same breath, I understand that so much of Christian’s story revolved around the sex that you couldn’t really take it out. It was very cliched and predictable, but I was still drawn in and couldn’t stop reading.
-Um, no one has sex that many times a day. Christian’s penis and Ana’s vagina should have fallen off. For real, my mom told me that could happen if you have sex too much.
-What scares me about Fifty Shades of Grey is that some women will read this book and compare their relationship to it (something completely made up and unattainable). Or someone younger who has never been in a relationship or done the sex before will think this is real life. And it’s not. AT ALL. Those can be dangerous thoughts and goals when someone reads this book and feels her life doesn’t measure up to that story. And a skewed reality/unrealistic goals can set you (and me) up for all kinds of relationship failure.
-Chris made fun of me while I read these books. But he also reaped some benefits, if you catch my drift. Then he stopped making fun of me.
-I know it’s been discussed multiple times that the writing is pretty bad. I agree completely. At times, I felt James was best friends with her thesaurus while writing and used obscure words that didn’t really fit. And there were types or punctuation errors in each of the three books. Normally, it was during a sex scene. Like all the copy editors were too caught up in the moment to realize there were two periods or an extra word thrown in the sentence. It was distracting and it made me laugh.
-I have never read a book with so much murmuring. EVERYONE MURMURS. “blah blah blah,” Christian murmured. “Blah blah blah,” Ana murmured. The murmuring was out.of.control.
-This genre (“mature adult”/”erotica”) is not something I had ever read before or wish to read again. Unless James writes more Christian and Ana stuff because I will line up to get that next book. Like a drug, I need more Mr. and Mrs. Grey. (Although I’m pretty sure when/if the movie comes out, I will be avoiding that because it will be straight up porn.)
What do you think? Have you read any of them? Are you avoiding them? Sometimes I read the books at the gym and while I didn’t hide the cover, I was hyper-aware of it being in my hands and who might see me. I did feel kind of dirty then. ha.
P.S. I was doing a search for the book covers and came across this article about who should play Christian Grey in the movie. I don’t know who this man is, but this is Christian in my head. Holy hell. Hottt.

I have yet to read the series because i’m afraid that it will
A. Make me blush so much that I get permanent red face.
B. Give me “ideas” and make Steve think i’m a freak (in a bad way)
C. Be a huge disappointment and I hate it when books are disappointing.
Oh, and that fine looking gentleman is Ian Somerhalder. He plays a vampire on The Vampire Diaries.
Good to know…I’m voting for Ian. He looks good at smoldering.
I’ve read all the books and I love them. Yes, they are poorly written but so was Twilight and I loved it too.
I agree that nobody can have sex that many times a day. I know it is fictional but come on. Most women will not want to have sex three times within 24 hours of losing their virginity.
This was a great review. If you have time check out my post on 50 Shades. http://www.becomingfab.com/2012/06/50-shades-of-misunderstanding.html
Thanks for the review! I’ve been hesitant to read it because I’ve heard the writing is awful (I only liked the first Twilight and barely made it through the others). But I’m like you. If I hear a book is getting hyped, then I must read it.
I’ll start it this weekend and then see how it goes!
HIGH-larious!!…I’ve been skeptical about ready the book:
1. Cause everybody and they (yes, they…not their) mama is reading it and I didn’t wanna be one of the ones just jumping off the building like the rest of them.
And 2. Cause I heard it was like reading a borderline pornographic romance novel…and so I didn’t believe the book would be in line with my morals and values…
But anywhoo…you almost very much so, make me wanna kinda sorta maybe skim through a couple of pages while holding the book inside another while hiding in one of the deserted aisles at Barnes and Noble.
Mary, you just crack me up. I have also felt kind of left out because I haven’t read these books, but it’s not really the type of book I am drawn to. I don’t even read girly books that much, mostly historical and science fiction. I did read that new book that was published by our mutual friend’s friend, and let’s just say, I will never be able to think about gladiators in the same way again. Maybe I should borrow your copy and just peek in the front cover…
Just finished about 30 minutes ago. I’ve been wanting to read your review for approx. 33 days now. I can second just about everything you said. Hottie man would be my Christian. I might just have a new celeb crush 😉