When I find a really good book, I just can't help but shout out about it. Fifty Shades is a series that took me by storm. It was recommended to
me by a good friend, barely two days ago. I haven’t fallen in love with a book like this in far too
long. I started with book one, FiftyShades of Grey, but quickly moved on to book two, Fifty Shades Darker.
I fell in love with Christian by somewhere around the end of
the first chapter. He was the perfect Alpha male to me. He was strong and
masculine and used to getting his own way, but he was also sexy and protective
and sweet and he doted on her like someone he cherished her. Swoon.
Then he makes Ana an offer. I won’t spoil it for you, but
essentially he shows her his BDSM lifestyle and asks her to be a part of it.
But in a completely controlling Alpha jerk way. He offers her a contract and
tells her she’ll need to sign it before they can become intimate.
When he offered her that contract, my heart broke. And I
mean that. I was so enthralled by his character that my chest ached. The author
had just ruined this wonderful man for me. I thought, it’s that romance, where the controlling, Alpha jerk gets tamed by the beautiful
woman. I hate that guy. I’m not a fan of strong Alphas, because it’s just not
realistic to me. How could a woman fall for that? I prefer my men soft around
the edges. Give me a Beta (aka the best friend) any day. I had to put the book
down and pondered whether or not I could actually pick it up back up. I was that disheartened by this revelation.
So I emailed the friend who recommended the book and had
already moved on to book two. She said, “Don’t give up on him.” So I begrudgingly
kept reading.
Yes, there are a lot more times when Christian becomes that Alpha. They argue, they fight
often. He’s a control freak, who doesn’t seem to have any idea what he’s doing
to her. And in those times, I want Ana to leave him. I want her to tell him off
and storm out of his life. She deserves better than that! It takes her a long
while to do it, and I have to tell you, I wasn't happy about that. It wasn't until I was about three quarters through book two that I fully understood. In between Alpha jerk, Ana gets glimpses of the real
man inside. The soft-hearted, scared guy who’s hiding behind his control freak
nature. And, just like I do reading this book, she caves, becomes unsure of herself.
IOW, Christian ends up being a very complex character. He’s real
and it’s wonderful to behold, because his character arc is huge. His “issues”
are realistic and that’s what makes me love him so much. Ana was real as well. I found her insecurities to be very realistic. Honestly, I'm tired of feisty heroines. Every once in a while, I want someone not quite so perfect. And Ana blossoms over the course of the two books.
She finds her self-confidence during both books, learns to stand up to him, and
the more she does, the more I found myself cheering for her. In the end, the
two of them completely complement each other.
Downsides: repetition. Words and phrases repeated over and
over. The love scenes, while scorching, are numerous and at times I found them
repetitive as well. Which reminds me. The BDSM aspects are rare. It's more talked about than done, and in the end, it's abandoned completely. It's listed as "erotic", but the language is mild. The love scenes are fully described, but tastefully done. The F word is about the harshest word in this book (Christian refers to himself "f-ed up"). None of the harsh language you usually see in an "erotic" are in this book.
Also, it's really obvious that the author isn't American, because neither character's speech sounds like an 20-something American. It's more formal than it should be and there are definitely points where I recognize some British terminology. But, I didn't find that this took away from the book itself.
Also, these books follow nearly every single moment of these
people’s lives, so that there are places in both books where I was bored to
tears, wondering why the author didn’t just condense those places. But then I
realized (in the end) that this is needed in order to gain the full scope of Christian’s
character. Without going through absolutely everything, I don’t think he would have
quite come alive the way he did.
Fifty Shades of Grey needs to be read along with book
two, Fifty Shades Darker, in order to
get the full scope of Christian’s character. Christian’s true inner character,
that sweet, lovable guy, gets revealed extremely slowly and if you don’t read
book two, you’ll likely come away from book one feeling slightly short changed.
Book two is where you get most of the details of exactly why Christian is the
way he is, and where his change is the greatest.
These books revolve around their developing relationship. That IS the plot and for me, this is perfect. This was right up my ally and extremely well done. I highly recommend it. Now, I'm off to indulge in more Christian in the third book, Fifty Shades Freed.
Interesting. I'll have to check these out. Personally, I like an Alpha, but one that's protective rather then controlling. He has to love kids, animals, and dabbling in the kitchen. Like the hero of my upcoming book, The Chief's Proposal. My heroine may look perfect, but she's domestically challenged and accident prone. Don't we have the greatest job in the world?
ReplyDeleteHi Sandra! Yes! I love my job! :)
ReplyDeleteI do love a soft Alpha, like a cross between an Alpha and a Beta. I think it was AJ Nuest, on another thread a while back, who coined the term "Balpha". lol But it sounds like maybe we're talking about the same kind of Alpha.
Your heroine--that's exactly it. I like flawed, imperfect people. Makes it more realistic. I don't mind a good feisty heroine, but what I meant was more that I liked flawed, too. Insecure characters are okay to me.
thanks for stopping by!
Great review, will have to check them out. Sound like my kind of alphas ;o)
ReplyDeleteOh, I tagged you on my blog
We commented back and forth over at Goodreads and I noticed you have a blog. I am Henry LeNav over there.
ReplyDeleteI am a 63 year old guy and romance is not my usual read. So take my comments with a grain of salt. I read this book due to a curiosity with the popularity with women. What in the world made this series so popular?
Unfortunately I found the BDSM to be intolerable. Actually if Ana would retaliate (think Lisbeth Salandar with her tattoo equipment) it wouldn't bother me as much. But the fact that Christian genuinely hurts her, inflicts physical pain on her and humiliates her, and gets a huge sexual charge from doing so, is so alien to me that I just could not tolerate any more of the series. I hate when she submits to this crap and does that negotiating with herself. There are other fish in the sea, yeah they are not zillionaires, but they won't beat the crap out of you either. I am also pretty well fed up with Holy craps and the inner goddess.
Anyhow I enjoyed your review. You make some good points, and I believe that to understand this phenomena I may have to read the second and third books. I just don't know if I am up to the task.
I attempted to review the book at my blog and offer some hoaky metaphors that are most likely BS and clearly show that I am out of my element.
http://navfin.blogspot.com/2012/04/fifty-shades-of-grey.html
I must confess, even though I am disgusted with the BDSM, and pretty well fed up with Ana's 13 year old mentality, there is something about this book that has captured my fancy--well much of it I suppose is the overall appeal to women. Why?
Hi there! I do agree. There were a lot of things I didn't like. like I mentioned on goodreads, I've read enough about the BDSM lifestyle that I gave the author the benefit of the doubt on that part. Ana had a safe word and in the last book, she uses it and he stops. BUT...I too feel there were certain places where he steps over the line. There were a lot of places where I also think he mistreats her. And I'll be honest. In the second book, we get a peek at who he is and what it was in his childhood that made him that. Christian was very profound for me, because in a lot of ways, I AM him. Not to his extreme extent, but I could empathize with him. I understand the extreme self loathing and control (of which the BDSM is one part of--it's a way for him to feel in control of sex and thereby safe within in it). The way I read it, for him, this keeps him safe in his world. It's his coping mechanism. I come from a similar background, a screwed up childhood that has left a lot of similar scars, so reading him, I saw the wounded little boy that made the man he'd become. And I saw a strength in Ana in the second book that I thought that maybe, just maybe, she could heal him and pull him out of his ways.
ReplyDeleteThat's what captured MY fancy in this book. I saw the diamond in the rough in Christian and I kept reading hoping to see Ana "whip him into shape." I found the sex overdone in quite a lot of places. It got to be boring and the BDSM wasn't a thrill for me (which is the aspects of it that are getting so much attention in the news). So I skipped a lot of love scenes.
thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I love discussing books, seeing everyone's viewpoints on them. :)
I should finish the series. I fell no empathy for Christian, just dislike for his arrogance and an abhorrence for his willingness to humiliate and hurt Ana.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to hear that you had an unhappy childhood, I had, I suppose my share of childhood misery, alcoholic father, battling mother, but I was never physically abused, well except for the standard 50s disciplinary beatings that were not unique to me. But our home was a constant war zone between my mother and father. But to me that was a lesson. I told myself that i would never conduct our home life like my parents. Fortunately I am married to a wonderful woman who has made that vow rather easy. She has been the source of my decency and any good that has been in my life.
Well perhaps I will try the second book. Again lovely post.
I would definitely recommend reading the second book. Don't read the third. She ruins him in the last book. It felt very plot driven to me, where the characters were acting in ways that felt out of character for what the previous two books seemed to set them up to be. And it appeared to be done to suit the whim of the plot. I hate that. I lost my love for him in the last book.
ReplyDeleteBut I do remember thinking, when i got done with the second, that if I hadn't read the second book, I would have missed a lot of what makes Christian so wonderful. Most of the frustrations I felt by the end of the first book got answered in the second. He tames a lot in the second book, his heart comes out more, that wounded boy. But again, I'm able to look beyond the BDSM. I read and fell in love with the characters, so when I read, that's what *I* was looking for, those bits of them, not the sex.
BTW...my husband comes from a similar background and we both agreed the same thing--that we would never become our parents and we would never treat our children the way we were treated. So our children are a bit on the spoiled side, in the sense that they tend to not want for anything. Neither one of them knows how to do their own laundry, but I'm okay with that. They're becoming good people, where it counts. For whatever that's worth. :)