Fifty Shades Darker

Summary (from the publisher): Daunted by the singular sexual 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.

Review: This is the second installment in the Fifty Shades trilogy and I am still just as obsessed with Christian Grey as Ana seems to be. This novel opens with Ana having left Christian because she is unable to handle his dark sexual ways. Yet we all know that their separation will be short lived, and Ana and Christian gloriously reunite and resume their (very physical) relationship.

It's hard to imagine any man topping Christian Grey. Fifty's got the wealth and stamina to outmatch any man. How could Ana realistically stay away from him, knowing that no man will ever come close? His love for Ana is over the top ridiculous - he throws down $100,000 at a charity auction for the privilege of dancing with her, he takes her out on his yacht, he buys her a Saab, casually puts $50,000 in her bank account. But he's also over the top bossy and controlling, and he seems angry with Ana for her failure to follow his rules to the letter throughout this novel.

My biggest frustration with this book is how easily Ana gives back into Christian. She makes this huge statement and leaves him at the end of book one and then she only manages to resist him for FIVE DAYS. She storms grandly out, only to agree to see him immediately the first time he contacts her. Come on, Ana, I know you could hold out longer than that. The book makes a huge deal about how this event devastated and transformed Christian, but really, how much can really occur in five days? As a reader, I think the novel would have been more enjoyable if we could have seen Christian trying to win Ana back and to get to see them living apart as individuals, especially Ana with her fledgling career. Then again, their whole relationship is crazy fast paced. The whole time frame of the first two novels is only roughly five weeks and yet they're already discussing a serious future together. Holdddd up, fifty.

This novel is wayy less bondage-y than the first, but don't let that fool anyone into thinking it's less salacious. The evil villains in this were a bit too over the top for my taste, and I still didn't care for the outdated ongoing (and very corny) email exchange between Ana and Christian. However, in the end, I suspend all my disbelief (including my distaste for the extreme lack of editing) because I straight up just adore the crazy flawed Christian Grey. I'm depressed at the thought that there's only one book left in this trilogy!

Stars: 4