Fifty Shades of Grey

Summary (from the publisher): When literature student Anastasia Steele is drafted to interview the successful young entrepreneur Christian Grey for her campus magazine, she finds him attractive, enigmatic and intimidating. Convinced their meeting went badly, she tries to put Grey out of her mind - until he happens to turn up at the out-of-town hardware store where she works part-time. 

The unworldly, innocent Ana is shocked to realize she wants this man, and when he warns her to keep her distance it only makes her more desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her - 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 adoptive family – Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a passionate, physical and daring affair, Ana learns more about her own dark desires, as well as the Christian Grey hidden away from public scrutiny.

Can their relationship transcend physical passion? Will Ana find it in herself to submit to the self-indulgent Master? And if she does, will she still love what she finds?

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

Summary: I've been putting off writing this review because I don't even know where to begin. First off, I'm going to assume that everyone's heard of this book by now since it's sweeping the nation by storm. Second,  let's go ahead and make it clear that if you're reading this for literary reasons, don't even bother. This is not high fiction, and it could have used a good editor - but that's not the point. The point of this book is Christian Grey. 

When I first heard of this book, I heard it referred to repeatedly as Twilight for adult women. I was confused by this at first (there's no vampires in sight) but in reflection they do have a lot in common. Both lead males are controlling, stalkerish, dark, older, devastatingly handsome, have a huge secret and trust issues, are really wealthy, and have adoptive families. Both of the heroines are the ones from whose perspectives the stories are told. The heroines are clumsy, naive, youthful, unaware of their beauty, have kinda oblivious/out of touch friends, absentee/scatterbrained mothers, and force their male to change his behavior and challenge his status quo.   

This is one of those books that is pure entertainment (the junk food of the literary world if you will) - you feverishly want to rush through it in one sitting. It's certainly one of the dirtier books I've read. And Christian Grey is by far the kinkiest male lead I've encountered. This makes me think American women are far raunchier than they've even been letting on. 

By far my favorite part of this book is Christian Grey. He's basically a fantasy brought to life (except for, you know, the intense BDSM stuff lol). I can see how he appeals to many women who would love for a wealthy, handsome, damaged man to swoop in out of nowhere and transform their life while you fix his issues and turn him into the perfect man. His obsession with making Anastasia eat (and obviously intense sexual proclivities) make him a little suspect, but I love him as a character, despite his intensity and moodiness (or maybe because of it?). I know that more of his dark past will be revealed in the next two books, and I'm anxious to learn more about him.

This book is clearly one that elicits either love or hate, which is understandable based on the highly controversial sexual aspects of this novel. I mostly loved it (with the exception of the repeated email exchanges between Christian and Anastasia which I found technologically outdated and corny). I also question whether such an innocent and naive girl as Anastasia would jump in so dang enthusiastically into such a sexually explicit relationship with a guy she barely knows, but then I've never met a Christian Grey. 

Looking forward to book two ;)

Stars: 4