Fifty Shades of Grey By EL James

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.

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Amy's Review:
This hit my must read list because of all of the controversy surrounding this book and its author.  I was intrigued by that alone.  I can say that I didn't know a lot about sex either just the basics.  This book definitely gave me a lot more insight on sex, bondage, dominance that I wanted or cared to know.  That being said the story line pulls you in.  I skimmed most of the sex scenes and man there are a lot of them! But I kept cheering for Ana and hoping for the compromise that she was asking for.  What can I say I am hopeless romantic and a sucker for a happy ending.  With this book I didn't get my happy ending.  I am hoping that by the time I get book three I will get my happy ending!  I am intrigued by Christin Grey and I want to know his story and find out why he is the way he is.  My mom, yes my mother who is also reading the books told me that I would get my wish about more info on Christian in book two.  Let me tell you discussing this book with my mother in front of my father was definitely interesting.  Had this book come along five to ten years ago I couldn't image discussing it with my mother let alone admitting that I had read it! At times I also found myself comparing this book to the Twilight Series and comparing Christian with Edward especially considering how the fifty shades of grey ended.  In reading other reviews I have found that there is no comparison and that the author did not base Ana or Christian off of the main characters of twilight even though she had read it before writing fifty shades.  At times I have my doubts having read both i can see similarities in Christian and Edward.  If I was Ana in this book I would have showed Christian the door after I saw his red room of pain.  However looking back at my past and reviewing some of the guys I dated while I was in high school and I can say that saying and doing are two totally different things.  It is hard to let go of someone you have fallen for.  A part of me wants to knock some sense into Christian and yell at him for being the way he is.  But I have long since learned you can't change someone.  They can only change themselves.  I loved how the author brought in Ana's voice of reason and voice of desire.  It was displayed as the little devil and angel that sit on your shoulders.  I felt myself relating with Ana a lot.  It was her shyness, clumsiness and naivity that pulled me in.  I also wanted to find out what happened to her and if the book ended with a happy ending or not. As I said above it did not.   There are a lot of reviews on this book and a lot of them are negative.  I can say that i agree with some of them.  The writing was that of a teenager.  The image that i got of Christian in my head was not of a real person because he was a billionare, extremely good looking, 26 years old, spoke french etc.  Basically I didn't find him relatable like I did Ana.  I also found that the author being from Britian must have not been to the United States or she would have gotten her geography down a little better.  Twilight was set in Washington State.  Is it a coincidence this book is also set in Washington state?  I do have to say I read a review where the author was reported not knowing anything about sex.  I admit I am not an expert on sex or bondage or dominance but I do have to give her props for doing research on dominance and the like in order to write the book the way she did. The closest I come to reading erotica are romance novels by Nora Roberts so my expertise is limited but I did think she did a good job writing these scenes.  I would however like to read someones take that is a little more versed in the subject as to how James writing of the subject compared.  At the very least it was entertaining and I did satisfy my need to see what all of the hype was about. This is a book that you either love or you hate.  There isn't any in between with this one.  As for me I haven't fully decided yet.   Am I going to read the second book?  Yes because my mother piqued my interest on the back ground of Christian Grey and indicated the second book discloses some of it.  Stay tuned for my review of it.