{Review} Fifty Shades Trilogy by E.L. James

Fifty Shades of Grey

by E.L. James

Pages: 385

Read: December 2013

Amazon - Box Set

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.

Fifty Shades Darker

Pages: 532

Daunted by the singular 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.

Fifty Shades Freed
Pages: 579

When unworldly student Anastasia Steele first encountered the driven and dazzling young entrepreneur Christian Grey it sparked a sensual affair that changed both of their lives irrevocably. Shocked, intrigued, and, ultimately, repelled by Christian’s singular erotic tastes, Ana demands a deeper commitment. Determined to keep her, Christian agrees.

Now, Ana and Christian have it all—love, passion, intimacy, wealth, and a world of possibilities for their future. But Ana knows that loving her Fifty Shades will not be easy, and that being together will pose challenges that neither of them would anticipate. Ana must somehow learn to share Christian’s opulent lifestyle without sacrificing her own identity. And Christian must overcome his compulsion to control as he wrestles with the demons of a tormented past.

Just when it seems that their strength together will eclipse any obstacle, misfortune, malice, and fate conspire to make Ana’s deepest fears turn to reality.

Overall Rating

Review

For the longest time I said I would never read this trilogy. However, I read a sample of the first book a few months ago and decided to give it a try. I attempted to find a copy I could borrow from friends because I refused to spend $30 on fan fiction of Twilight, but that didn't happen. So, last week I broke down and bought the Kindle box set when it was on sale for $8.

Unlike Bella in Twilight, Ana had a little bit of a personality. She had her own thoughts and didn't rely on Christian Grey for her happiness; however, she did find most of it with him. Like Bella, her thoughts revolved around Grey, usually the kink associated with him. Christian on the other hand was very domineering and overbearing. He has a f*cked up past and issues he needs to work through.

There were a number of things I enjoyed about this trilogy. I loved Ana's inner thought bubble. Her inner 'goddess' was adorable especially when she was hiding or pouting. The conversations between Ana and Mr. Grey were amusing and was the only thing that really kept me reading. I loved that I occasionally found myself blushing or looking forward to getting back to the book. 

I could give a laundry list of things I didn't like about this series, but I'll only list a few worth mentioning. First, the writing itself is elementary and devoid of varying sentence structure and, at times, proper paragraphs. I never felt that I was a stickler for proper, varied sentences/paragraphs, but this just ate at me while reading because it was the same thing over and over. Next, the words chosen in some instances lacked sense. For example, when Ana went to meet Mr. Grey's parents sans underwear the word choice changed from saying 'underwear' to 'culotte.' If you look up the definition, culotte means "women's flared trousers cut to look like a skirt" which is not at all underwear. Needless to say, the higher level diction didn't match the poor writing. Beyond the writing capabilities the author was clearly lacking, I often got annoyed with Ana and Grey. They solved most of their problems with one thing, which is never a good foundation for a relationship of any sort. After a while I got bored reading. It was always problem, frustration, sex, sex, good for a day, problem, frustration, sex, sex, good for a day, ect. 

Overall, this trilogy wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be, but it wasn't that fantastic either. At times I looked forward to reading it, other times I dreaded having to have a dictionary next to me to figure out what exactly the author was getting at. Is it worth reading? Sure. Would I buy it at full price? No. Wait for a sale or borrow the books.