E L James
Copyright 2011
Okay, so, wow! Erotica goes mainstream. I blew through these books (no pun intended), so it just made more sense to write about them in a single entry.
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| The female protagonist is another Bella | Swan. |
Deemed "The Twilight for married women," this book lived up to the hype: It was poorly written, with insipid characters, but you just couldn't put the book down. I blushed and greedily wanted more. Maybe I was just desensitized as I read, but the first book seemed more sexually graphic than the others. It definitely put those "throbbing member" Harlequin books to shame.
The series revolves around the tempestuous love story of Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele (gag me with a spoon). Grey is a dashing, young, business mogul with a kinky side and a hellish past. Steele is a beautiful, naive, recent college grad who is able to resist the charms of all the men she meets until she meets Grey. And of course she is a virgin a waiting her deflowering. Trite, you say? I agree. To spice it up, Grey includes sex scenes on every other page.
Why James went the way she did on the second novel, I don't know. She tried too hard to inject romance and suspense into the tale. But here's the kicker: I STILL COULDN'T STOP READING.
But by the time I got to the end of the third book, I was done. I think it was the last chapter that ruined the series for me. She spends three books trying to get the reader to empathize with Grey, and undoes it in a single chapter by offering the reader Grey's interior monologue from his first meeting with Anastasia Steele.
From my husband's viewpoint, this was definitely worth the read (for me) as he reaped the rewards.
*** Up Next: We, Too, Are Americans by Megan Taylor Shockley***
