E. L. James - Fifty Shades of Grey

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. This book is intended for mature audiences. 

Book 1 of the Fifty Shades trilogy

Sparrowgal's rating - 8.5/10

Sparrowgal's thoughts - Spoiler alert!

Everyone was talking about this book, about how it's porn and really shocking.  I was curious - I thought perhaps it was just erotic fiction.  So I had to go and read it to see what all the fuss was about.

However, once I finished reading the book, this book is actually a romance novel, and the sex scenes in it, are explicit.  However, there are a lot of sex scenes, and they do get a bit repetitive after a while, but for those people who don't usually read steamy romance novels, then this may come as a bit of a shock to them.

Ana is a University student, attracted to the brooding, controlling and wickedly handsome Christian Grey.  He is obsessed with her and wants her, but will not do so unless she willingly accepts his terms.  As a virgin, she is uninitiated and he does not realise that until they start a relationship, and then initiates her with "vanilla" sex before he starts to go into the more fetish dominatrix type sex.

A lot of people were shocked and embarrassed, and also probably intrigued by the sex, I imagine.  However, I do like that the sex seemed to reflect the psychological state of his mind, where control seemed to be a turn on for him.

I think that it was a clever play by the writer, having the first book in the series be so sensational and secret to draw in all the readers.  From what I hear, the subsequent two in the series have nowhere near as much "porn" in it.

Christian's "room" which is full of restraining devices is the shock factor that wow'd audiences I think.  But if you look carefully at all the sexual interactions between them, none of it is particularly harmful.  Spanking, whipping - none of it draws blood and the sensation is supposed to enhance the sexual experience for both of them.

Ana at the end can't take any more of the fetish, instead, withdrawing from Christian, yet you can see the romance of the story is the same as most - the attractive powerful man, hurt in his past, falls in love with the sweet refreshing innocent who changes his life and his soul, as she tries to soothe his hurts with her love.  I would recommend it as a good romance to read, and the sex scenes in it as well are exciting as well as believable.

Amanda Quick - Second Sight

Financially straitened and on the path to spinsterhood, Venetia Milton thought her stay at the remote, ramshackle Arcane House would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to engineer her own ravishment. She was there to photograph the artifacts collected by a highly secretive organization, founded two centuries earlier by an alchemist. And the alchemist's descendant-her employer, Gabriel Jones-has the eyes of a sorcerer.

But despite Venetia's intent to seduce Mr. Jones and move on, she is shattered upon her return home to read in the press of his violent demise. Using the sizable fee Mr. Jones paid her, Venetia establishes a new life, opening a gallery in London. Of course, posing as a respectable widow makes it easier to do business, so-in a private tribute to her lost, only lover-she assumes the identity of "Mrs. Jones."

Her romantic whim, however, will cause unexpected trouble. For one thing, Mr. Jones is about to stride, living and breathing, back into Venetia's life. And the two share more than a passionate memory-indeed, they are bonded by a highly unusual sort of vision, one that goes far beyond Venetia's abilities as a photographer. They also share a terrible threat-for someone has stolen a centuries-old notebook from Arcane House that contains a formula believed to enhance psychic powers of the kind Gabriel and Venetia possess. And the thief wants to know more-even if he must kill the keeper of the Arcane Society's treasures, or the photographer who catalogued them, to obtain such knowledge.

Book 1 of the Arcane Society Series

Sparrowgal's rating - 7.5/10

Sparrowgal's thoughts - Spoiler alert!

Having read a few of the Arcane Society novels before reading the first one, I had an idea of the whole history of the Arcane Society already, which helped I think.  Venetia has what appears at first to be a mild aura talent, but it turns out to be much stronger than in initially is shown.  Gabriel is the first Hunter talent that I had come across in the series as a main character, that comes with all the primal hunting and killing instincts.  It might because of this Victorian era, that Gabriel is a bit ashamed of his talent, and Venetia is reluctant to share her talents as well.  However, Venetia is a strong, independent female, quite forward thinking for that era (as a lot of Amanda quick heroines are) and the idea that she would willingly subject herself for a night of passion with a stranger seems so impossibly bold in that era, but she did have a lot on her plate.  Venetia is not only the breadwinner and head of her family, but she also is a working professional photographer.

Their night of passion ends as intruders come to the Arcane society home, and Venetia is whisked away, only to find that Gabriel dies from a fire that night.  Heartbroken, she assumes the title of a widow, pretending to be HIS widow, when in fact he had faked his own death so as to be able to pursue this matter with thieves and intruders more freely.  When he finds out she has been masquerading as his widow, he turns up as her long lost husband, offering protection and hoping to make her his REAL wife.

The mysterious journal of Sylvester Jones is unearthed and people are trying to steal the book and its secrets.  Venetia, having been asked to come and photograph the relics of the Arcane Society, gets targetted.  The love scenes in this book are pleasant, not sizzling, and her aloofness from him is amusing, but the laying down of the history of the series is what really made me enjoy this book.  There are a few villains in this story - one is a hypnotist who is masquerading as the mistress of an old man, and another is someone masquerading as the old man, another strong hunter talent persona (the first of the Stilwell family line whose descendants recur in the series).  Both of these villains actually took Sylvester's formula and were slowly dying form the poison, however they both had very enhanced powers, as the formula claimed to do.

A great starter novel in the series, and a great couple with a very believable romance.