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.
