This Mommy that is a little crunchy is also a little into Mr. Grey.
The Fifty Shades Trilogy composed of book one: Fifty Shades of Grey, book two: Fifty Shades Darker, and book three: Fifty Shades Freed have been bouncing all around the mothering groups I am a part of. Just what was the buzz about. It was not loud per say, just little comments, mostly positive in a way that was not clear though. Small comments, like “yum” when the book is mentioned. Being the book and information addict that I am, I had to know what I was missing.
I didn’t know what I was getting into. I posted on my personal facebook wall Memorial Day weekend that I was diving into book one. More little shadowed comments followed from others who enjoyed it. Having not read any reviews or even a summery I didn’t know what to expect.
The story starts simply enough, two college friends soon graduating and all that comes with that time of life. The main character Anastasia is a geek, much like I picture myself, no sense of style. She is also a good friend. In the middle of helping her best friend she meets Mr. Grey, a man who has it all so it seems, all the money anyone could ask for, success, respect, great looks, and smarts. He also seems to be instantly drawn to the mumbling, clumsy girl Anastasia from the very start. The story goes on a common path boy wants girl, girl is blind to his attraction, boy makes it clear, and girl thinks herself unworthy.
50 pages in and I am interested in the story but not yet seeing why it is talked about so much. Then it dives right in to the “good stuff” with Mr Grey having his 50 shades in black and white before Ana. He wants to Dominate her in many ways, mostly sexual, and has no interest in real relationships. So this is his real character flaw, like Anastasia, he does not think himself worth of love. He does however know he can in ways, buy it. He would provide for her, taking care of her, and in exchange each weekend Ana was expected to stay with him and do as he pleased. He knew she was rather innocent and was excited to take her down his dark path.
There are some twists in turns in the story that I do not want to give away so I will leave the summery at just that. I found my face bright red reading the BDSM parts, and there are many. I honestly though am not just a mother and was not always a good girl, I have a past like most, so the book took me back to a different time in my life and memory lane was good to me this time actually. I could not believe however I had posted publicly that I was reading such a book. Having done so already it seemed wrong to take the post done so I embraced it, posting when I finished the book the next morning that I liked it, and that I was starting the next one even!
Book two had more the same, a lot of emotional work on the part of the characters. I found the fighting to be well written, again taking me back to different relationships and such issues. The adult content I found fitting and still nice, it grew a bit each scene and that was nice as well. While not what some would consider the true dom/sub life style it was written in ways I think to appeal to the masses and from all the chatter about the books, I think it has done just that. As I finished book 2 I was very vested in the relationships. I down loaded the next book through the Kindle app on the ipad like I had the first two.
Book three threw me off, lots of jumping around and flash backs and it seemed like adult content was thrown in just because…. it lost me. Maybe because I was reading for the story line more than anything else at that point. I admit I started to skim past a lot of the smut at that point. The story line is just that good in my opinion. I put the book down about half way and picked it up a few days later and a few pages in I found myself feeling lost and having to think back over what had actually happened thus far in the book, it seemed like not much had happened till that point. I think the books in my mind had started to blur together a bit. That issue is my own though, and not one with the book. The flash backs thankfully let up. They did however hit again near the end, and again it annoyed me. More smut thrown in seemingly getting in the way of the plot. This could however have been a point as Ana thought that rather than dealing with life that Mr. Grey would simply try to sex it away. It was infact distracted and not helpful. The twists and relationship turns sped me through the last half of the book this evening. I really love the trilogy, though I have to say how the last book was written bothered me a bit, not so much the plot though.
Do I think you should read it? That really depends on what kinds of books you like and what kind of bedroom life you enjoy. I do not like romance books but I did like this book, I don’t tend to read erotica but I think this book falls in there too. There is just something about it that makes it worth reading. There is a reason this book is being talked about, there is a reason so many are admitting to having read such a book while at the same time blushing. Maybe you will like it too!
