When unworldly student Ana Steele first encountered the driven, damaged young entrepreneur Christian Grey, it sparked a sensual affair that changed both their lives irrevocably. Shocked, intrigued, and ultimately repelled by Christian’s singular sexual tastes, Ana demanded a deeper commitment; determined to keep her, Christian agreed. Now, together, they have more-love, passion, intimacy, wealth, and a world of infinite possibilities. But Ana always knew that loving her Fifty Shades would not be easy and being together poses challenges neither of them ever anticipated. Ana must somehow learn to share Christian’s opulent lifestyle without sacrificing her own integrity, identity, or independence; Christian must somehow overcome his compulsion to control and lay to rest the horrors that blighted his past and haunt his present. Just when it seems that together their love can conquer any obstacle, tragedy, malice and fate combine to make Ana’s worst nightmares come true.

Okay, don’t hurt me, I know there are a lot of Christian Grey fans out there, unfortunately I am just not one of them.

This is the third and final installment of the Fifty Shades trilogy, Ana and Christian are now married and are set to live a long and happy life, or are they? With some body out there threatening them and Christian’s own fucked up past, wedded bliss maybe but a dream.

Although I am not the biggest fan of the other books, I did find them strangely addicting and was quite looking forward to Fifty Shades Freed but I am very disappointed. I expected so much more. For me the book went like this:

Ana: I am going out for some milk Christian! See you in 5!
Christian: NO, STAY! MINE! Why are you abandoning me for milk, I KNEW I was unworthy of love. STAY!
Ana: It is not that I am abandoning you for milk, we have just run out, you know I love you *gives soulful look*
Christian: MINE STAY! It is dangerous..*looks away*…What would I do without you? *looks vulnerable*
Ana: My poor Fifty! Oh Mr. Grey, you know I would never leave you…this is about your birth mother isn’t it? She never got you milk.
Christian: It is simply too dangerous you are MINE MINE MINE! Now Mrs Grey come here, I want to use sex to avoid talking about our problems Mrs Grey.
Ana: Oh okay…you know I would never refuse you Mr Grey.

The next morning…

Ana: *looks down at her cereal* I knew I should have gotten some milk.

Rinse and repeat

~~~~~~~

I found the whole thing repeatative, and Ana and Christian continued to irritate me more and more as I read the book, she would do something any normal girl would do; he would go psycho about it; she would cave; they have sex; he gets his way. It drove me nuts.

 

My Gemstone Rating:

Daunted by the singular sexual 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 her anger and envy of the women who came before her and make the most important decision of her life. Erotic, sparkling and suspenseful, Fifty Shades Darker is the irresistibly addictive second part of the Fifty Shades trilogy

The story of the two main characters getting to know each other and the revelation of Christian’s past is absorbing. I enjoyed the banter between Ana and Christian, especially in their emails. Very clever. I also enjoyed the humor and found their interactions and their struggles to learn their boundaries in a new relationship to be very real.

However, the explicit sex ending in Ana’s multiple orgasms every few pages gets old quickly. I realize they are a new couple but the entire book is fight, make-up sex, bonding time, more sex, Ana over-thinking the relationship, another fight, make-up sex…etc. I wasn’t sure whether this was meant to be a romance or porn made for women. I ended up skimming through the sex scenes and that quite literally cut the book in half.

Someone previously mentioned the book’s similarities to Twilight, and I noticed it too. You have a protagonist who is drop-dead gorgeous yet oblivious to the fact even though every man she ever meets wants her. She’s never had any feelings for anyone except this man she meets in a chance encounter and he’s never felt this way about anyone either. Added to this, she doesn’t find herself worthy to be loved by this man and holds back on committing herself to the relationship because she can’t be enough while at the same time opening herself completely on an emotional and physical level.

Ironically, a recurrent theme of the book is how damaged Christian is because of his self-loathing and his inability to believe that he can be loved by anyone, yet Ana has those same doubts about herself and is supposedly his model for “normal” and is the one “bringing him into the light.”

I was interested enough in the characters to want to know what happens to them, but far too often, I found myself pulling away from the story, thinking, “and then they had sex…blah blah blah”

My Gemstone Rating:

 

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.

I’ve read a lot of reviews for this book/series. And I’ve come to the conclusion that most folks are either going to *love* the 50 Shades series, or they’re going to loathe it. Having read my fair share of fanfiction, while also getting my degree in English lit, I’ve seen both sides of the writing coin and have to say that this book has the makings of a *great* novel, with a great romantic pair akin to Romeo and his Juliet, and Catherine to her Heathcliff… the *makings*. This was a hastily released book/series. It was as if the author had the first draft leaked and just left it like that. Marks of greatness are there in the fatal flaws of Christian, the supreme innocence of Ana, hints at delicious complexities and satisfying resolution. However, more than just Christian has fatal flaws, sadly.

The amount of repetition is almost embarrassing. And I’m not just talking about the sheer overload of sexual encounters described in this book, of which there are far too many (can there be too many you ask? YES!), but also of the turns of phrase that are beaten into the text until they’re nothing but a bloody pulp. “Fair point well made”, and “don’t bite your lip” come to mind. Trimming these items down so that they aren’t showing up every two or three pages, but often enough to create a rapport between the two main characters, would make this book a 4 or 5 star piece, easily.

And can I simply point out that no woman “comes” as easily nor as often as Anastasia? I think the ease at which she orgasms could be considered a medical *disorder* that should be checked out by a doctor. Make sure that poor girl doesn’t have some sort of very pleasurable cancer or something. It’s embarrassing.

Like I said though, these are hiccups that could have been smoothed out with further revision. Sadly, that was not done, and we have what we have. It’s rough, but for those of us with an imagination, we can see where the book could go, and create satisfying corrections for ourselves to fill in the blanks. And for those without any imagination, well, just enjoy the sex scenes: there’s a lot of them.

My Gemstone Rating: