Fifty Shades of Grey: The #1 Sunday Times bestseller
£3.80
**A gorgeous special anniversary edition hardcover with a foreword from E L James.**
‘And in this quiet moment as I close my eyes, spent and sated, I think I’m in the eye of the storm. And in spite of all he’s said, and what he hasn’t said, I don’t think I have ever been so happy. . .’
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.
– An Instant Worldwide Bestseller
– More than 165 Million Copies Sold Worldwide
– The bestselling romance of all time
**This beautiful hardcover edition includes navy sprayed edges, navy matte cover with silver foil, silk ribbon bookmark, custom end sheets, and new additional content.**
This book is intended for mature audiences.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Cornerstone Digital, Film Tie-in edition (19 Mar. 2012) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 2947 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 505 pages |
by Mrs. S. K. Mann
This is not my normal cup of tea, but several of my fellow book bloggers and friends whom I share similar tastes in books read it and loved it. So I bowed to peer pressure and gave it a read. The first half of the book I wasn’t hooked, I kept reading but I hadn’t found any love for the characters. Not forgetting how poorly written it is, a good edit and removal of repeating phrases would have done this book wonders, but I stuck with it and I’m glad I did.
This book is definitely for the over 18’s, I certainly wouldn’t want a tweenage Twilight fan reading it. I knew this was originally written as Twillight fan fiction and was called Master of the Universe, thank God the name was changed. There are no vampires in this book however. I haven’t read the original, but I’m guessing that was removed. I didn’t compare it to Twilight so I think I enjoyed it more. Even though I loved Twilight I didn’t want the two getting blurred.
The story contains a lot of sex along with BDSM elements so isn’t going to be to everyone’s taste, I found Christian’s room of pain somewhat scary and if I had been Ana, I think I’d have legged but she stuck it out and actually seemed to enjoy bits of it.
Ana and Christian meet after Ana interviews him at his office, where he is a rich and successful businessman, for her college newspaper. There is something between them and Christian thinks she would make a good submissive for his sex games. Ana is only 21 and quite immature. I thought she was going to be a doormat, but I was wrong she held her ground against what she believed in.
Christian hasn’t had the best upbringing, he was abused by his parents, then he was adopted in the perfect family where he’s never felt good enough. Only to be abused by a family friend. So you can begin to understand why he feels the need to feel in control. However the stalker tendencies are a bit scary.
Just over half way through Christian broke through my barrier of I’m going to hate this book and won, now he’s forever etched in my brain and I could not put it down. Ana annoyed the life out of me with her talking to her inner goddess, constantly biting her lip and the fact she went from being a virgin who hadn’t even kissed a boy to being a sex goddess who gave up her virinity without a second thought for Christian. Their love blossomed, they changed each other and I routed for them. They brought out the best in each other.
I love the email exchanges they have between them, they talk more openly throughout them and it’s very sweet and flirty. There was a lot of tenderness between Ana and Christian and I loved watchiing their relationship grow and blossom. The latter part of the book I was hooked and couldn’t put it down. Plus, I heard they are considering Ian Somerhalder to play Christian in the film version, my guilt pleasure.
I would recommend Fifty Shades of Grey as a light and easy read, yes there are bits when you will blush, but it’s not too bad and the love story in there is a very sweet one. I can guarantee you will be routing for them just like I am right until the end. If you can oversee the bad writing and repeated phrases, the book really is so compelling I couldn’t put it down. And on to the second book which I’m told is a lot better.
by Saunders
It took me a while to decide whether I would read this book particularly after reading some of the reviews in Amazon Uk and Amazon US.
I had a pre-conceived idea what I would think of this book and was almost agreeing with it around 3% into it. Banal came to mind and I thought “this is not going to work for me”.
I love strong alpha males and I love strong books with BDSM themes especially books written by Kitty Thomas and Michelle Zurlo – so I knew what I wanted and what I was hoping to expect from this story. This is not what I got.
So was it pornographic? – nope it definitely was not pornographic.
Erotic – yes it was a piece of fiction intended to arouse the reader. The sex scenes were explicit, frequent and intense.
BDSM – yes to a degree but a more “vanilla” version of a BDSM theme.
E L James tells this story in the first person perspective. It is about a naive (sexually inexperienced) 21 year old college student who is thrown into the presence of Christian Gray, a very experienced and sexually active (dominant) 27 year old. He makes it clear what he wants – her sexual submission and what he will do to Anastasia to obtain this.
Despite my first negative thoughts I began to warm to this story and I did end up liking it. You have to bear in mind that this is a story about a young woman’s journey into her fist sexual experience. Yes the number of times the protagonist said “Holy Crap” was noted but is this not what a young girl would subconsciously say? – remember she wasn’t wordly experienced AND Christian Gray was only 27 so I don’t think the book would have worked if they sounded like “grown-ups”.
What did appeal to me was the way EL James brought into their relationship Anastasia’s eventual rejection of submiting to Christian, her lack of understanding of the role. i.e the consensual use of restraint, intense sensory stimulation and the power play expected in this type of relationship. She just loved Christian and wanted to be loved by him in return.
Some critics have described the world of Anastasia Steele and Christian Gray as “believable as a fairy tale” and “has been selling faster than condoms on a spring break”! Harsh- but everyone is entitled to their opinion. It has also been said that there is better written and less ridiculous erotica or even “mommy porn” out there – well maybe there is but I dont think this story falls into any of these categories and I certainly would not compare it to the Twilight story – they are very different genre’s.
So I would not let negativity surrounding 50 shades of Gray put you off reading it – try it for yourself and form your own opinion and I think you will be pleasantly surprised. I was and I look forward to finding out how the “romance” between Anastasia and Christian finally concludes.