Fifty Shades Freed Part Three Review & Trilogy Review

Book 3 opens with the couple of Christian & Anastasia honeymooning in Europe and leaving all their problems at home to fester unattended.

On the return home things return to how they were before with Anastasia questioning her decision and dealing with an increasingly overprotective and immovably blind Christian. As he refuses to not only open up to her about this past abut also the current ever increasing threat to their future.

To use a boxing analogy – just when they are appearing to crumble under the weight of the others heavy blows(demands for control vs. independence), along come a Blip of the 10^th round that has both retreating to tend to their respective open wounds and to come out battling with renewed vigour and ferocity.Christian’s past also choose to strike with a three-fold assault determined to tear all their Hopes, Dreams and Future asunder until reaching the earth altering climax.

The last of the books deals a lot with Control, Independence, Stunted Emotional Growth, Revenge and overcoming these issues and looking forward to a future that will be threatened if these issues remain unresolved

To use another analogy that I used in the last review the wind turbine test tunnel has hit Mach 1 in this book, as I was on your edge of my seat as the suspense is interwoven thought out the plot artfully. It’s by no means perfect and the climax is a bit rushed for my liking .But it did to allow the writer to tie up everything in a nice ribbon afterwards.

I noticed that the author eased up on the heavily described sex aspect and had lot of snapshots of sex without the whole shebang, in order to propel the story forward. I really like and appreciate that the author made this sacrifice (not that I am a prude I am all for Steamy Smut or Kinky Fuckery), But I have seen too many authors sacrifice Plot for Sex Scenes in the past such as Laurell K Hamilton, Keri Arthur & Charlaine Harris and have promptly fell out of favour on my reading list for this reason alone.

I finished the book highly satisfied and had read a majority of it in one sitting.

I’m giving the final book a 4 out 5 as I found it a great read

As I read the entire series in less than 14 hours I thought it was highly entertaining, quick read and I can over look many of its faults on repetitive language and disjointed scenes (this was formatting issue with my copy more than the book itself) for this reason.  The Fifty Shades Trilogy a far superior series of books in every way to Twilight Books which was like a dragged leg like a injured dog makes the faults of bad grammar, inconsistent writing, bad plotting and irritating angst characters, all unforgivably in my eyes when the story is dead boring and offers suspense but then doesn’t deliver.

For the trilogy as a whole it gets 3.75 stars out of 5 and I’ve order myself a paperback copy box-set on its release (Twilight didn’t even get a star and I certainly wont by the books EVER).

Fifty Shades Darker Part Two Review

The story begins where the last one has left off but offers a bit of insight into the enigmatic, Mr Grey’s past.This is the first sign you are dealing with more than the standard fanfic fodder.

Much like the second book of its inferior counterpart - The relationship between Grey and Steele is in tatters due to a betrayal.  But the 2 leads dwell on their feelings & their differences before coming to understand that what started as a brief interlude has developed into something unexpected.

It’s after this opening that the story diverges greatly & develops into a story of its own.  I tried to explain the second book without giving away to much plot away the only things I could think of as it’s a story of obsession and dealing with past wrongs. So the following issues of independence, trust, acceptance, submission and, most importantly, unconditional love is all in play. Despite the intensity and conflict the tone remains witty and playful and romantic.

Caught up in the whirlwind of conflicting emotions and her feelings for Christian, Anastasia acquiesces to Christian’s impromptu marriage proposal.

The introduction of several new characters from Christian’s past has Anastasia doubt both her feelings and his for her as she is caught up in this past, that she has not even begin to understand or work through the ramifications of Christian's  past are now directly affecting her happiness and threatening her life with Christian.

The book is heavy on the angst, inner monologue, intense war of battle wills, heavy on sex but light on BDSM .Reading this book was like being in a every steadying wind-turbine test tunnel as it is ramps up towards the final book. My only issue I had was some overly repetitive phase usage as far as physical reactions to things done or said.

If the first book was 2.5, this is most certainly a 3.5 start out of 5. I’m completely addicted

Fifty Shades of Grey Part One Review

Note before I start this . This is purely the opinion of myself and before I get bombarded by rotten fruit for my opinion of Twilight contained within. GO elsewhere especially if its the only book you've ever bothered to read.

First thing that caught my attention in the book shop was the gorgeous covers Random House Vintage Press really uses the most brilliant of images on all their books but other than that I didn't think much of the story line as its not my usual reading material. Then I found out that the  story started it life as a fan fiction for Twilight Trilogy (shudder…Don’t even ask what I think of these books as it isn’t pretty)…) called The Master of the Universe. 

This is not a good selling point for me as I despise the Twilight books and the two weeks it took me to read them was equivalent to fingernails on a chalkboard but I perservered in the hope they would get better, unfortunately they didn't. Anyway I digress.

I then read a excerpt from Random House website and  thought I would give it a go expecting that the excerpt was the best part of the book and I would hate it just as much as the books it is loosely based on but I want to see what the furore was about  and I read lots of Good and very bad fanfiction so I managed to download a soft copy for a quarter of the price.

So I  have read it  and reviewed and made comparison where I think are worthy of note.

 

When I first started reading I picked up on character attributes in some of the characters Anastasia Steele(was obviously Bella Swann), Katherine Kavanagh (Alice Cullen but she’s more like Rosalie ),  Jose (Jacob) , Elliot (Jasper). Here’s where the similarity ends.

WARNING? There is not a vampire in sight and certainly not a sparkly one. So if this is what you’re after skip it.

Christian Grey is a CEO, enigmatic, philanthropic, superior, demanding, abrupt and commanding. He is also quite mercurial.  Personally I find Christian is a much more complex character than Edward Cullen, as I was reading, I kept being reminded of Jonas Cord from Harold Robbins’s The Carpetbaggers.  As a bit of a control freak and tendency to be a soft Dominant-Submissive myself, I have this Love/ Hate Relationship with Jonas, so too are my feelings for Christian. Whilst Christian pursues Anastasia he does so within the boundaries of lawfully, Edward on the other hand is just creepy and illegal sneaking into watch a girl sleep.

Anastasia Steele is a newly graduated & hopeful Publishing Intern. Whilst Ana is innocent and pure she is worldly enough to see Christian’s flaws but also see’s something beyond these outwardly noticeable traits that other’s don’t. She will also stand her ground, poke fun and tease Christian mercilessly.

It’s a story of worldly innocence and hardened corruption and how they both can impact on the other the innocence become worldly and the corrupted are softened. I suppose the closest parallel I can make to the Book that people will understand, if you liked the movie The Secretary you will probably like this.

It also dispels some of the myths surrounding BSDM. Yes, there is quite a bit of sex in it but none if it over the top or overly graphic (well not by fan fiction standards, which sometimes is smut that Hustler magazine would consider blush-worthy). The BDSM so far is all fairly soft and light …bondage, blindfold, spanking without implements. Nothing that those in a sexual relations haven’t contemplated/experimented with unless you’re purely vanilla in your taste.

Whilst reading Twilight, I remembered contemplating taking a hatchet to all and sundry at one point, as the characters are very one dimensional and only seem to have the one emotion prevalent. The main characters in “Fifty Shades of Grey” are more fleshed out and multi layered. Frankly they are easier to relate to.

I even cried in one part, which I have only done in one other book, Jane Austen’s Persuasion.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, the story line wasn’t overly complicated and it is written by a defter hand  than the books that inspired its genesis.  The characters are interesting and the conversations seem flow well. Its written for adults and therefore the subject matter is more adult, even if the characters seem to get a bit angsty at times its adult not teenage angst.  I will probably visit this book again sometime in the future for another read. Whereas I will never put myself though Twilight ever again

I’m giving it a solid 2.5 rating out of 5.

Coming Soon Fifty Shades Darker Part 2 Review