Book Review: Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James

Fifty Shades of Grey comes with an excellent story line: Literary student Anastasia Steele is sent to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey for the college newspaper. They are instantly attracted to one another and Ana longs for more, but when she finds out about Grey's appetite for dominance, she's suddenly whisked into the world of BDSM. Grey hounds her into joining his world; Ana has doubts and too many fears of what may be expected. The contract she is given doesn't help to alleviate her concerns. The two of them begin their sexual relations and Christian Grey shows Ana what it would be like to become his submissive.

As a writer and fan of erotica, I was excited to pick up this book and see what all the hype was about. It sounded like a great story, but from the first page, I was a bit disappointed. First of all, I should say I'm not into books written from a first-person perspective, but this one was. I decided to keep with it -- after all, Fifty Shades is a huge bestseller so it couldn't be that bad, right?

It wasn't a bad read, but it made me wonder about her editor. For instance, the characters didn't "say" anything. They whispered frequently and murmured a lot. My favorite memorable line of the book was, "I rolled my eyes at myself". Hmmm....

The relationship between the main characters was great, but again I was disappointed at the lack of BDSM play which I expected after hearing the reviews. The book is 514 pages long and there are only two scenes involving bondage or any type of kinky sex. They spend a great deal of time (and many pages) dealing with the contract but in the end, nothing really happens with it in this first book. Quite a bit of time is also spent with Ana and Grey exchanging emails -- way too many emails in my opinion. I wanted more interaction between the two.

The sex wasn't bad, but not as frequent as it could have been for an erotic novel. It was a very long read. I found myself reading one chapter, putting the book down, and then picking it up days later -- and then forgetting what the previous chapter was about.

A bestseller? I'm still wondering how. There are far better erotic or bdsm novels out there; however, Fifty Shades of Grey wasn't horrible. It kept me company on those lonely nights when I had nothing better to do and this may be the right book for some women (or men). Kudos to you. As for me, I doubt I'll be spending money on the second book in the series.