(Review) Reading Something I Never Thought I Would….

Titles: Fifty Shades of Grey (Book 1), Fifty Shades Darker (book 2) and Fifty Shades Freed (book 3)
Author E.L James
Pub Date: April 2012
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Pages: 528, 544 and 592

Source: Bought the books

I decided not to put the book description in on the above books only because you probably all know about the books by now that has taken the world by storm and I decided to put the reviews into one post.

When I first heard about these books I knew this wouldn’t be something I wanted to read because honestly this isn’t my genre of interest and something that didn’t really appeal to me well let me tell you that quickly changed because Rachel from ParaJunkee was doing a read along for the first book and I was laughing at her recap of the book and by the time Rachel got to chapter 16 (I believe) I was hooked and had to pick up the first book.

I have to say that I basically breezed through the first book and I admit that I read it over a two day span and it was so funny because I have a leather jacket for books and I put it on that one because I didn’t want anyone to know I was reading it and I was home reading it LOL

I was totally sucked into the book and the storyline. I didn’t like Christian at first because for me his voice was that of a much older person and he didn’t seem like a real believable character especially when its told he was 28 so that put me off of him for a bit. Although gradually I began to over look him and started to like him.

As for Ana, I liked her and honestly you could see that she was more then determined to try and change him. You could also see how she could easily get sucked into that world Christina loves. She never gave up on him and was determined to find out the secrets of his past.

Has this ever happened to anyone (and I don’t mean specifically these books) where you read the first book in the series and the next thing you are wanting the next book? Its like going through withdrawals. You literally need the next book NOW!!!! That is what happened to me. After reading the first book I was literally needing a fix and contemplating how I could get in and out of Costco quickly on the weekend. You all know how busy Costco is on the weekend.

So I wanted until Monday and let me tell you after dropping Michael off at school I literally rushed to the bank and Tims (to get a coffee) and wait until Costco opened so I could grab book two and I wasn’t going to pick up the third book because I was told its not as good but I didn’t want to be going through this all again so I picked it up.

The second book was just like the first one and I admit I read it in one day. I literally started it when I got home and finished just a few minutes before I had to get Michael from the bus stop. It sucked me and I needed to know what was going on. As the books are progressing I admit that I like Christian more and more and I could totally see how Ana would get sucked in.

That night I had started the third book and OMG I was forcing myself to read it. I really think that the author could have wrapped the whole story line into two books. I didn’t enjoy it and the storyline was getting to me. Could it have been an overload? I don’t know what it was but I ended up abandoning it and started to read other things instead.

Well fast forward to BEA in June and hearing about the book Fifty Shades of Early Grey which is a parady of the series. Yes I admit I stood in line to get a signed copy of it. It was so funny standing in line because everyone who walked by knew what line you were in and I have to say that I wasn’t the only one standing in line for this book there was a huge line up.

Meeting the author of Fifty Shades of Earl Grey was so fun and he asked if I had read the books and I told him I read the first two and was having a hard time finishing the third well he told me I had to finish it to make sense of his book so I came home and read the third book and I have to say it wasn’t my favorite and felt like I was forcing myself to read it.

Would I have read these books had I not read ParaJunkee’s read along ? Probably not because like I said this isn’t my genre of interest and had no interest in reading them. Would I recommend this series? Hmm probably not unless I knew the person liked this genre of books.

I do have to say that I have friends who read the books and loved them and are now reading other books in this genre. But for me I can’t see me buying other books like this.

Have you read them? What do you think of them?