While I was in Sewanee this summer, one of my classmates (who shall remain unnamed) mentioned a book that had swept readers off their feet. The title of this sensational book is Fifty Shades of Grey, which it turns out (much to my dismay) is one of three books in the Fifty Shades Trilogy. When I bought the first book, I had no clue that it was part of a trilogy. I probably wouldn't have started reading it in the first place, had I known. I read the Hunger Games trilogy this past spring, and the Twilight series before that...and the Harry Potter books before that. I'm not big on trilogies or series.
It wasn't until I had begun to read Fifty Shades of Grey that I figured it out. Great, now I have to buy two more books. So, naturally, I went ahead and bought the other two. One of my biggest pet peeves (for myself) is starting a trilogy (or series) and not finishing it. I was stuck. I had to read all of them. So, I did just that...in 4 days.
The first book was shocking, to say the least. I mean, I've read romance books before, but jeez. E.L. James takes erotic romance to a whole new level, at least for "vanilla" readers like me. I also have to say that I was a bit disgusted when I read Christian Grey's dirty secret, but because I vowed to read it all, I trudged on. After reading through the third book (almost 2,000 pages later), I breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't bad. The kinky sex wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, and the plot wasn't entirely ridiculous. For romance, I'd have to say that I enjoyed the read(s). There are enough sex scenes in the span of these three books to make most readers exhausted by the time they reach the end of the trilogy. I'm still deciding whether that is a good thing or a bad thing.
For those (average readers) thinking about diving into this trilogy, get ready! It was quite the experience.
