Fifty Shades of Grey

Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James
Mini rant first and then the review: as much hype and press as this book has gotten I found the widely acclaimed erotic bits disappointing and not terribly interesting; the author uses British syntax when her characters are American which can be a little awkward to read; the author willingly admitted to starting the books as fan fiction after reading Twilight which is upsetting because I passionately hate Twilight. As much as I hate the Twilight series (they are horrible examples for tweens, poorly written, and the characters are simply annoying) Fifty Shades of Grey despite being inspired by the novels completely surpasses them in writing and character depth. This book is everything Twilight could have been.

Fifty Shades of Grey is set in Portland and Seattle where an innocent college student, Anastasia Steele, fatefully interviews the wealthy entrepreneur Christian Grey who offers her the chance to be his Submissive in a BDSM relationship. Ana surprisingly agrees, but manages to convince Christian to enter into a more traditional romance along with trying out the BDSM lifestyle. Unfortunately Ana's attempt to understand Christian's darkness backfires epically.

As unlikely as it is for a person to be offered the position of Submissive to a multi-billionaire Adonis, the overall message is universally applicable; relationships take work on both sides and some times they don't work no matter how good the sex. Although the sex scenes were fairly tame (in my opinion) and a little unconventional, the relationship and character dynamics make this a very good read.