Fifty Shades of What??

I read the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy by E.L. James the summer before my freshmen year of college. Needless to say I was not prepared for results, I'm not really sure why I decided to read the trilogy I know it was about six months before frenzy of Fifty truly hit. To be honest I had heard brief whispers about the book and decided to check it out....without looking into the plot. I had never read any racy books and definitely no erotica so when I got to my first sex seen I was, well shocked and kind of grossed out. When I reached that point I flipped my book over and decided to read the synopsis on the back. After I finished the first book it took me about a month to read the last two but I did like the second and third book way better than the first. 

When I talk to other people about the books who haven't read them before I always tell them the first book sets the second two up. And that the second and third books have more plot development and are way more engaging. But yeah they all have a lot of sex in them. I can get past all the sex, since reading the trilogy I have read many books that have sex scene's in them and I have experienced more than when I first read Fifty so I moved past that part of the trilogy. The real problem I have is Ana is a weenie! I have a huge problem with wimpy and passive female characters. Call it the feminist in me but seriously this isn't the 1800s women can be their own people and stand up for themselves. I understand that Christian has many psychological demons and the two don't have a true BDSM relationship and that and that Ana loves him enough to want to help him and try new things in the bedroom but come on! She puts up with way too much!

There's no way I would put up with his relationship with Mrs. Robinson (aka Elena Lincoln) I mean that's a thousand times messed up! I am all for being courteous of  significant other but being good friends and business partners with your ex that taught you all about kinky sex, who is also twice your age and is your moms friend is just not okay. I know that's kind of hypocritical because I'm also against someone telling you who you can and can't be friends with but I don't think I could ever be okay with that friendship, for a lot of different reasons. The biggest problem I have is that Christian believes Ana is his property and she should obey his every wish. He doesn't want her to work, she shouldn't sun tan on the beach topless, he blamed her for her accidental pregnancy and he doesn't give on many of his wishes. After reading the full trilogy I believe as they went on in life these problems got better because Ana kept pushing the bounds but I think that would be maddening, never knowing a person's reaction. Always questioning if you stepped over the "arbitrary line" would get annoying pretty quickly.

If I ever re-read the books I choose to look past all the things I hate and focus on the good things. Like Christian loves Ana so much he's willing to really fix himself so they can be happy together. Or that Ana is willing to help Christian fight his demons, knowing that it will be a lot of work (but most relationships are a lot of work). I also like to keep in mind that Ana throws her drink in Elena's face in the end of the second book and that Teddy is adorable in the epilogue and if Ana had a significant role in Christian's change so did that little boy. 

At the end of Fifty Shades of Freed there's a chapter or two from Fifty Shades of Grey from Christian's point of view and I really hope E.L. James comes through on that! I would love to read the books from Christian's point of view and I think all of her readers would it would help everyone understand Christian's and Ana's relationship a whole lot better.

A.B.