Grey

Fifty Shades as Told by Christian, Book #1

By E.L. James

ISBN# 9781101946343

Author’s Website:  http://www.eljamesauthor.com/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

Christian Grey is successful, rich, and always in control.  He’s learned that if he offers enough money he can get whatever he wants.  He knew when the lovely Anastasia Steele fell into his office that she was too sweet and innocent for the monster that lives within him.  Unfortunately, he couldn’t stay away.

Anastasia wasn’t what Christian was expecting at all.  Their association didn’t take the path he had anticipated.  She’s a horrible submissive, but she brings such innocence and light into his life.  The more time he spends with her, the more free he feels.  She’s a soothing balm to his tortured black soul and he can’t imagine his life without her.

But then he goes too far and now could face a lifetime without her.

We’re all familiar with the Fifty Shades of Grey storyline, even if you haven’t read the book yourself.  This is that same story, but with a different perspective.  This is Fifty Shades of Grey told from Christian’s point of view, as the series name suggests.  Yes, I realize this Told by Christian series is just milking the money cow of a successful series to the very last drop.  But how many of us were begging for just that with the Twilight series?  I’m still mad Meyers never released Midnight Sun, the ‘leaked’ chapters were some of her best writing and I have issues feeling that she punished her fans for loving her writing enough to want to read it, but that is a whole other ball of wax that I don’t want to get into here!

So, back to this book, I was worried going into it that it would be too repetitive, especially considering that I’ve just recently read the original Fifty Shades trilogy.  It honestly didn’t end up bothering me as much as I thought it would.  I felt no rush or drive to keeping reading the book with any kind of urgency because I knew what was going to happen. It took away the page-turner aspect of the story. Although I did find Christian’s point of view interesting.  His almost childlike wonder with his first true relationship was kind of nice.  He was filled with so many insecurities that we never would have expected he was feeling when reading the original books.  We also got to see just how torn up he was after Ana left.  Yes, this is a reiteration of Fifty Shades of Grey, but I feel it’s a fresher look at it and honestly I liked Christian’s point of view much better than Ana’s.  I found her thoughts too whiny and obnoxious at times.

I’m now really looking forward to the next two books from Christian himself as he tries to win back the woman he loves (even if he hasn’t realized the L word just yet).  I think this book ended perfectly with these two sentences:

“I wake with a start.
Today, I win her back. ”