Fifty Shades Darker (Fifty Shades of Grey #2) by EL James

***WARNING!!! THIS BOOK CONTAINS MATURE ADULT CONTENT NOT MEANT FOR YOUNGER AUDIENCES!!***

The Fifty Shades Trilogy by EL James has had many people on their toes over the past few months.  Why?

Honestly, I guess there are quite a few answers that could be given, but overall, I keep asking myself the same thing...WHY??

Just like with Fifty Shades of Grey I'm still not sure what to think of this series. The thing is, is some ways I somehow understand why women are loving this series.  But then at the same time I can't help but feel disgusted!

Women want to be taken seriously.  They want their independence, they want to have the same, and equal rights as men, but at the same time they want to feel loved, protected, and taken care of by their loved one.  I get it. I do. I know I want that one day.  

But there is just so much WRONG with Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey's relationship.

Before I go into these wrongs (and please take into consideration this is COMPLETELY my opinon!!), here's the book description from Goodreads:

Daunted by the singular sexual tastes and dark secrets of the beautiful, tormented young entrepreneur Christian Grey, Anastasia Steele has broken off their relationship to start a new career with a Seattle publishing house.

But desire for Christian still dominates her every waking thought, and when he proposes a new arrangement, Anastasia cannot resist. They rekindle their searing sensual affair, and Anastasia learns more about the harrowing past of her damaged, driven and demanding Fifty Shades.

While Christian wrestles with his inner demons, Anastasia must confront the anger and envy of the women who came before her, and make the most important decision of her life.

My thoughts:

Well, where to begin...

I guess I'll start with my issues...

As much as I want to believe there is such a thing as Love at First Sight, over the past few years, I've had the revelation that even if a person you meet may become your future lover/husband/partner, there is a LOT that goes into a relationship before anyone can determine if they are actually IN love with that person.  It's not something that you can decide within the first five minutes.  Heck, it isn't even something you can technically, normally, find out in the first few MONTHS! 

I mean, of course there are exceptions, like with anything else.

But everything that Anastasia learns about Christian, doesn't truly have her thinking things through completely.  She somehow always gets distracted, by the handsome, intriguing Christian Grey...usually with hot steamy sex.  And while, I do admit Christian has changed since getting closer with Ana, I do also at the same time believe that more time is needed.

Someone doesn't just change over night.  It takes time, that's normal! But Ana and Christian have barely known each other a little over a month, and already they're living together, and now ***SPOILER*** proposing marriage! 

I mean, I've heard of shot gun weddings, you know the ones, where the couple have only been together for a month or two and decide they are perfect for each other.  And while I'm sure plenty of these marriages have lasted, I on-the-other-hand HIGHLY doubt they had HALF of the baggage that Grey carries with him from his past!  

This guy has some serious issues! Like, I had no idea half of things even existed!! I know that sounds weird, but man! How does a guy turn out to be like that?

That's the question that has had me intrigued.  

And that's why I've been somewhat enthralled with this series.  

How does someone do the things, that Christian Grey does, and think there is nothing wrong with it?

Like with anything else, there's GOT to be a reason!

And overall, that's what Fifty Shades Darker is really about!  That more in-depth analysis of Mr. Grey, the man that hundreds of thousands of women have "fallen in love with".  

I was actually planning on leaving this until after I read the third and final book in the series, but I think now works as well, because I HIGHLY doubt my opinion will change on this...

So, as some of you may know, this past weekend was Comic-Con, here in Beautiful Southern California.  I was unable to go yet again, this year, as much as I wish I could have, it's definitely on my Bucket-List, and with events such as the LAST Twilight Cast get together at Comic-Con, and MANY MANY authors there, such as the fabulous Marissa Meyer (Cinder) it's an awesome event!

This years author panel included none other than Mrs. EL James, herself.  I didn't know this, but on Saturday I just happened to run across an article that caught attention.  It was titled, "'Fifty Shades' fans meet series author".  Of course, because I've been reading the series, I was intrigued. 

But what I never expected was to read one of the biggest shockers of my Book life (yes, I said "Book" life)...here's a direct quote from the article from a 29 year old fan who waited 12 hours to meet Mrs. James...

" "The relationship that's in the book is something that I've always wanted and haven't gotten in previous relationships, so it kind of gave me that hope that there's something still out there," she said as she wiped away tears after meeting James Thursday at the pop-culture convention.  "It brought me back to life, so to speak." "

Yeah, is it just me, is there something SERIOUSLY wrong with that sentence???

The relationship, that she's somehow "always wanted"??  ARE YOU SERIOUS??!! I really want to shake this girl, and smack her (lightly) across the face! 

Seriously??!! 

You want to be beaten?

You want someone to hold control over you??

You want someone who has all this pain and baggage from their past???

I mean I get, we all come with baggage.  And somehow, I guess I can see why Anastasia falls for Grey.  She's intrigued, just like all these other women.  But with a man like Grey, you'd expect her to take a little more than just a month to agree to marry him.  I mean, for heaven's sake, they barely know each other!!

Now, I will admit this...like I said above, the series is intriguing.  It's got some extremely sweet moments, that I can probably tell make a lot of women forget about all the horrible things he did to Ana at the beginning...but coming from someone whose had friends that were affected by abusive relationships, I somehow can't tolerate how fast Ana overlooked his "indiscretions".

I was actually to someone yesterday, about this series, and she pretty much summed up why I continue to find myself ordering these books from Barnes and Noble..."Addicting".  

After my last review, I was told by a fellow blogger, why this series has been compared to Twilight (to make a long story short, El James originally wrote Fifty Shades as a Twilight fan-fiction), and after hearing this news, I started noticing a lot of similarities.  

However, nothing can stop me from loving Twilight, I honestly, don't believe that Christian/Ana and Edward/Bella's relationships can be compared.  I mean, there are some small similarities, especially between Bella and Ana, but Christian and Edward don't really have all that much in common, except that they were both adopted.

Overall Rating:

So before I continue to go on and on about this series, I believe I will stop now, and when the times comes and I have finished reading Fifty Shades Freed (#3 in the Trilogy), then I will continue this discussion.

Thanks everyone!!

The Romance Bookie :)