Fifty Shades of Grey - E L James ★★★

I think for my first book review, Fifty Shades of Grey seems appropriate. Why? Because it is the most recent book I have finished and it is also still listed as #1 on Amazons 100 best sellers list for Kindle (its probably listed as number 1 somewhere else too, but these days, I mostly go by Kindle).

My first thought is that Fifty Shades of Grey is like a rougher version of Pretty Woman; like Phil (Jason Alexander) smacked Vivian (Julia Roberts) before jumping on top of her.  While reading it, I was just waiting for their to be a "piano" scene and sure enough, there was! Now, I'm referring to the second time Christian was playing - at the end of the book, when Anastasia walks out in the robe and eventually he lifts her onto his lap.

Although Anastasia isn't a prostitute, she sure did get a lot of free stuff...expensive stuff (car, laptop, blackberry) and also a closet full of clothes just because Christian likes her to dress a certain way. It was no Vivian shopping on Rodeo drive or anything...eh...semantics. She does admit to herself and to Christian that all the "gifts" make her feel a little whorish.

I do have to admit, I was pretty hooked. I think I read the entire book within 15 or so hours. I was always wanting to see what would happen next. Would she give in and sign the contract? [Sidebar: E L James dragged that out a little longer than it needed to be. Like it was mentioned at least twice during every chapter] Would she let her common sense win or would she let a intelligent, rich, gorgeous man win? Obviously, she did what ANY girl would do.

I'd probably do the same thing...experiment with Christian because he's "oh so dreamy!" even though I thought he was a dick at first. It took a long while til I warmed up to Christian and then the more you learn about him and his troubled youth, the more understandable it was (not fully acceptable, but understandable). He was controlling and had a dark side. However, that's probably what ever girl wants at one point or another (even if its only for a day), so now its understandable why I've seen status updates, pinterest photos, tweets about "I need to find my Christian Grey."

I'll still give Fifty Shades 3 ★'s. It held my attention, was titillating (pun intended) and at times made me feel rebellious for reading something so...out of my normal element. Like the excitement of doing something you know you shouldn't be doing, but you do it anyway.