Fifty Shades of Grey ~ E. L. James

Fifty Shades of Grey is one of those word of mouth books everyone is suddenly talking about.  I just heard about it the other day and was curious.  The person I heard about it from was afraid it might be a little too hot for her to handle.  A couple others had the book but hadn't started it yet.  Someone else I asked said isn't that the kinky sex book?  So I read the description and thought why not.  I downloaded it to my Kindle and away I went. Now I  enjoy a good romance and  I've dabbled in the erotica genre. Though to be fair there isn't really a genre I haven't dabbled in at one time or another, with the exception of political science, which I just can't stand.  So back to the book.  It was...ok, with a potential to be slightly better.  This review will include some minor spoilers, but not anything that isn't already being discussed.  So reader beware.

The story is told from 21 year old Anastasia Steele's perspective.  This lovely, inexperienced, sheltered young woman meets gorgeous, young, dynamic billionaire Christian Grey.  Sparks fly and soon Ana realizes that she wants Grey.  Grey wants Ana but he has specific needs when it comes to sex.  The book spends some time trying to build up the mystery to reveal that Grey is a "Dominant" and only has relationships within certain parameters.  Those parameters are discussed at length throughout the book.  In fact more time is spent discussing the BDSM particulars than actually doing them.  So, the sex.  Yep, it's there.  Alot.  But, as I said, for all the build up, the characters don't really engage in anything except the most basic BDSM play  More sensational then substance.  That said I think a number of husbands and boyfriends will see a benefit from this book without ever having to turn a page.

This book is a very quick read partly because the writing is not great and partly it gets a little repetitive after awhile.  On the other hand, it sucked me in and I just keep going to see where was going to go.  I stayed up way too late reading it.  I finished it in two sittings.  Any book requires a suspension of disbelieve.  This one more than others.  It didn't hit me while I was reading until after I'd finished and stepped away from the story.  Both characters are pretty stereotypical and one dimensional.  Plus I found Ana's "responses" and extreme "natural aptitude" slightly unbelievable.  Not to mention the total and utter physical perfection that is Grey.  Now one aspect I really enjoyed was the emails flying back and forth between Ana and Grey.  Any character development that happened, happened in those emails and I thought it was an interesting technique.  I don't feel an overwhelming urge to run right out and get the next one, so I know I'm not an E.L James convert. 

On a side note my sister and I are both big "Friends" fans and one bit kept popping into my head after I finished this book and making me laugh.  It's from the episode called "The One With Rachel's Book"

Rachel: (gasps) You found my book?!
Joey: Yeah I did!
Rachel: Joey, what-what were you doing going into my bedroom?!
Joey: Okay, look I’m sorry, I went in there to take a nap and I know I shouldn’t have, but you got porn!
Rachel: Hey-hey, y’know what? I don’t care! I’m not ashamed of my book. There’s nothing wrong with a woman enjoying a little…erotica. It’s just a healthy expression of female sexuality, which by the way, you will never understand. (She goes into her room.)
Joey: You got porn!

Small Favor / Side Jobs ~ Jim Butcher

Let me just start with the part where I LOVE Jim Butcher.  This was not always so.  I read the first book and thought it was ok, the second was worse, and then he struck gold with the third book.  I was working in a bookstore at the time or I might not have made it to book three.  I highly recommend starting with book three Grave Peril. His main character is Harry Dresden.  Harry is a private investigator who happens to be a wizard.   He even advertises as such in the phone book. I love Butcher's sense of humor and I love the mix of mystery and fantasy.  I have read the books more times than I can count and am waiting for book 14 to come out this fall.  That's right, I said 14.  Along the way I discovered that James Marsters, Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was the narrator of the audio books. So I decided to listen to one.  OMG!!!  I died and went to heaven.  He is wonderful.  I could probably listen to him read the phone book.  Well maybe not the phone book, but pretty much anything else. So now and again I pop one of the audio books in and listen while I'm driving to and from work.  I did that recently with Small Favor.

This is one of my favorite books.  I'm trying to balance my enthusiasm with the need to not give too much away, so continue reading at your own peril. The book starts with Harry and the Carpenter family being attacked by agents of the Summer Court. And where Summer is, Winter can't be far behind.  Harry owes Mab, Queen of the Winter Court, a favor and Mab decides to call in her marker.  She wants him to find someone and if he doesn't he'll end up dead. So you now have some of my favorite recurring characters, Michael Carpenter, Knight of the Cross and the Fairies.  Oh, this is going to be good.  Most of the other supporting cast is here, Murphy, Thomas, Molly and Mouse.  Plus a few surprises that I can't mention, but boy do I want to.  As usual, Harry is an underdog caught between a rock and a hard place.  There is plenty of action, humor, suspense and magic. Some intriguing character hints.  I loved it all.

Listening to the audio books is such a pleasure.  I read so quickly that I know I'm not getting every word.  Listening forces me to take it slow.  Marsters has a wonderful voice and is truly great narrator.  I never have any trouble distinguishing between his character voices.  I like Harry, but Bob's voice is probably my favorite along with Toot-Toot.  He is able to bring all the emotions and carry you along as he goes. And at 12 cd's it lasts awhile.  I own all the books on CD except the latest, and I never get tired of them. Marsters has narrated all of the books except the last one.  I've converted both my sister and my brother-in-law to fans of the series through the audio books. I converted my mom to a fan through the books.  My dad is the stubborn hold out. He just doesn't know what he's missing.

"Side Jobs" is a collection of Harry Dresden short stories that have been published through out the years.  They are in chronological story order with a short blurb about how and why the story came about. Plus a notation about where it falls within the book timeline.  I had to pull this out because one of the stories deals with what happened to one of the characters in the aftermath of Small Favors.  Then I remembered on of the other stories and had to go read that one.  After that you might as well just read them all.  The collection illustrates how much Butcher has grown as a writer.  The earliest stories show you the potential and it's a joy to read stories that just keep getting better.  I think it's a great collection, but would caution you to have read a good portion of the series before you pick it up, because spoilers abound.  Mostly I just think you need to go read these books right now.

Master of the Delta ~ Thomas Cook

Master of the Delta was a page-a-day recommendation.  The little blurb said it was about an english teacher teaching an advanced class on historical evil.  He then discovers one of his students is the son of "The Co-ed" killer, a local murderer.  The teacher encourages this student to write about his father for the class.  It sounded intriguing and so I thought I'd give it a go.

The book was a complete surprise.  The first thing is that it takes place in 1954.  I'd assumed that it was more contemporary.  The second thing was an expectation of a thrillerness, if that's even a word, a dive right in and full speed ahead sort of writing.  That was not this book.  That isn't to say that there wasn't tension and suspense, there was.  It was just a slower more lyrical style of writing. 

Jack Branch is the son of an important southern family.  The family still owns it's plantation out on plantation row.  He's well educated and aware of the privileges his upbringing has brought him.  In contrast to that is Eddie Miller a kid from the wrong part of town with a murderer for a father.  The story is told in three parts that inter cut with each other through out the book.  The main story in 1954, excepts from a trial, and present day.   I enjoyed the writing.  Thomas Cook has a gift for evoking the feel of a time and place. 

My biggest problem is that I kept expecting this to be some other type of book.  A James Patterson, Jeffery Deaver, Dean Koontz thriller.  I'm not sure why.  I kept waiting for the action, the evil, the event, the something to start up.  There must have been something in the blurb that struck my mind that way.  To me this had a more literary feel and style.  The situations and problems in this story are real and much more believable than the serial killer next door who is out smarted by the plucky heroine.  I liked the book.  I liked getting hints and clues from the trial and the present day.  It helped enhance the story.  I don't know that I'd go out of my way to read another of his books, but if one came my way, I'd read it.

Coming Soon!!

I've not forgotten about this blog, but I've gotten a little distracted.  I finished a mystery by Kate Atkinson, but I just got the next in the series so I figure I should wait and do both at the same time.  I finished another thrille,r sort of, by Thomas Cook, but haven't quite formulated my thoughts yet.  I've got a non-fiction going and that always takes more time.  Finally I've been re-listening to my Jim Butcher audio books on my way to work so I've got one of those on the way.  In the meantime, Happy Reading!

"Phone Kitten" ~ Marika Christian

A friend of mine turned me onto this free Kindle book site called Pixels of Ink.  I both love and hate this site.  Usually twice a day they list 3-5 books that are free for Kindle on Amazon at the time of the post. I  LOVE free books.  I HATE the  temptation because, even though they aren't taking up physical space, adding 5 books a day to my to-be-read pile is intimidating even for me.  Anywho, this leads me to my latest book, "Phone Kitten", which I got free thanks to the above mentioned Pixels recommendation.

This book was just a funny, cute, and light hearted mystery.  Emily Winters finds herself fired from her newspaper job, through no fault of her own, sees an ad to be a phone sex operator and thinks why not.  Now, I do have to say that I was slightly worried about a raunch factor, but the author handles the subject matter with a sly, witty, subtle touch that just had me giggling in some parts.  What Emily finds is that once the deed is done, most of these guys just want someone to talk to and at two dollars a minute, she's happy to oblige. 

With her life back on track Emily has met a new guy and on their first date, she accidentally runs into one of her clients.  When he turns up murdered the next day, she is sure she's in trouble.  So she decides to start "Drewing it", as in Nancy Drew, against the advice of her best friend Dennis.  Emily is sweet and completely inept in the style of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum.  The romance with Rick is just adorable and hot in all the right places. 

Did I mention that I liked this book?  It hit all the right notes in all the right places for me.  Chick Lit, Romance, Comic Mystery, what ever, it was enjoyable.  Like a perfect cupcake.  You couldn't live on it, but boy is it good.  I can't wait to see where this series goes.  As I said it was free when I got it and is now listed at $2.99.  Unfortunately it only seems to be available in ebook format at the moment.  Hopefully that changes soon.