Book Nerds Across America

Goodreads Summay
When literature student Anastasia Steele is drafted to interview the successful young entrepreneur Christian Grey for her campus magazine, she finds him attractive, enigmatic and intimidating. Convinced their meeting went badly, she tries to put Grey out of her mind - until he happens to turn up at the out-of-town hardware store where she works part-time. The unworldly, innocent Ana is shocked to realize she wants this man, and when he warns her to keep her distance it only makes her more desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her - but on his own terms. Shocked yet thrilled by Grey's singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success – his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving adoptive family – Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a passionate, physical and daring affair, Ana learns more about her own dark desires, as well as the Christian Grey hidden away from public scrutiny. Can their relationship transcend physical passion? Will Ana find it in herself to submit to the self-indulgent Master? And if she does, will she still love what she finds? Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.

Flo's Review

Why, oh why, don't I just listen?!? My good friends warned me that I would not like this book. So why did I spend $9.99 of my hard-earned cash buying this e-book, when I could have spent it on another apple martini at the restaurant last night?!

I'll tell you why. Because EVERYONE is talking about this series. EVERYONE. So, it's got to be good, right?! I made it, according to my Nook, to page 143 of 391 (Nook pages are different) before I could do it no more. And that was after wanting to quit for awhile, but trying to push through a little longer. Here is my main problem with the book:

Nothing. Happens.

I know that sounds counter to what you've heard about this book. But I can assure you, in the 36% of the book I made it through, not much happened. My main problem is dragging something out that does not need to be dragged out. Anastasia Steele is attracted to Christian Grey. Ok, cool. Tell us. Give us a few example. THEN MOVE ON. I do not need to read for three pages about how he makes you nervous. Tell us, describe it, give a few examples and you can be done with that in a page or two tops. No need to go to a different setting and then go through the whole things ALL OVER AGAIN. Here's kind of what it looked like:

Page 1 through Page Way-Too-Long: Anastasia interviews Christian Grey. He's hot and makes her nervous.
Page Why-Am-I-Still-Reading-This through Page Really?: Christian Grey comes to Anastasia's place of work. He's hot and makes her nervous.
...and so on.

Ok, because I, unlike this book, do not want to go on and on about the same point, let's move on to my next rant. I have said over and over again that I have a hard time liking books if I don't like the main characters and I do not like either one of these two. I realize Ana is supposed to be very vanilla, but her character kind of doesn't mesh. She spends a lot of the time not understanding why Christian Grey likes her because she's sooo ordinary, yet we learn that both Jose and Paul like her. They can like her, but Christian Grey can't?! Yes, apparently.

Christian Grey. He's supposed to be soooo hot and all that, but I cannot find a guy hot if his personality is not also hot, and trust me when I tell you, his personality is NOT hot. Ana calls him a control freak -- he is one. And I won't give away his "secret" to avoid being spoilery, but NOTHING about that is okay. NOTHING. And how Ana thinks something along the lines of, "I'll do whatever he wants!" Not. Okay. And I think I read in the synopsis for the other 2 books in the trilogy that it's because he had a rough childhood and we come to understand him more or something....still? Not. Okay.

I like to be positive, so let's end this review on a positive note. The thing that I actually really liked about this book was how well James equated it to Twilight. I had fun realizing which characters in this book were which Twilight characters, and which scenes were being mirrored. James was pretty much spot on with it, and I liked the creativity and the cleverness.

Okay, let's discuss! I just honestly want to know why you liked this book, if you did. Am I missing something awesome because I didn't finish the book? Also, if you are the one other person on the planet besides me who did not like this book, I'd like to hear from you, too!