50 Shades of Grey Series

Holy smokes.

Yes, these two words sum up all three of the books.

There was an initial reluctance to read the series as it sounded a bit juvenile for my tastes added with a very predictable story line - much like Twilight.  However, I couldn't seem to get away from the praises many women were singing about the series and after two months of denying it - asked my sister in law to borrow the books.

Book 1: 50 Shades of Grey
Admittedly, it took me much longer to read this book than typical. I have a 100 page rule - that is after I start a book, I have to give it to page 100 before I can say no thank you if I am just not digging it.  It took about 5 days to even get to page 100. As I sat complaining to my other half about how UNBELIEVABLE the story already was, I slowly but surely made it to page 100.  Still not into the book I advised my sister in law I would be returning the book as it was just not for me.  At some point and unsure when I picked it back up and page 100-170 disappeared in about 1 hour. Okay, so it got a little better.
I was continuing to tell other friends that I just didn't care for it and got looks of pure confusion and disgust, as in how the heck can you NOT like the books AND what is wrong with you.  After some soul searching it was the SEX that bothered me - not the sex per se but the kind of sex ... (no I am not a prude) - but it just left me feeling very uncomfortable. Aside from the S & M - I found that I quite liked the underlying story.
 - my vote 2 out of 5 stars (but you have to read to understand the rest of the series)

Book 2: 50 Shades Darker
This book took less than 24 hours to finish. The sex becomes more "normal" and the story gets a little deeper into the past of the main character Christian Grey.  I will not provide many details as it would ruin the book for you - but it explains WHY his thing is S & M.  The relationship between Grey and Anastasia grows and while the story line is a bit "typical" of romance stories - it does have a different element to it - enough to keep the reader engaged.
- my vote 4 out of 5 stars

Book 3: 50 Shades Freed
The final book in the triology - this book was also a quick read - but not as quick as number 2 - possibly because I didn't want it to end? I found that I was in love with the characters. Even though at times it just doesn't seem possible people live they way that Christian and Anastasia do - I was really interested in the what happens to them next. This book appears to have a bit less of the sex which was fine by me - as I was more interested in learning the rest of Grey's past than anything else.  All in all - it was a good book and there is enough extra stuff going on that you have to finish it to complete the series
- my vote 4 out of 5 stars

I would recommend this triology to anyone who is okay with S & M and can handle some heavy sex scenes. And if you can't or don't care for that part - then you can do what I did many times and just skip the sex parts and move on with the rest of the story line.

** Note, some of the writing was a bit irritating as people in America just don't talk like Christian or Anastasia - or at least no one that I met. I think that in the translation between writing in London English to American English didn't always happen correctly, so there was some odd ways of saying things! But not to much that one can't understand it.