Grey by E.L. James | Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Join me, she whispers, but she’s moving backward, getting fainter… disappearing before my eyes… vanishing… she’s gone. No! I shout. No! But I have no voice. I have nothing.

I went into Grey having no real expectations or hopes for the series because realistically, I’m not the biggest fan of the romance between Anastasia and Christian. I say that with the utmost respect to its fandom and the author; so please do not take my words as something of hatred.

I was curious enough to see where E.L. James went with this take on the series and it’s a rare thing for me to never finish a book series. Which is why I chose to read it and finish it in one final sweep. Curiosity fueled interest, s’all there is to it.

I was, admittedly, a bit unsure about stepping into the mind of Christian Grey, as he is perhaps one of my least favorite fictional characters ever and I’m not normally big on retellings of a story from another point of view. Let me put it this way, though: Christian is like a train wreck that I apparently couldn’t look away from at this point.

My expectations were low and perhaps this is what made reading Grey all the more bearable. Low expectations are hard to dash, plus the story is already familiar. How much worse could it get? This is perhaps the way I should have approached the series to begin with, because it made reading it simpler.

Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James | Rating: ★★☆☆☆(2.3)

"And now my past and my future are colliding in a way I never thought possible."

Fifty Shades Freed shows us the third and final installment to the much hyped about Fifty Shades of Grey series; bringing us to a close in the dramatic, dark and unrealistic relationship of Anastasia and Christian Grey. Fans of this series have longed for more smut, more romance and perhaps a variation of happily ever after for the two and will certainly get one but not without a lot of bumps along the way.

We were left in a a calm ending to the second book after the dramatic events of the previous installment, which was by far the series’ strongest addition. Where Fifty Shades of Grey lacked much in terms of entertainment and plot, Fifty Shades Darker made up for it. Freed shows us a middle ground between the first two books in term of intrigue and is neither boring nor thrilling for me.

We see a lot of plots tied up nicely and perhaps unrealistically as this whirlwind romance reaches its climax. Anastasia Steele has decided to marry her beloved Christian Grey, this much we already know, and the opening of Freed shows us a glimpse of the two on their honeymoon as well as sparks of their wedding. It felt very rushed and the time jumping in the narration at certain points of the start and finish felt awkward and difficult to stay focused on.

Fifty Shades Darker by E.L. James | Rating: ★★★☆☆ (2.5)

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit: I was not a fan of Fifty Shades of Grey and the entire romance that followed. But the problem with me is, even if I wasn’t a fan of a series I [almost] always convince myself to read through the entire set of books (in this case, the trilogy and an upcoming retelling of the first story from Christian’s POV) because I always long to know how it ends even if I’m not particularly attached to the characters. In the case of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey, it was like watching something so horrible that I couldn’t look away.

I found myself picking up Fifty Shades Darker with very little expectations and read the novel here and there in the weeks that followed. It wasn’t something I wanted to read in one sitting, mainly because it didn’t intrigue me enough. I suppose me reading this installment and sticking with the series so far is more curiosity than desire. And while Fifty Shades Darker was by no means a good novel, it certainly was an improvement to the previous installment.

We saw the romance between Christian Grey and Anastasia fizzle out quicker than either had planned by the final pages of Fifty Shades of Grey. After Ana, our narrator, decides she deserves better than what her lover deserves and makes a quick exit; leaving a crushed Christian in the background after finally deciding she had enough of our dark love interests self proclaimed ‘kinky fuckery’ – just as quickly as this twisted love story formed, it seemed to fall to dust.

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L James | Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

See, the thing about hype is that it rarely lives up to expectations for most of its audience. And let me tell you: this book obviously has some serious hype to back it up and its fanbase is massive. My ex-girlfriend was one of those people — completely obsessed with this novel and the remaining books in the trilogy.

Naturally, she had me sit down and read the first book. And by sit down, I mean she essentially forced me to read it and as a good girlfriend, I did.

I knew three things when I started it and the facts were these (okay — I’ll admit it now, the reason I’m writing it that way are because I just had a Pushing Daisies rewatch and seem to think I am the narrator. Sorry!): it was at one point a Twilight fanfiction, it is an erotica lovestory and it features BDSM. I often got the fanfiction confused with another Twilight fic with similar themes called The Submissive -- which, admittedly, as a horny teenager I read eagerly and waited patiently for each update. That being said, I never could get into this story even in the fanfiction days.

So firstly I want to say that it was really, really badly written. I found myself physically cringing on more than one occasion while reading. And normally, these sorts of books — this genre, things aren’t always written that well anyways. People don't read erotic novels for mind blowing writing; they read it for fantasy. But this reached beyond that in terms of really awful writing. It was repetitive and though there were many details in it they just weren't that captivating for me, personally.

I wanted to like it. Really, I did.