Synopsis from Amazon:
Daunted by the singular tastes and dark secrets of the beautiful, tormented young entrepreneur Christian Grey, Anastasia Steele has broken off their relationship to start a new career with a Seattle publishing house.
But desire for Christian still dominates her every waking thought, and when he proposes a new arrangement, Anastasia cannot resist. They rekindle their searing sensual affair, and Anastasia learns more about the harrowing past of her damaged, driven and demanding Fifty Shades.
While Christian wrestles with his inner demons, Anastasia must confront the anger and envy of the women who came before her, and make the most important decision of her life.
*WARNING: This review will be filled with spoilers*
First if you haven’t read my review of the first book, Fifty Shades of Cray Grey, definitely go do that then come back.
As I was reading this book I felt multiple types of ways and had to tell my friend who got me sucked into these books all about it. Here’s some highlights:
The Beginning
The freaking hair salon
Pay my tuition!
FINALLY!!!
Leave Mrs. Robinson
Christian = Submissive???
“The richter scale”?
*faints*
I was right! Sort of.
Overall I did enjoy this book. There were a lot of ups and downs and plot twists I just wasn’t ready for. If I wasn’t in school I probably would’ve finished this in a day, I was that hooked.
What I loved most about this book was it wasn’t focused on all the “kinky” freaky stuff that these books are known for. Instead Christian actually stops being so possessive and crazy and becomes a pretty loving guy. Plus we finally got to learn more about his scary childhood and it did make me sympathize with him a little bit more.
I still hate Ana’s inner goddess versus her subconscious thing. If they don’t put that in the movie I’ll be a very happy camper. Also Ana’s insecurities got a little annoying as well. Her struggles to believe Christian could really love her were incessant. I was like girl he’s changing his whole way of being for you. Just let him love you.
Besides that I was really concerned with how E L James was going to write a third book when this one seemed so finished. But then she went and made Ana’s former boss, Jack, a psycho who’s now trying to kill Christian. Well that will definitely keep the story going. Crazy. But also I love it because now it’s Ana and Christian against this other force and it really reemphasizes their strong relationship now. I’m excited to see how this will all end.
Also, I’m so glad Mrs. Robinson is finally out of the picture and Christian finally recognized how crazy she is. And also that his mother now knows the truth (some of it anyway). That was driving me crazy. More accurately, Mrs. Robinson was crazy.
There was definitely still a few parts I didn’t understand or like. For example, when Christian gave his ex-submissive, Leila, a bath. I didn’t get that nor understand why that needed to happen and it just seemed like E L James was trying to make Christian more messed up than he needed to be. Or the fact that he brought Ana to the hair dresser Mrs. Robinson owned. It seemed like a huge misstep in character development. Shouldn’t Mr. Cray be smarter than that by then?
Even so, I really enjoyed this novel which is very hard for me to admit because I thoroughly wanted to hate it. But now I’m hooked up so I might as well go pick up the third book now because I won’t be able to resist for long.
Favorite Line:
‘I love you, Anastasia. I will do everything in my power to protect you. I cannot imagine my life without you.’
Stars: 4 out of 5. I enjoyed it but there were still a lot of things I didn’t like and a few parts that I just skimmed.
Borrow or Buy: Buy. This is a tough call but I could see myself rereading this book. Maybe not the whole book but definitely certain parts are worth a second read. For example the house or the “hearts and flowers” scene. Totally worth a second glance.
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Zakiya N. Jamal 
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