This book is much more focused on the evolution of the
relationship between Ana and Christian and explores why Christian is the way he
is as he slowly begins to trust in Ana and their relationship and opens up to
her more and more.
The first time I picked up Fifty Shades Darker, I stopped somewhere around the point of Ana
and Christian’s first meeting since their breakup and he threatened to put her
over his knee because she wasn’t eating and at the same time he was telling her
he was going to change.
I decided maybe I have an inner goddess, except mine isn’t an
inner goddess and she’s not a whory, annoying nympho when I picked it up a
couple of days later and Christian utters this gem : “I’ll see you shortly.
Sooners rather than laters, baby.” The voice in my head was telling me don’t do
it fool, stop reading now. I still have tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.
And yet.
And yet I didn’t hate it as much as I thought I was going to
and definitely not as I did Fifty Shades
of Grey. I still don’t care for Ana, she’s still annoying as hell and that Inner
Goddess crap scrapes my nerves, but taking out the demeaning, submissive
relationship went a long way in improving my mind set.
I still have some of the same problems, it’s not very well
written, the characters only have two facial expressions between them –
smirking and grinning. And let’s not forget the eye rolling. How many grown
adults roll their eyes on a daily basis? Apparently everyone in Seattle does according
to the author. If they talk at all, they repeat the same things to each other
and nothing really happens, they fight, they have sex the end.
I’m still trying to make up my mind as I type this, like I
said my initial reaction is didn’t love it but didn’t hate it either. Here are
some of my additional problems. By the end of this second book Ana and
Christian have known each other for about a month, maybe a few days more. They fight pretty much every other breath and
then bang out their frustrations. They
never have heart to hearts and just talk, there’s always so much drama. Is a
relationship that fraught with drama sustainable? I feel like they are just in
lust and not love.
I really liked Christian though. Exploring a “vanilla”
relationship with Ana opens him up to facing some of his demons and he shows a
lot of growth in this book. I’m still coming to terms with him going from a
closed off sadist to an open, loving non-sadist. Maybe I am jaded to believe it
takes longer than one month to start trusting and opening up lifelong wounds.
I still don’t like Ana, although she was much more tolerable
in this book. What I absolutely could not stand was the whole reason she left in
Fifty Shades of Grey was because she
was repulsed by the submission and the beating. Yet throughout this book, even
though Christian has made it clear he will not take her in the “Red Room” again
because he lost her the last time he did, Ana pesters him constantly to take
her in there. It was head -spinning and did nothing to improve my opinions of
her. Why would you taunt the monster?
We do find out Christian’s secret that he thought would have
Ana running. I don’t really think it was a shock nor do I think it was as big
of a deal as she made it out to be. I mean she should have been clued in by
that point. Idiot.
Overall, it was ok, I liked some of the evolution of their
relationship and once I stopped wanting it to be a good book and just took it
for what it is, I was able to enjoy it more. I don’t really think they need to
be five hundred pages though, since half of the book is a day by day, hour by
hour playbook of every single day together. Take it for what it is and maybe
you will get some enjoyment out of it – or not.
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