Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James (Paperback, 2012)

The main male character is a billionaire (not a millionaire but a billionaire) who speaks fluent French, is basically a concert level pianist, is a fully trained pilot, is athletic, drop dead gorgeous, tall, built perfectly with an enormous penis, and the best lover on the planet. In addition, he's not only self made but is using his money to combat world hunger. Oh yeah, and all of this at the ripe old age of 26! And on top of that, he's never working. Every second is spent having sex or texting and emailing the female character. His billions seem to have just come about by magic. It seriously feels like 2 teenage girls got together and decided to create their "dream man" and came up with Christian Grey.

Then come the sex scenes. The first one is tolerable but as she goes on, they become so unbelievable that it becomes more laughable than erotic. She orgasms at the drop of a hat. He says her name and she orgasms. He simply touches her and she orgasms. It seems that she's climaxing on every page.

Then there's the writing. If you take out the parts where the female character is blushing or chewing her lips, the book will be down to about 50 pages. Almost on every single page, there is a whole section devoted to her blushing, chewing her lips or wondering "Jeez" about something or another. Then there's the use of "shades of". He's "fifty shades of @#$%% up," "she turned 7 shades of crimson," "he's ten shades of x,y, and z." Seriously?

The writing is just not up to par, the characters are unbelievable, and the sex verges on the comical. but the very best part of this book is i resold mine on ebay for £14 result.

I too jumped on the band wagon and wanted to see what all the fuss is about!That and I really do love book recommendations as there is nothing better than losing myself in a good book! I will never fall for the media hype again that is for sure! It really is a tedious read, soooooooooooooooooo boring with no real story. It is taking me weeks to get to where I am and I can just about manage a couple of pages before putting it down because of the lack of a plot. It is just porn basically! I doubt I will finish this book and the irony is that I went and bought the sequels as they were on special offer before receiving the first copy off ebay...ooops, will be giving those away me thinks!

This is a novel not quite on the level of Jane Austen (English editing could be better), but a true lesson in '21C men behaving badly'.

It will be interesting to read the trilogy and observe the outcome... :( ... or ...:)?

I've got a strong feeling though, quoting Johns in 'Pitch Black'..."Someone's going to get hurt one of these days, and it 'aint gonna' be me"!

Happy 2013 anyone reading this.

brilliant ,you really get into the book and characters and it keeps you spellboundingly captured!as a woman you fall for the lustrious charms of gorgeus Mr grey,even with all his shades!,you love the beautiful strong vunerable anastacia steele,and all the characters you feel a certain amount of empathy towards, wonderful racy dialect and although graphic it stil feels like a gentle beautiful, heated ,sexual, erotic,love story, fantastic! cant wait to read the next book!

I agree with the other two 'no' ladies, it is awful. I can honestly say its the worst book I have ever read and I am an avid reader. I have read other erotic books that are well written but this one is a joke. In fact it was very funny and totally unbelievable. So boring and repetitive I could not feel any empathy with the heroine. The expressions she used were irritating, cannot imagine anyone saying 'oh my' every time they orgasm, she was a real wet lettuce. I read it because of all the hype and must congratulate the marketing company. From speaking to other people who have read it, you either love it or hate it. I am totally surprised that it has been so popular. BORING AND TEDIOUS.