As in my previous post, a warning about this book. It does contain explicit sexual content, not necessarily any more explicit than many so-called "romance" novels (or some of my other book suggestions on this blog), but this content is of a particular sort: Bondage and Domination.
Anastasia Steele is an almost-college-graduate who is pressed into last minute service by her roommate, Kate, to interview Christian Grey, a young billionaire, for the college paper. When Anastasia meets Christian, they have an instant attraction and a romance of sorts ensues.
Unfortunately, Christian is damaged goods. He is only interested in a Dom-Sub relationship with Ana, and wants to control her in all ways within the confines of their contractual agreement (yes, he actually draws up a non-legally-binding contract to set out all of the limits and rules). Ana tries to create more of a relationship with him, and Christian comes to realize that while he is falling for her, she doesn't make a good Sub, except of course in the bedroom.
This book doesn't skirt around things or suggest as much as many books of this ilk do. Everything is plain and simple. And whoa, is it hot. The sex scenes (there are many, many of those) are well-explained, and the author refreshingly does not use many euphemisms for body parts (I am really tired of reading the word "core" for a woman's intimate anatomy).
I enjoyed the origins of the relationship between Ana and Christian, and they do seem to be very hot together.
I have a few issues here, however. One of my first thoughts about this book is how similar the characters are to Edward Cullen and Bella Swan from Twilight. Odd, I know, but there are plenty of parallells. Christian has "bronze" hair (whose hair is bronze??), he is extremely rich, tries to prevent Ana from being with him because he's "a bad guy", buys her many gifts, a car included, and is obscenely rich and young. Where Edward wanted to protect Bella's virtue is where Christian departs from the similarities. However, Ana is a virgin, like Bella, she has no idea that she's good looking, doesn't think Christian could like her because he's a "god" and she's just a plain girl, she doesn't like receiving gifts and gets mad when Christian buys her things. Also, Ana's mom is much like Bella's, on her 4th husband, and Ana went to live with her stepfather when her mom married "Husband #3" because they didn't get along. Ray, her stepfather, is quite similar to Charlie Swan, Bella's father. The list goes on. The stories themselves are not similar, but the characters are much alike in their demeanors and backgrounds.
All that being said, I did enjoy this book very much. I don't think it necessarily needs to be analyzed, as it is not intended as fine liturature, but it is extremely entertaining and very hot.
The bondage scenes are relatively mild, gaining intensity throughout the story, as Ana and Christian's relationship progresses, but they never get too out there or too odd for the average reader (at least in my opinion). Some may not agree, I suppose, so I would recommend this book, with caution for any that might possibly be offended by the content.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
In Death series Nora Roberts
In case anyone is interested in this series as well (see blog post on The Search below), this is the first book.
The Search by Nora Roberts
When reviewing books, I normally choose what I would describe as literature; more literary type books and authors. That being said, I have mentioned here before that while I enjoy literature, I REALLY enjoy the more commonly read types of fiction. Most especially, I like mystery and fantasy novels. I am not a fan of the romance novel, per se. Although I do enjoy a little romance mixed in with a story about something else, especially if it has a bit of an edge.
I only began reading Nora Roberts about a year ago. She does write many romance novels, but she has quite a few novels that have that edge I so enjoy. I am a big fan of her In Death series, written under the nom de plume of JD Robb.
One of the things I liked best about The Search was that although it was about a woman stalked by a serial killer, and there was a romance aspect, there was the opportunity to be exposed to something else. That something was dog training. I am always interested in learning about something new, especially if I have no experience with it at all. Dogs play a big part as characters in this story, as the main character, Fiona, is an expert dog trainer, with three of her own dogs that are expert Search and Rescue dogs. There were several short subplots on this topic, which was fun, interesting and different.
Another aspect of Nora Roberts' writing that I really enjoy is how she writes her romantic lead men. In The Search, Simon plays the foil to Fiona. He is cranky, unsociable and generally difficult to like. He doesn't say anything that he doesn't mean, which is refreshing in a character, as his whole personality is refreshing for a romantic lead man. Ms. Roberts does not write wilting flower females, either. Her ladies are tough (see Eve Dallas from the In Death books for more!) but their characters are very well created, and the author takes the time to build the backstory for Fiona, the only survivor of the Red Scarf Killer and the one who eventually helped to put him in prison.
The build up of tension in this novel is excellent. The author again takes her time to get us there, and the middle parts are very enjoyable, switching between Search and Rescue activities as well as romantic interludes between the main characters, spiced with a little sex along the way.
I would recommend this book to all readers. It is a fun and easy read, with lots of well-researched information for those interested in dogs as more than pets.
I only began reading Nora Roberts about a year ago. She does write many romance novels, but she has quite a few novels that have that edge I so enjoy. I am a big fan of her In Death series, written under the nom de plume of JD Robb.
One of the things I liked best about The Search was that although it was about a woman stalked by a serial killer, and there was a romance aspect, there was the opportunity to be exposed to something else. That something was dog training. I am always interested in learning about something new, especially if I have no experience with it at all. Dogs play a big part as characters in this story, as the main character, Fiona, is an expert dog trainer, with three of her own dogs that are expert Search and Rescue dogs. There were several short subplots on this topic, which was fun, interesting and different.
Another aspect of Nora Roberts' writing that I really enjoy is how she writes her romantic lead men. In The Search, Simon plays the foil to Fiona. He is cranky, unsociable and generally difficult to like. He doesn't say anything that he doesn't mean, which is refreshing in a character, as his whole personality is refreshing for a romantic lead man. Ms. Roberts does not write wilting flower females, either. Her ladies are tough (see Eve Dallas from the In Death books for more!) but their characters are very well created, and the author takes the time to build the backstory for Fiona, the only survivor of the Red Scarf Killer and the one who eventually helped to put him in prison.
The build up of tension in this novel is excellent. The author again takes her time to get us there, and the middle parts are very enjoyable, switching between Search and Rescue activities as well as romantic interludes between the main characters, spiced with a little sex along the way.
I would recommend this book to all readers. It is a fun and easy read, with lots of well-researched information for those interested in dogs as more than pets.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Review of The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
Ernest Hemingway is a writer steeped in both history and mystery. A fascinating character, one whose mythos extends 50 years past his suicide death. The Paris Wife is not about Hemingway, per se. It is about his first wife Hadley Richardson, a woman who he was wed to for 5 years and had one son, called Bumby. It is a somewhat fictionalized account of their marriage (the details are real, but who knows about the private conversations or how Hemingway was feeling and thinking?) and life in Paris in Hemingway's early writing years.
McLain paints "Hem" (and from what has been written about him before, probably very accurately) as a self-centered, drunken jerk, very impressed with "Hemingway" as a personality rather than invested in himself as a person, husband, father or friend. He was extremely macho and obsessed with Spanish bullfighting (read The Sun Also Rises, for more information on that!). He was not unloving, and seemed to believe that Hadley was his true love- that is until Paulette came along and befriended Hadley to get close to Hem and begin an affair with him.
Hadley is not drawn as a feminist, or as the time period might have suggested, a suffragette. She was a simple person, musically gifted, loving and unfussy. This was probably the best kind of mate Hemingway might have had, someone to balance his dark moods and drinking, except that she often took to drinking to maintain her relationship with Hemingway herself.
One of the most fascinating things about this story is the depiction of relationships between Hem and Hadley and the 1920's Paris expat literary glitterati, including Gertrude Stein (of course, not without Alice B. Toklas), Archibald McLeish and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Reading about these real writers as people casually throwing out statements about trying to get published, "It's called The Great Gatsby...and this Gatsby fellow is still with me" is quite thrilling for someone who enjoys classic literature. Of course, Fitzgerald, like Hemingway, was a drunk and his bad behavior outdid even Hem's.
The story is fascinating on its own, even without the name-dropping, and at it's heart a true depiction of a flawed and co-dependent marriage. It was refreshing to find that Hadley did eventually find love, of the stable and kind variety after Hemingway. But McLain does a terrific job of writing two people truly in love who have no idea how to form a marriage, especially since one of them is a flawed, creative type of person who is only in his early 20's and appears to have PTSD from his experiences in Italy during WWI. One could assume their marriage was doomed from the start, but while Hadley describes them as continually "naive", there is an element of hope from both Hemingway and Hadley, and they did seem to want to truly make it work, at least for a while.
I would recommend this book to all readers, but especially to those who are fans of the classics.
McLain paints "Hem" (and from what has been written about him before, probably very accurately) as a self-centered, drunken jerk, very impressed with "Hemingway" as a personality rather than invested in himself as a person, husband, father or friend. He was extremely macho and obsessed with Spanish bullfighting (read The Sun Also Rises, for more information on that!). He was not unloving, and seemed to believe that Hadley was his true love- that is until Paulette came along and befriended Hadley to get close to Hem and begin an affair with him.
Hadley is not drawn as a feminist, or as the time period might have suggested, a suffragette. She was a simple person, musically gifted, loving and unfussy. This was probably the best kind of mate Hemingway might have had, someone to balance his dark moods and drinking, except that she often took to drinking to maintain her relationship with Hemingway herself.
One of the most fascinating things about this story is the depiction of relationships between Hem and Hadley and the 1920's Paris expat literary glitterati, including Gertrude Stein (of course, not without Alice B. Toklas), Archibald McLeish and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Reading about these real writers as people casually throwing out statements about trying to get published, "It's called The Great Gatsby...and this Gatsby fellow is still with me" is quite thrilling for someone who enjoys classic literature. Of course, Fitzgerald, like Hemingway, was a drunk and his bad behavior outdid even Hem's.
The story is fascinating on its own, even without the name-dropping, and at it's heart a true depiction of a flawed and co-dependent marriage. It was refreshing to find that Hadley did eventually find love, of the stable and kind variety after Hemingway. But McLain does a terrific job of writing two people truly in love who have no idea how to form a marriage, especially since one of them is a flawed, creative type of person who is only in his early 20's and appears to have PTSD from his experiences in Italy during WWI. One could assume their marriage was doomed from the start, but while Hadley describes them as continually "naive", there is an element of hope from both Hemingway and Hadley, and they did seem to want to truly make it work, at least for a while.
I would recommend this book to all readers, but especially to those who are fans of the classics.
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