Fifty Shades Darker: Book Two - erotic novel by Entrenue - review by jennifur77

The kinky f-ery is back -- or so it seems.  As is the lip biting, eye rolling, cocking the head to on side, and murmuring.  However, to E.L. James' credit, or possibly the publisher's, I think there was an editor this time because the story was a bit more engaging (pun intended), and the story line is a little better, but then again it would have been difficult for it to have gotten much worse.   In this book, it feels like the sex scenes are woven into the story, whereas the previous book seemed to me that it very well could have been that the sex scenes were written and the story was woven around them. While there was lots of sex, it wasn't as kinky.

In this volume, we find Ana in her apartment when Christian calls and offers to accompany her to Jose's art exhibit.  Obviously with another book to be written, he has to be reintroduced into her daily life somehow, and this is the answer.  As domineering as ever, Mr. Grey dictates how long they can stay at the show, which would have made me upset, but to Ana, she is happy he has returned.  Her inner goddess is quite pleased. I didn’t notice the repetitiveness of much of anything except her inner goddess in this book, but please can we just send that deity on vacation so we don’t have to hear about her again?

The use of large vocabulary bothered me in the first book. I discussed this with other friends who also read it, and they agreed. It’s written in Ana’s voice, and when the large words are thrown in during conversation, it seems forced. Although the use of the Queen's English is still found, I didn't notice it as much.  Still, if the main characters are originally from a place, they should sound it.  Yet, it was less apparent to me in this book because unlike the first one, I felt there was a plot.  Originally published as fan fiction, each chapter ends nice and tidy and is a mini-story within itself.  I liked this because I don't like stopping at a cliff-hanger point in a book.

The main plots within this book are an ex-sub of Christian's comes after Ana and the demons haunting Christian surface, and Ana needs to decide if she can love a man who in the first book announced he was "fifty shades of f'd up." Yet for being so messed up, he has taken to mainly vanilla sex quite well. There is only one scene in the book where the Red Room of Pain is used for its intended purpose. Another scene they are in the room discussing butt plugs. For a book that is about BDSM, there’s less of it in this book than the first. And if Christian is that dominate, it is hard for me to believe it’s taken this long to get to discussion of a butt plug.

I realize I’m a bit of a snob. I want a book to be enjoyable to read, which this one is. I want a book to have believable characters. I’m still wondering how Christian is so accomplished when he’s only 27, but I realize that’s something we aren’t to dwell on. I want to become engrossed in a story, which I did. I also want the writing to be of a certain quality. It failed on that point. It’s really a shame it wasn’t polished more before it went to press. It appears the people who have the biggest problems with this book is not because it is “mommy porn” but because of the poor writing quality.

Because of this book, it appears women are starting to explore their sexuality. Ana is a rare character in mainstream literature who has desires and isn’t taught that sex is something we have to do to keep our man happy. To see a female who enjoys carnal desires (another phrase used redundantly) is a refreshing change of pace.

Even though the writing is at times laughable, the characters seem something out of a fantasy, and the erotica isn’t too erotic when the inner goddess has been brought into the bedroom as often as she has, I’ll still read book three. I’m hoping it will improve as book two did, and just because you were born in the land of the Bard doesn’t mean you will write like him. Still, a good story line can help make up for a lot, and not to mention I'm hoping that butt plug gets used in book three.