Laura’s Review of Grey (Fifty Shades, #4) by E.L. James

Synopsis

See the world of Fifty Shades of Grey anew through the eyes of Christian Grey.

In Christian's own words, and through his thoughts, reflections, and dreams, E L James offers a fresh perspective on the love story that has enthralled millions of readers around the world.

Christian Grey exercises control in all things; his world is neat, disciplined, and utterly empty—until the day that Anastasia Steele falls into his office, in a tangle of shapely limbs and tumbling brown hair. He tries to forget her, but instead is swept up in a storm of emotion he cannot comprehend and cannot resist. Unlike any woman he has known before, shy, unworldly Ana seems to see right through him—past the business prodigy and the penthouse lifestyle to Christian’s cold, wounded heart.

Will being with Ana dispel the horrors of his childhood that haunt Christian every night? Or will his dark sexual desires, his compulsion to control, and the self-loathing that fills his soul drive this girl away and destroy the fragile hope she offers him?

This book is intended for mature audiences. 

What I Loved

         

For me this was the series that started it all, before this I had read some romance novels but never erotica.  After I was done with Fifty Shades Freed I needed to find more books like this and the rest as they say is history.  I was so excited to jump back into Christian and Ana’s world and revisit the very beginning of their relationship. 

          After I had finished Fifty Shades of Grey of course I had questions about what was happening behind the scenes especially when it came to Christian.  Also, I was always curious to know what he was thinking during certain parts of the story and I couldn’t wait for Grey to fill in all those little holes.  It was very insightful to see Christian’s side of things and what was going through his head.  There were definitely times that Christian was able to put a smile on my face, to see that he wasn’t all confident and calm when I thought he was.  I love how much he wanted to have Ana near him all day every day and counted the seconds if and when Ana would call or email him back.

          I realized how much I missed all those cute emails between these two and as I kept on reading it brought back all those feelings I had when I first began this series.  Lots of questions were answered, I love that at the end we get to see what was going on with Christian for that week Ana had left him.  I was anxious to find out what were his actions during this period and this book gave me exactly what I was looking for.

Not So Much

         

I was hoping that since time has passed and writing has progressed that the sentence structures would be a little bit better than the first book that was written such a long time ago.  But, I still felt like a lot of the sentences were fragmented at times and didn’t flow as naturally as I would’ve liked. 

          Also, I get that Christian is very wealthy and he grew up for the most part very wealthy but he is American.  Saying this, a lot of Christian’s colloquialisms were way too British to come off as a man growing up in Seattle.  I get that E.L. James is British but these characters grew up in America and the language and word usage definitely doesn’t come off that way.  It’s a huge pet peeve of mine when authors write books that take place in another country and the characters don’t reflect that. 

To Sum It All Up!

         

I was so excited and happy to step back into the fifty shades world, not only that but to experience the very beginning of their relationship all over again.  Of course as a reader who has read the rest of the series you already know what happens to these characters, but Grey was able to fill in the holes that Fifty Shades had left open.  Not that Fifty Shades was horrible but when a story is told from only one person’s point of view you only get one part of the story.  We get more Elena in this story and just how Christian feels about their relationship.  We also learn more about Christian’s childhood and nightmares and his past relationships with his subs.  Also, there was definite foreshadowing towards of the end of the story when it came to the Leila storyline which I really enjoyed as well.  Christian for me came off more endearing after I was finished with this story, he was so cute waiting for Ana to call him or email him.  I definitely feel like if you have enjoyed the three books in this series prior to this one, then you will definitely LOVE this book.  Grey has made me realize how much I miss Christian and Ana and their crazy love story.