Title:  Grey
Author: E.L. James
Publisher/Year: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group 6/18/15
Length: 423 pages
Series: Fifty Shades of Grey #4

Overview

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?

My Thoughts

I think that we have all been waiting a long time for a continuation of sorts to this saga and i for one really enjoy getting to see a story from the other side – the male lead POV.  it’s something that i’ve come to enjoy a lot when authors decide to treat us to it, and in this case, it’s no exception.

What we have here is the way that Christan has processed things throughout the development of his relationship with Ana and i have to say that there’s somethign to seeing that the ‘monster’ actually has a heart and to see that it wasn’t just about the D/s relationship with him, and that he was as troubled with ‘wanting more’ with Ana as she was in making the decision to be with him.

What i was most curious to see though is at what point we were going to drop off in this story.  meaning was it just going to be his POV from the first novel or for the complete series, and given that it was like 400+ pages. i was even more curious.  That being said, i think that we get a thorough version of things, and i’m thrilled that we got to get into Christian’s head for a bit .

The other nice thing that EL James does for us is that we get these flashbacks of sorts, of when he was a child before being adopted and then of some of those moments with him and his new family when he just became part of the Grey brood.  We get to see how his mind processed what was going on then, and how hard it was, which of course gave him a ‘rough start in life’ – as he puts it to Ana all the time.

Part of me wishes that we had more of his POV – and i wonder if we’ll get it, but if we don’t, at least you get the same level of heat and passion – you get to see the control that he has when he’s with her – to give Ana the flowers and romance that she wants – yet at the same time, he’s got the Dark and Stormy bits of the very sexy controlling Dom that he is.

We have the hot scenes in the ‘red room of pain’ here – we see how amazing he is at his craft, and at the same time, we see that there’s such a strong romantic inside, one that has this amazing passion and chemistry with Ana, that it just leaps off the pages and you want to hope for the best for them.  And all that being said – it was a great read to wrap up my weekend.  Have a great Monday all and a nice week!