Whewww, the books I read this week have taken a toll on my emotions. Or, possibly, my emotions caused me to take the stories a little harder than I would normally have. At any rate, I am wrung out. I have got to find some fluff to read next time.
The first (3) books I read were the Fifty Shades trilogy by E.L. James.
Used to when I picked books to read, I'd read their descriptions on the back cover or at a book site or somewhere, but here lately I've just been taking recommendations of others from book groups I belong to. So I didn't really know much about this series other than a couple of clues like "HOT!", "tortured hero", "BDSM".
BDSM isn't really my thing so I hesitate to read those stories, but everyone was like, Oh no, it's not like that, it's HOT! You'll like it.
So I started with book one, Fifty Shades of Grey, and I did NOT like it! I was like, are you kidding me? This is terrible. I would never recommend this to anyone!
But, for some reason, I couldn't stop reading it. I still don't know why.
The story goes, Anatasia Steele is a college student whose roommate, Kate, was supposed to interview business mogul Christian Grey for the school newspaper, but Kate got sick and convinced Ana to go do the interview in her place.Ana is shy and nervous, and to Christian seems like a natural born Submissive, which is attractive to him and his Dominant lifestyle.
She leaves, but a few days later he turns up at the hardware store she works at pretending to have been in the area and needing to pick up some things for a DIY project. He agrees to do a photo shoot to go along with the interview piece.
After the photoshoot he asks her out for coffee. After coffee, he tells her he doesn't do "the girlfriend thing" and warns her off of him. She leaves feeling bereft and cries all the way back to school.
A week later, final exams are over and Ana, Kate, and their friends go to a bar to celebrate. She gets drunk, and while waiting in the bathroom line, decides to call Christian and ask him why he sent her a gift. He gets all bent out of shape and tracks her location by her cellphone and comes and gets her. She passes out and he takes her to his hotel to sleep it off.
The next day he tells her he's not a hearts and flowers kind of guy, and she should stay away from him, but he can't seem to stay away from her. She tells him, then don't. He says he won't touch her until she has his consent in writing.
That evening he flies them to his place in Seattle and has her sign a non-disclosure agreement, then shows her his Playroom and tells her he's a Dominant, and she'll be his Sub. He shows her where her room will be, where she'll sleep, because he doesn't sleep with anyone. He tells her they won't any other sort of relationship other than the Dom/sub thing, and shows her his written list of rules (written out in detail).
At this point I can't for the life of me understand why this 21-year-old virgin is not running for her life, why she's even considering this coldly conducted proposal. But okay, it's a book, it has to go somewhere, I guess.
But then he finds out she's a virgin, so he takes her to his bed and makes love to her. He tells her, though, he's not turning hearts and flowers, it's just a means to an end, they can start her training on the basics. (And she thinks, 'wishes do come true'.) Seriously???
We, the readers, can tell he really likes her, breaking his own rules and such, but he continues to tell her he wants the Dom/sub thing. She tells him she wants More. So he breaks down and proposes that if she'll agree to be submissive, they can try the More at other times.
Christian has all sorts of emotional/psychological issues that cause him to be controlling and possessive, have awful mood swings and that just isn't hot or sexy to me. And Ana is so young and innocent, and can't talk to her friend or Mom or any one about the kind of relationship he wants.
He spanks her, and she likes it, but doesn't think she should like it, so she cries. They make up, and he keeps trying to get her to be a sub, and she wants to except for the punishment part. He tells her he wants to hurt her, but not more than she can take, so she tells him to show her how bad it can be. He ends up getting carried away and hurts her, she doesn't like it, doesn't want it, but apparently they're not going to be able to get past his need for it, so she leaves him.
Book two, Fifty Shades Darker, starts out with Ana and Christian separated; Ana working and depressed, just trying to get through the days. Then Christian emails and offers to take her to her friends' photo exhibition, and she accepts the invitation. First thing, he gets all bent and starts snapping at her about when she last ate because it looked like she'd lost weight. She laughs, and then it's all boo-hoo, smootchie-woochie.They attend the exhibit, then he takes to eat (he is really hung up on eating because he was hungry once, when he was like, four years old). He tells her he wants her back, no rules, no punishment. But she still can't touch him.
We learn more about his childhood, his real mother (who he calls the crack whore). The older woman that introduced Christian to D/s (when he was 15) wants to be Ana's friend, but she wants nothing to do with the child molester. One of Christian's ex-subs shows up, gone looney. They learn she has gotten a concealed to carry permit and is sure she has gotten a gun, so Christian is worried about everyone's security.
Christian proposes marriage, but Ana still isn't sure she can be what Christian needs.
Ana's boss makes a pass at her and Christian beats him up and has him fired. The company gives Ana her boss's old job.
Ana goes out for drinks with her old college friends while Christian is off seeing to come business. Christian's brother calls to tell her Christian's helicopter has gone missing.
Eventually he shows up, telling them the copter had experienced some mechanical troubles but he managed to land him and his Assistant safely. They had to walk out and catch a ride. They had no phone signal, then their phone batteries died (right).
Ana accepts Christian's marriage proposal.
Christian's birthday party at his parents house is the next day, and there's a show down with his older woman, who was a friend of his (adoptive) mother's.
It ends with a cliffhanger involving Ana's old boss, Jack.
Book three, Fifty Shades Freed, begins after the wedding and while they're on their honeymoon.A couple of weeks later, back at work, Ana has taken over her old boss's job.
Christian allows her to drive his car one day, and someone is following them, and they get into a car chase. Luckily she's a good driver and manages to lose the person.
Later, Christian has business in NY, and Ana plans to meet her friend for drinks. He asks her to stay in, and she agrees, but the friend talks her into going out anyway. When she gets home, she finds Jack has broken in the apartment and one of the security guards has taken him down. She tries to reach Christian but he doesn't answer so she decides to call the police.
Christian is furious, and they end up in the Playroom, where things go bad, and she 'safe words' him.
They talk and make up.
Later he takes her his place in Colorado, having invited his brother and sister and Ana's friend and her brother, because she said she didn't get to see her friends enough.
Between the wedding, honeymoon, this, that, and her father, her Assistant ended up putting off her doctor's appointments too long, and her birth control shot wore off.
She's pregnant and Christian goes ape.shit.
He leaves, and comes home a lot later, drunk. He passes out and while she undressing him, his phone falls out and she sees a text from his older woman. He'd gone to her.
They have a big, big fight that lasts a couple of days. She gets a call from what she thinks is Christian sister's phone, but turns out it's her old boss. He has Christian's sister, and he wants $5 million and Ana. Ana isn't to tell anyone, or else. So she has to sneak off from her security, and goes to the bank and tries to get the money.
The bank manager calls Christian, who thinks she's taking the money and leaving him. She can't tell him the truth, knowing how controlling he is, he'll try to take over and end up getting his sister killed, so she tells him yes, she's leaving. He tells her to take it all.
Luckily Ana is smart and comes up with a plan and Christian is able to find her.
And they live happily ever after.
If you can get though book one, book two gets better, and by the end of book three you feel like they're going to be okay and have a good life together. It was worth the read in the end.
*Be aware, there is a lot of kinky fuckery (hot sex) in all the books.
The last book I read, today, was called How to Kill a Rock Star by Tiffanie DeBartolo.
This was another one I started reading without an inking of what it was about. Truthfully, for some reason I have no idea of, I thought it was going to be a cutesy, comedy story. Boy, was I ever wrong!
The story starts with Eliza managing to corner her rock idol, Doug Blackman, for an interview. She happens to end up on the same elevator with him, and starts crying and tells him how when she tried to kill herself when she was 16, it was his song that saved her.The interview gets her a job with a big music magazine and she moves to New York where her brother and his wife lives. Her brother is in a band and is trying to hit it big, but he and his wife have a three-year-plan, and if by November the band hasn't been signed by a label, he has to quit and support her dream of going to college to become a lawyer.
Eliza moves into her brother's old room when he and his wife moved into their own place, and became the roommate of the band's lead singer, Paul.
Paul has an amazing voice, and is offered contracts with big name labels, but he refuses to sell out and abandon his band. He doesn't tell them the labels want only him; but he ends up telling Eliza the truth.
He and Eliza end up falling in love. Big time. They are both very dramatic, extremely emotional people. He proposes and they become engaged.
Eliza uses her contacts at the magazine to help the band, and eventually they get a deal Paul can't pass up.
They go to a party at the record exec's house, and run into an old friend of Paul's, who happened to be Doug Blackman's son, Loring, although he went by Sam and Paul didn't know who he was until later.
Paul's band ends up touring as the opening act for Loring, and Loring ends up falling for Eliza.
Paul is having a hard time with the music "industry"; he's all about the music, and they're all about money. He's afraid of selling out, but wants to do better for Eliza. So he makes the record they want, and agrees to the tour they want.
But, Eliza refuses to go with him. She won't fly, since her parents were killed in an airplane crash, she's terrified of airplanes. Even worse, she was out jogging the morning of Sept 11th and saw the place crash into the WTC.
Paul's manager comes to see her and tells her Paul is refusing to go on the tour, and she needs to do something. Loring was over at her and Paul's apartment (I can't remember why now), and she kisses Loring when she hears Paul coming up the stairs.
Paul is furious and kicks her out.
She goes home with Loring, and Paul gratefully accepts the tour, to get away from her.
Loring tells her it's too late for Paul to back out now, she needs to tell him the truth. So she goes to the apartment to tell him, only to discover a half naked woman he is obviously sleeping with.
She leaves without telling him the truth.
She stays with Loring, platonically, until she gets news that Paul has a girlfriend, then she sleeps with Loring, and they become a couple, although Loring knows she still loves Paul.
Loring planned a party for his father, Doug's, sixtieth birthday and asked Doug who he wanted to come and sing at the party. He listed Paul as one of the artists he wanted.
Paul came and sang Eliza's favorite Doug Blackman song, then one he wrote himself telling her how she tore him apart. She was going to find him to tell him the truth when Loring pulled her into a bathroom to break up with her. Paul walked in on them and she told him she wanted to talk to him, and he told her he wished she had died and that he'd never met her. She told him she was staying at her brother's and if he would to come see her.
Later the dog needed to go out and she opened the door, and saw Paul sitting out on the curb. She asked him to come inside, but instead of talking they make love.
When she wakes up, he's gone. There's a knock at the door, and she expected it to be him back with breakfast, but it's Loring. Then her brother and his wife shows up, and they break the news that Paul had committed suicide.
Ohhh gahhhhh, that killed me. I bawled even as I thought, no way, that can't happen. Then the manager shows up to tell the brother they'd found the body. Ohhh woooowwwww. wth? I can't deal with this kind of thing.
I cried and cried, and feel miserable because I hate to cry, but for some reason books that make me cry seem to be the best ones.
(*Spoiler* That's not the way the story ends)
At the same time I was reading this last story, I was watching a movie on tv, James Patterson's Sundays at Tiffany's. This was such a chick-flick I had a hard time believing a man wrote it, but now I see the book is billed as James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet, so my guess is maybe he edited it or something. Whatever. It was a totally cute story.
I missed the start of the movie, but when I picked it up, Jane is a little girl and has an imaginary friend named Micheal. It's her birthday and her Mom takes her to Tiffanie's to buy her a special birthday present.While there, Micheal breaks the news to Jane that he has to leave her, she no longer needs him, and tells her she'll forget him after he's gone.
Twenty years later, Jane is engaged to a handsome actor and is trying to plan her wedding, but can't seem to make decisions because everything has to be perfect.
One day, Micheal comes back, and now he's a grown man. He approaches Jane and starts talking to her as though she knows him, but she doesn't recognize him. He tells her who he is, but she doesn't believe him, and thinks he's a crazy stalker.
He doesn't know why he's come back to her, and assumes she must need him. She insists she doesn't.
He follows her home and plans to sleep on a bench outside her apartment and she feels sorry for him and lets him come in and sleep on her couch. He ends up staying, and helps with things in her apartment, and helps her make decisions with her wedding.
In the meantime, we see she's not really happy with her finance', whose selfish and self-centered.
Jane and Micheal have fun, and play, and she starts to fall in love with him. Then he tells her he has to leave. She gets mad and tells him off and leaves.
He says "I'm dying." (Sooo sweeet.)
An old man comes along and tells him he's not dying; he asks why it hurts so bad then, and the old man tells him fairly pointedly, it just means he's human.
Michael goes to the elevator in Tiffanie's, where he apparently comes and goes from, and Jane goes to her wedding. She's walking down the isle with her groom and he mentions their ski-trip honeymoon, and she tells him she doesn't like to to ski. He says she never told him that, and she says yes I did, you didn't listen. He doesn't know her favorite or flowers. She leaves him at the alter and runs to Tiffanie's, but it's too late, Micheal is gone.
She goes outside and sags onto a bench, then Micheal comes out and tells her he couldn't go.
And they live happily ever after.
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