Lisa Fries

Another 2.5 rating if half stars existed.

Ok so stuff actually happens in this book! Like there's kind of a plot! And there's tons of smut! So what's the problem? - this book is about 100-200 pages too long. It all just gets really repetitive, even the smut. And ya know, the plot is still not great. There's a lot of bits that feel really unbelievable or big conflicts that resolve 2 pages later - a lot of it feels unnecessary. Christian is also as insanely controlling as ever, which weirdly continues to be less scary to Ana then his penchant for pain.

I watched the movie right after finishing this. While it's no Oscar winner, they cut a lot of the unnecessary fat, rewrite some of the bigger leaps to make more sense and soften Christians wild control issues. I rarely say a movie is better than the book, but plotwise that definitely applies here.

Did I keep reading it though? Yes. Did I finish it? Yes. Am I going to read the 3rd book? Yes.

Plot: 1 out of 5; Smut: 4.6 out of 5. Wish I could give half stars, cause this is a solid 2.5

Terrible story, the first 1/3rd was hard to get through. I put it down for a couple months before picking it back up to finish; cause I hate not finishing. Once the smut geared up it got more readable, but it really is just that. The whole abuse=BDSM plot line is bad. It's the guy being a stalker/insanely controlling that's really worrisome. It's also a very 2011 book and even feels dated more than that. I was 25 in 2011, at that point I had a smart phone for ~3 years. I get that Ana's a “bookish” gal, but her being so flustered by technology is a weird thing that comes up constantly. She's ~22, not 60.

The ending is abrupt and dumb - though it's clearly done so that you want to read the next book. My ebook had that 1st two chapters of the next book and that satiated my curiosity enough for now.

I'd read the next two if I didn't have anything else to read

The series starts picking up in this one for sure. With most of the world already established, I felt there was more room for plot, action, suspense than the first book. The lead up to graduation feels well paced and I enjoyed how it evolved. Once we get to the climax it all feels very earned and a nice suspense built up. El's really starts to evolve & bloom as well. She's still sassy, but the heart grows along with our understanding of her core

I may be in the minority, but this was by far my favorite book of the series. I really love the world & magic mechanics of the series, but the 1st book felt like a lot of setup and the 2nd just started us going. While I did predict some of the reveals well ahead of time, this one was still super engaging. The first 1/3rd took a little bit of time to ramp up, but by midway through it grabbed me. I was totally emotionally invested by the end. There are bits of the magic mechanics that I found a tad confusing, but I kind of just went with it, let it be magic and not bother me too much. The whole book has a lot of wonderful metaphors of how we treat others as individuals vs. as a society, capitalism and how our systems fail so many. Sprinkled in there's also a nod to the power of individual choice, how we choose our path - the timeline of our life rests on our choices and we're meant to be just as we are. Loved the resolution, the characters and how they grow and I'm sad there's not more to read based in this world.