Fifty Shades Darker

Not bad but not great either. The second book in the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a slight improvement from the first one but it still fails to deliver anything more than a slightly cheesy rendition of two people addicted to each other in rather odd circumstances.

The second book, while a tad better than the first one, lacked any real conflicts and events. It actually took a while for me to even get through it because I did not feel like I had to keep reading to find out what happens next. And on top of that, nothing of great importance happened until about half-way through the book. The first half consisted of the two main characters, Anna and Christian, trying to figure out their rather obsessive relationship with each other. It rarely happens that I don't feel jealous of the main heroine's romantic relationship with her significant other in the book and that's what happened here. Christian actually rubbed me the wrong way, his possessiveness and rather overly emotional nature repelled me.

On that note, the book became a little bit better once we started finding out why Christian is the way that he is. However, in my opinion, I found that this took a little too long to happen and everything before that wasn't that exciting. And I am the epitome of hopeless romantic, but all the relationship stuff was too much, even for me. I would have liked to see a better balance of both romance and action because the romance was trying a bit too hard for me and it completely overwhelmed any of the action that occurred.

Moving on, the dialogue was also on the cheesy side and for this reason hard to read at times. I mean, who talks like that? I get that these two people are madly in love with each other but in reality, people who are romantically involved don't talk like that to each other. However, at least the writing style was okay because it made for a smooth and quick read.

In addition, the smut was mediocre at best. The variety of the sexual scenes was good but that didn't make up for the lack of variety in the word usage. It would have been nice to see a broader range of appropriate vocabulary, which would have made for a more exciting read.

One thing that saved this book for me, was the character development. While the characters might not have talked realistically to one another, they were three dimensional and I could picture them being a real person as I was reading. Even though Anastasia Steele really didn't capture my interest as a person and I couldn't relate to her whatsoever, I can't deny that there were many layers to her and we got to see more and more as the book progressed. There wasn't just one side to her. Christian as well, we were able to see the depths of him and get a glimpse into his soul.

All in all, Fifty Shades Darker delivers a rather mediocre portrayal of two people obsessively in love with each other. And although the plot drags and disappoints, the characters manage to stand out as individual personas. With all the media attention this book has gotten over the last few years, it still leaves a lot to be desired. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a quick read and doesn't care about a lack of a real plot or the amount of cheesiness that can be packed into 500 pages.