Fifty Shades - "We Deserve Better"

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by ApK

You read as fast as my wife!


And oddly, there was none in the sample.

This week I have finished The Unsung Hero by Suzanne Brockmann. I found it okay. I was so emotionally numb from 50 Shades I couldn't get involved like I normally would in such a heartbreaking novel. I'm still debating if I should read book two in the series. Yesterday I read Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich and now I am reading Letters to Kelly by Suzanne Brockmann which is a Harlequin book. This brings my total read books for the year up to 50.

As for the Sex Scenes in 50 Shades there are more sex than anything. I was actually relieved when she started in Book two doing the fade to black on several of them but book three was nothing but sex scenes. Seeing they are all from Anna's perspective and she is so repetitious in her words it gets old quick.

I think the "F" word is used more in this series than any other word. Anna's uses it when she's happy, she uses it when she's scared or sad and she uses it when she's mad. Christian uses it when he's happy, when he's mad and when he's sad. There other words used over and over. I use to think Lora Leigh's word for female anatomy was overused but this author needs a thesaurus more than her. Don't get me wrong I love Lora Leigh and she is one of my favorite erotic authors. I just have a pet peeve of words being used over and over again. So 50 Shades was painful for me to endure because the lack of the author's vocabulary.

[Joykins]

I started reading the fanfic Master of the Universe out of curiosity and it was pretty awful on the first page, so I gave up. I don't intend on reading them, but I might if I am ever really bored in a situation when there's not much else to read.

I am female and I generally read a LOT of romance (erotic and sweet)--I know what I like, and vampires and BDSM are pretty much the bottom of the barrel for me. I haven't read the Twilight books either.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Joykins

I started reading the fanfic Master of the Universe out of curiosity and it was pretty awful on the first page, so I gave up. I don't intend on reading them, but I might if I am ever really bored in a situation when there's not much else to read.

I am female and I generally read a LOT of romance (erotic and sweet)--I know what I like, and vampires and BDSM are pretty much the bottom of the barrel for me. I haven't read the Twilight books either.

I have the fanfic as well. There are a couple of bonus stories that retell a few of the scenes from the male lead perspective. I went back and read them having to in mind change the names from Bella and Edward to Christian and Anna. I was even more disgusted to see Christian's perspective. It made me dislike him even more. He is a stalker in ever sense of the word. It's scary to see what's really going on in his head.

Now I love Vampire novels but hated Twilight. Shiny vampires?!? Ewww. I was introduced to Vampires stories through Lynsay Sand's Argeneau series back when I was a member of the Lovespell club years ago. I then found Amanda Ashely's Vampires and I was hooked! I love paranormal romance as long as it's not over the top or too dark.

[booklover6]

Blossom, I have enjoyed the rest of the Troubleshooters series MUCH more than the first one. The first one to me seemed like women's fiction. If you like military romance, definitely read the rest of the series. Well I've read the first 10, Force of Nature is on my "read next" list.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by booklover6

Blossom, I have enjoyed the rest of the Troubleshooters series MUCH more than the first one. The first one to me seemed like women's fiction. If you like military romance, definitely read the rest of the series. Well I've read the first 10, Force of Nature is on my "read next" list.

Thanks I always try to give a series to book three but this one put me off. The characters were fine but I found the hero rather odd. So I am reading Letters to Kelly. I thought if I read something other than the series by Brockmann I would see if it was her writing or just the particular book that I didn't like. So Far I am enjoying Letters to Kelly. The hero is a bit cooky but I like him.

[BeccaPrice]

Unsung Hero was always a special book for me, not because of the contemporary romance but because of the WWII sub-story - My uncle lived something like it (without the tragedy, and with the inclusion of escaping from a prisoner of war camp). The framing contemporary story didn't grab me, but then I'm not into contemp romances.

I am finding the new Nora Roberts "The Last boyfriend" somewhat slow going and contrived, for example. Well written, just not my style.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

Unsung Hero was always a special book for me, not because of the contemporary romance but because of the WWII sub-story - My uncle lived something like it (without the tragedy, and with the inclusion of escaping from a prisoner of war camp). The framing contemporary story didn't grab me, but then I'm not into contemp romances.

I am finding the new Nora Roberts "The Last boyfriend" somewhat slow going and contrived, for example. Well written, just not my style.

I did enjoy the WWII story the most out of the book. The ending to that story did bring a tear to my eye. I'm going to blame 50 Shades to numbing me. After all the emotional drama that is Fifty. The Unsung Hero was too normal. I've recovered now after reading Metro Girl. Nothing like a funny ridiculous Evanovich novel to bring you back to your senses. So I can go back to reading and not be afraid to get emotionally involved with the characters.

[carpetmojo]

Where's the "I dunno what you'm talking about " option ....................

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

Where's the "I dunno what you'm talking about " option ....................

The problem is that people keep making these polls and leaving out The Blue one next to the fish option.

[Shopaholic]

Well, I toyed with buying them after hearing about the hype. I used Amazon's customer reviews to come to the conclusion to NOT buy them. I heard it was Twilight fanfic and cringed. I did read the Twilight series. Meh. Poorly written Harlequin romance but I like vampires so I trudged through it. Well,.....vampires before Stephanie Meyer's treatment of them.

I heard the Grey series was labelled as erotica. Ok. I'm cool with that. However after reading one person's review I decided that I would not be buying them. To sum it up, they said something to the effect of how erotic can a book labelled as erotica be when the character refers to her female sexual organs (don't know if I can say the word on here so I won't) as 'down there'. I was tempted to use one of the Kobo 90% off coupons but after reading that review I passed altogether. lol

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Shopaholic

Well, I toyed with buying them after hearing about the hype. I used Amazon's customer reviews to come to the conclusion to NOT buy them. I heard it was Twilight fanfic and cringed. I did read the Twilight series. Meh. Poorly written Harlequin romance but I like vampires so I trudged through it. Well,.....vampires before Stephanie Meyer's treatment of them.

I heard the Grey series was labelled as erotica. Ok. I'm cool with that. However after reading one person's review I decided that I would not be buying them. To sum it up, they said something to the effect of how erotic can a book labelled as erotica be when the character refers to her female sexual organs (don't know if I can say the word on here so I won't) as 'down there'. I was tempted to use one of the Kobo 90% off coupons but after reading that review I passed altogether. lol

Yes the sex scenes are very tame. I've read Blaze books that were hotter. The problem is they are long drawn out and always from Anna's point of view and she uses the same words over and over at each scene so it's like rinse and repeat after awhile just a different setting. Who ever buys this for the erotica is going to be severely disappointed. If I didn't know a married woman wrote this I would of have though the author was somewhat inexperienced and just read a bunch of how to BDSM manuals to add to her lack of experience.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Blossom

If I didn't know a married woman wrote this I would of have though the author was somewhat inexperienced

Pretty sure those things are not always mutually exclusive.

[xg4bx]

i'm so jaded that i think they sell well exactly because they're poorly written, easy reads.

the more a thing is dumbed down the more demographics it opens up to.

[wyndslash]

thanks for the link it was really funny

as a woman, I too have also read lots of romances/erotica (though in the m/m genre, heh). I've never been a fan of twilight, so I don't think I'll be a fan of this either.

Maybe because they're poorly written, most people can relate to the language? Isn't there a saying somewhere how media reflects current society?

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by abookreader

I tend to avoid BDSM erotica altogether because it just tends to evoke negative feelings in me.

Same here.

Plus, I almost never like the overly hyped books that "just everyone" is reading.