orchids to ashes: May 2012

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I came across E L James' Fifty Shades of Grey while perusing the book store. It was actually the second book in the trilogy, Fifty Shades Darker that caught my attention. I was vaguely interested but decided to put the book down. Over the next few days, talk of Fifty Shades of Grey was mounting by numerous people I follow on Twitter. I had to know what all the hype was about, so I purchased the books, unable to resist. I knew virtually nothing about the books, except that they were romance, and that's about the extent of it.
I was slapped sideways within the first few chapters.

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The book follows Anastasia Steele¸ an unworldly, unsophisticated English Literature student whose life takes an unexpected turn when she literally stumbles into the office of entrepreneur Christian Grey. Wealthy, powerful, good-looking Christian immediately entices and intimidates innocent Ana, and she finds herself unable to stop thinking of him. The feeling is mutual, and despite his feeble attempts at convincing himself to leave her be, Christian makes the decision to pursue Ana.
However a regular courtship this is not...

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Christian Grey is a man with a tortured past, and a closet full of demons. He is consumed by his need to control and his sexual taste follows suit. Sexually inexperienced Anastasia finds herself intrigued and stunned by what Christian has to offer...Christian is not looking for love he is looking for a Submissive. Despite her misgivings, Ana finds herself caught up in a whirlwind affair that is erotic, exciting and slightly terrifying. As Ana begins to learn more about Christian, she finds herself falling in love with a severely damaged man. The line between pleasure and pain thins, and Ana struggles as she is caught between her own needs and her need to please Christian.

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I have to admit that from the beginning I was hooked on Fifty Shades of Grey, and could not put this book down, despite finding the sex to be overkill. In general, I am a romance reader as opposed to Erotica, so I am not that familiar with the genre. Although I have been told that the Fifty Shades Series is somewhat tame for the genre, I found the sex to be constant and not always that interesting. Still, I was as compelled to read this book as Anastasia is to Christian. There is an intensity to the story that really sucks you in. I had to know what happened. Fifty Shades of Grey ends abruptly so I quickly got started on Fifty Shades Darker.
By the time I was midway into this book, it occurred to me that I actually really disliked both Anastasia and Christian, and found them both immature and annoying, quite often. I was somewhat irritated by aspects of the storyline. What began as interesting and unique was starting to become incredibly redundant, as there was a great deal of repetition.
Still after I made my way through Fifty Shades Darker, I was determined to finish Fifty Shades Freed, mainly because I had already invested my time in almost 1100 pages of Fifty Shades. Might as well find out how this ends. By the time I had reached completion, I admittedly only read half the book because I was too bored to read all the sex, which occurred almost every few pages.
I did ALOT of skimming.

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Overall, I didn't hate these books...in fact, I really did enjoy the first book. I did however dislike the characters. Do I understand the hype? I do...the subject was a bold choice. It's rather impressive to see Erotica fiction become so hugely popular amongst the mainstream. I suppose some credit can be given to the Ebook for this phenomenon, making Erotica more assessable in a less obvious way to the modern female reader. Did I think it was necessary to stretch the story out over 1600 pages? Absolutely not. Especially since about 800 of those pages were kinky f**kery.

This is our first Spring/Summer in our house and while my husband has taken on the feat of nourishing our lawn into luscious greenness, the front and back gardens have become my birth child. After about 24 hours worth of grueling work, I have finally completed the overhaul of the backyard garden.

This has been my first experience with my own garden, so it's trial and error to see what we will like
and continue with next year. Luckily, I have a wonderful mother-in-law, who has taken the time to help me out and bring me some Lilies from her own garden and Hostas.