Fifty Shades of Grey (James) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
This is a book that will spark converstion like no other—on many levels, for many reasons and it's not just about the sex. It's a fresh witty look about courtship and compromise, written in a delightful style. It's about how the past shapes our present and how one person challenges another in a relationship. The characters are endearing and unpreidictable making it a fun enchanting read.
Princeton Review (online)


Odds are also that each woman [reading Fifty Shades of Grey] is in a state of arousal, amusement, or, at the very least, amazement at the ingenuity and imagination with which the pseudonymous James...has made steamy female-centric erotica out of what began as Twilight fan fiction. If Bella Swan had more gumption and sexual curiosity, she might be Anastasia Steele
Lisa Schwarzbaum - Entertainment Weekly


So is it worth picking up a copy? Yes, if you come prepared to wade through pages of treacly cliche. James’s subject matter may be hard-hitting, but her writing is as hackneyed as the hoariest Mills & Boon. Words like “Adonis” circle round almost every mention of Gray, who can’t stop “flashing his grey eyes” at the smitten Steele; and she, for her part, talks repeatedly and irritatingly of her “inner goddess."... In fact it's the definition of a page-turner: even if anyone unfamiliar with the world of BDSM [bondage, discipline, sado-masochism]  is likely to turn the pages more out of horrified fascination than engagement with the characters.
Telegraph (UK)