What about book reviews?

Do you read book reviews? And if you do, do you put much stock in them? Does it make you go out and get that book? I admit, I’ve read a couple (both good and bad), even received a couple (all good. Whew!), but I’ve never let someone else’s opinion influence my purchase. I like to form my own opinion (and that goes for movies too. I have found, for me though, the worse a movie review is, the more I generally love the movie).  

            

For all the hype about Fifty Shades of Grey, I have yet to read the story. Banish me to the basement where all the old, well-loved books reside, but I haven’t read any of the Twilight Series (I know! Shame on me!)

            

That being said, if a friend simply gushes: “Oh, you have to read this book!” then chances are, I will read that book because my friends know what I read and what I like. I have yet to be steered wrong (thank you, friends!). I have my favorite authors, of course, and I will continue to read them no matter what critics say.

             

So what about you? Does a review (good or bad) influence your purchase? Does it make you want to run right out and buy that book?  And what was the last book you bought because of a review?

As always, happy reading!

Marie

Review: FIFTY SHADES OF GREY by E L James

For those of you have been following my reviews, I tend to only write reviews on books that I felt were well written and kept me interested.  Fifty Shades of Grey has had so much publicity and people who don’t typically read romance, including men, have heard of the novel, so I decided to read it and review it no matter what I concluded.

Anastasia Steele graduates from a Washington college, fresh into the work world and a virgin in the sexual world.  The first man she meets, Christian Grey a billionaire, through a final project for school decides to claim her.

Christian wants Ana to sign a contract as his submissive.  This means she must do whatever he wants sexually as he’s the dominant. 

Ana falls in love with Christian, yet he doesn’t seem to reciprocate more than many sexual acts minus the emotion. 

I became intrigued with E L James’ novel at the point of Christian offering Ana the contract and wondered how she would react. 

After further reading, I felt a subplot or two would have moved the story deeper.  The conflict remained stagnant as it didn’t shift in intensity at any point as Ana’s reaction to the different sexual escapades mirrored one another.

I did enjoy E L James variation in word choice and the ending leads you directly to the next novel - Fifty Shades of Grey is the first of a trilogy.  E L James is commendable in her ability to market her work, originally self-published, to create growing interest and have her work currently retained by Random House. 

I’ve talked with many who’ve also read the novel and have heard everything from “boring” to “I devoured all three novels.”  Guess you’ll have to read it for yourself :-)      

Enjoy,

Dawn