The first book I read by EL James was Grey - the original fifty shades as told by Christian Grey. She's a British author, who has only recently started writing books. While she may be fairly new, the Fifty Shades of Grey series is popular enough that she has a full sexual product line, a trilogy, and a second version of the first book - telling it from Christian's perspective instead of Ana's, one movie out, and one on the way.

Fifty Shades Darker is about Christian trying to win Ana back and the changes that occur to their relationship in the process. I liked this book better than the first one, but I like the story being told from Christian's perspective better than from Ana's. Ana seems immature, childish, and complains too often for my liking. She also fixates on Christian's problems which stem from his past.

Christian acknowledges that he wants Ana to be more of his equal, and manages to give her more of the romance and affection she needs. She is able to help him overcome, or at least begin to overcome, some of the issues from his past, but he still has a long way to go. Yes, they both make mistakes, but they work through them this time, as opposed to Ana walking out on him.

One of his ex-submissives tries to attack Ana, and he ends up saving her, and trying to help his ex-sub at the same time. Another one of his exes is jealous of Ana, which is an interesting plot twist. The later also leads to his parents understanding a little more about his sex life than he is honestly comfortable with. He deals with it all, loses Charlie Tango, and marries Ana.

I liked the books layout and design. While I think Ana sounds far too childish for my liking, and EL James really should've edited some of that out (as well as some of her fixations), I think it is put together fairly well overall. I have the softcover, trilogy book set, which is made of decent materials. The binding is good, however the pages are a little thin, which isn't necessary that uncommon anymore. The hardcover does not come in a box set, has unevenly cut pages, a dust jacket, and designs on the end pages.

While I like BDSM (and have a Dom myself), I didn't like Christian hurting Ana. In the second book, they still engage in a few BDSM activities from time to time, but she is treated better, and as a result, I enjoyed the book more.