This is the second book in the Fifty Shades Trilogy that has been on the bestseller’s list. By this point, most people have heard of and/or read at least the first book in the trilogy. For some this is a glimpse into the BDSM lifestyle (although a bad one at portraying it correctly), however this book (and the others in the series) is a more of a romance novel.

The story starts out where Fifty Shades left off; Ana has run out on Christian because she doesn’t want to be his sub. She spends less than a week missing him and thinking about him before he appears back in her life again. It doesn’t take long for them to get back to where they started and Christian is willing to take things slowly and have a more “vanilla” relationship. The main negative I have to say about this collection is Ana’s view of the BDSM lifestyle. Yes this is not a lifestyle for everyone, but it is not something that should be classified as “bad”. Also, yes Christian has an “iffy” past where there was plenty of abuse and neglect but being a Dominant in the lifestyle is not something born out of an abusive past, in my opinion.

Although this book focuses on Ana and Christian’s relationship going deeper than it had in the first book, I liked it more than the last one. There was more sex, for the most part vanilla but still more than before, and less of Ana’s annoying voice commenting on everything that was going on in a given scene (although her inner goddess and subconscious still make plenty of appearances). In my last review, I judged the book more on the erotic content because I had been expecting more and different types of sex based on most of the hype it got. This time around I looked it at more from a romance novel perspective and was happier. I am kind of ashamed to admit how wrapped up I got in Christian’s lifestyle and the lavish things that he and Ana get to do, like sailing on his boat and going to eat at fine restaurants and the other things that rich people with lots of time get to do.

Fifty Shades Darker is a little more than 500 pages long, but the writing style makes it a fast read. There is no complex sentence structure, and I have read many reviews that criticize the way the author writes. Depending on my mood when I am reading a book I may or may not let it get to me, as in the case of this time where I just wanted to read the story and see what was going to happen with Ana and Christian. It is not something written to challenge you intellectually or to make you feel smart after reading, it just is.

Overall, I only read this book to see what happens next in the trilogy and to see if the series got any better. I found this 1 star better than the first, but I still don’t see how this got so much popularity and has continued to remain on the bestseller’s list. I feel like maybe there are a lot of people who just want to see why even after reading negative reviews (as is the case with me).

In my review of the first book, I gave it 3 stars, but it was more like 2.5 stars I also gave this one 3 stars, but it is more like 3.5 stars.