The Mister by E L James

I heard about The Mister by E L James, of all places, on the Wendy Williams show...  Disclaimer:  I DO NOT WATCH THIS SHOW.  It was just on one morning and I happened to "see" the first 5 or so minutes of the show and Wendy was talking about it.  Now, I did read (and enjoy) the 50-Shades series of books.  I wasn't currently reading a book.  I was curious about what else she wrote about.  So, I asked the Husband to get this book for me from the library.  He's become quite the library aficionado.  He's my book sherpa.

I started this book on April 28 and finished it on May 13.

Where do I start...  I mostly enjoyed the book.  However - it was basically another 50 Shades retold in England.  There's a rich guy who sleeps around.  There's a meek, shy, not rich girl who is the rich guy's maid.  He becomes infatuated with her.  He starts sleeping with her.  He falls in love with her.  He has to save her from something bad.  And they live happily ever after.

Same plot, different character names.  Judging by a lot of reviews on Amazon, others feel the same.  I was hoping for more.  Disappointing.

Darker by E L James

Yes, I read the 50 Shades series.  Yes, I liked it.  No, it won't win any Pulitzers (or Oscars for the movie versions).  Yes, they (books and movies) were entertaining.  They are literally like book porn.  Shit, they are book porn.  Back in July 2015, I read Grey, the 4th book in the series, and ironically, the Husband told me that a 5th book was coming out and he put me on the waiting list for it at the public library.  He won't read these books, he won't see the movies, yet, he has told me about the last 2 books that have come out...  I think he's secretly a 50 Shades fan...

Well, this book continues being raunchy, dirty, and pornographic.  It tells the next part of the story from Christian's perspective.  It was entertaining and I tore through it in 8 days - started it January 14th and finished on January 21.  I liked it.

Here's what I didn't like.  This is the telling of the story in the 2nd 50 Shades book - 50 Shades Darker (hence this book's title just Darker).  However, this book departs from the original story it is based on.  Things in this book are completely different than in the book it is derived from.

For example, Christian's sub, Leila, does pull a gun on Ana in her apartment, but it happened at a different part in the story than the original,  Leila buzzes Ana into the apartment - Ana assumed it was Kate's brother who was there already waiting for her.  Kate's brother doesn't make an appearance in the original.  When Ana leaves the apartment, in the original she walks alone through a rainy Seattle.  In this version, she leaves with Kate's brother and gets drunk.  There are many many examples of inconsistencies and flat out different scenarios in Darker than in 50 Shades Darker.

So, while entertaining, and a page turner, this was off-putting.  It was basically a different story.  Maybe this is intentional - this is supposed to be from Christian's perspective, but most of this book is revisionist history.

If you are a die hard fan of the original, this will likely be off-putting.  If you don't care that much, you'll probably like it.

Oh, and reading this, I see even more direct correlations to Twilight.