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.

The Girl who takes an Eye for an Eye by David Lagercrantz

I'm a big fan of the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series - I've read all of the books and I saw the original movies in Swedish.  I haven't actually seen the English version of the movies.  I read The Girl in the Spider's Web in September 2017 and really liked it.

I started this one on/around January 1st and finished it on January 13th.  While I generally liked this book, it, to me, seemed a bit too formulaic.  It picks up where the Spider's Web leaves off, and Lisbeth is in jail serving time for her part in the craziness from the prior book.

Of course, Mikael, Holger, and several other regular characters, make their appearance, and of course we meet some new players.

Like with the other novels, Lisbeth takes an active role in righting a wrong.  In this one, there are a few wrongs that get righted all at the hands of Lisbeth and Mikael (as per usual).  They've really turned into quite the crime-fighting duo.  Like Scooby and Shaggy, Batman and Robin, Crocket and Tubbs, Cagney & Lacey.  Lisbeth does the sketchy behind-the-scenes stuff, and Mikael puts it all together and publishes an article to bring it all to light.  This version is very entertaining, and we find out a lot more about Lisbeth's tragic childhood and the source of inspiration for her dragon tattoo.

Even in jail, Lisbeth gets access to a computer and does some work with lists of people.  She clues Mikael into something but doesn't give him too much so as not to bias him.  It's slow going for Mikael at first since he really doesn't know what's going on.  But then... he figures it out.  There were some twists and turns with twins, and a bad people, revelations, violence, and revenge.

Bottom line - this book was entertaining and went to some unexpected places.  I don't think you need to have read all of the prior books to be able to enjoy this one, but I think it certainly helps to have some background into the characters and relationships they all have.  Lisbeth is a bad-ass and I like her.  

I'd give this a medium thumbs-up probably because I wish it had a little more originality and wasn't so formulaic.  But I guess that's sort of what you get when you are reading a book in a series.