Fifty Shades of Grey

Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy

By: E. L. James

Narrated by: Becca Battoe

Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

More than 150 million copies sold worldwide.

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too - but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success - his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family - Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

This audiobook is intended for mature audiences.

Look for E L James’ passionate new love story, The Mister, coming April 16, 2019.

©2011 E L James (P)2012 Random House

Critic reviews

• Finalist, GoodReads Choice Awards, Best Romance

Better story when read

I read this story first on my iPad and then again with the actual book and now the audio book.

I had a firm understanding on who the characters where, what they looked like and how they sounded. The narrator made different choices than I did and unfortunately it diminished my enjoyment of this story the third time around.

Biggest pet peeve is the narrator not keeping a consistent voice for Christian. Sometimes he had a stuffy accent and other times he sounded closer to how I would have pictured him. I felt she lacked the level of torment needed to portray a character such as Christian. I do feel that she did well with Ana. Really gave her the innocent naive sound that she needed but I guess it is challenging to get them both right since they are both so different.

Great book

Any additional comments?

This a great book and you won't want to turn it off. I find myself listening for a quick listen if I only have 5 minutes. The narration leaves something to be desired.
I procasitnated on listening to this book because of such harsh reviews on the narration.
However when I purchased I relized it is bad but not unbarable.
The book is written with a young audlt in mind so she sounds age appropriate.
When the narrator does the male voices it leaves something to be desired.
There could be more emotion through out the whole book on the narrators part.
I was expecting worse on the narration but it is bare able and the context of the book makes up for the rest.

Loved the book!

I couldn't stop listening! Laughter, tears, the intense feelings inside me listening to this book. The words are so descriptive, it was like watching a movie in my head.

Ok

The narrator was ok. I felt really annoyed with her Christian voice but everything else was good. I hated all the email reading and there was ALOT of sex. It really didn't need so much. But it was well written and I want to read the next one.

A good story

I listen to this book after the movie came out. It is a good story and the 2 main people have a intense and interesting relationship.

E.L. James delivers

My husband and I listen together, Becca lost us when she attempted men's voices, just read em straight.

Went viral due to Nature of content, not writing

Okay, all women have sexual fantasies; many enjoy reading erotica with a believable storyline and, of course, hot, steamy sex scenes. Kindle, Audible.com, etc. make it possible for people to read/listen to erotica in public without others seeing the title or suggestive book cover. I believe this, along with the average person's curiosity about BDSM and D/s, is the only reason Fifty Shades went viral.

The book reads like an author's first attempt (and it is a good attempt) at writing. She does a good job with character development and does have better-than-average writing skills. I appreciate the author's verbiage and seemingly wide-ranging knowledge of American and British literature as well as eclectic taste in music. The way she wrote about literature, music, and especially BDSM, however, felt stilted and studied...not natural. On the flip side, she was obviously more comfortable writing about the dynamics of relationships, friendships, sexual tension, buildup, and release, and her writing style was smooth and flowing. (she just needs a good editor for some of the redundancies!)

If -- If this book were properly and professionally edited, it might be better visually read than listened to.

In my opiion, this particular narrator completely missed the mark. This book may have been better read by a man who can credibly perform women's roles. I almost put the book down a few times due completely to the narration. Maybe I'm being too harsh; audible has me spoiled with some of their brilliant narration performances.

Knowing what I know now, would I spend the credit again? Yes, but with much lower expectations. Looking for well-read sizzling BDSM D/s fiction? Try "A Good Student" by Elliot Mabeuse--after completing the Grey series. Student is slightly more realistic with very, very sexually explicit content.

I am in no way bashing this book. It just does not belong on NYTimes or Audible's top 100 list, much less top 10. So, lower your expectations and have fun listening!

Fifty shades of gray

As far as books of this genre go, the erotic scenes were embedded in the whole story and were done well.

However, in gereneral, the writing quality of the book is quite poor. There are too many unnecessary repetitions that irritate the reader. Also the whole book is like a TV show where you have product placements on the scene. Some parts really sound annoyingly like advertisement.

The narrator was just OK, but she wasn't very successful with the different voices, especially the male ones. I usually was not able to understand who was speaking.

On the whole, I think it is a very sad story. All throughout the book, my dominant feeling was of sadness.

Awesome book.. great reader

was my first time using audible... won't be my last! narrator was expressive and easy to listen to. .. conveyed the book better than I ever could have read it myself

Spectacular!

If you could sum up Fifty Shades of Grey in three words, what would they be?

HOT

What did you like best about this story?

Details

Have you listened to any of Becca Battoe’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

no

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When he stayed the night for the first time with her

Any additional comments?

Must Read!
A cant put the damn book down kind of read...