Here is my no-spoiler review of Darker by E.L James. ( 4/5 stars)

Darker by E.L James is the re-telling of Fifty Shades Darker but told from Christian’s perspective, the sequel takes off from where Grey left off.

After Anastasia leaves, Christian finds himself more desperate than ever to get her back, even if it means living on her terms instead of his. Christian is still struggling to deal with his past which is affecting his ability to have a future with Ana. Can Christian be the man who Ana wants? Will his past continue to drive a wedge between them?

I thoroughly enjoyed this re-telling of ‘Fifty Shades Darker’ and it followed on beautifully from Grey, I listened to the audible version of this to save time reading and I feel this could affect the way I review books because it’s a totally different experience from reading in my opinion. I have already read this story previously so this may also affect the way I have reviewed this novel as I am not going to be surprised by any of the contents of the book.

Although everything about this story is the exact same as Fifty Shades Darker, we get to know more about how those events affected Christian which is something that we didn’t get in the original. As well as that, we are also given small segments of Christian’s memories of his birth mother and of Elena his mother’s friend who introduced him to the BDSM lifestyle.  These small snippets really are useful to understanding Christian as a person and I didn’t feel like I understood him properly until I read these novels.

Darker dives deeper into some of the childhood trauma that Christian suffered and how Ana’s presence makes some of the pain go away. I feel like their love definitely blossoms in Darker as they stride away from the initial submissive relationship that they had planned. E.L James has the ability to write really erotic work as well as approach the more delicate subjects such as child abuse with sensitivity.

I really hope E.L James decides to write a re-telling of Fifty Shades Freed to complete this series. I mentioned in my review of Grey which you can read here, that I had a hard time choosing who’s perspective I prefer, but after re-reading Grey and Darker, I definitely choose Christian’s P.O.V.

“Baby, you read me like one of your books; except I’m not the hero. I’ll never be the hero.” – Darker by E.L James

You can buy your copy of ‘Darker’ here. (Affiliate Link)

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