Fifty Shades Darker

**Links: Book 1**

That was an intense book. And it wasn't entirely the sex that made it intense. You have the threat of an ex-sub, a new boss who is rather creepy, and an ex-Domme who is just a witch.

I liked this book better than the first. The first book had so little in the way of character development, that I didn't feel like I really got to know the characters until I read this book. Now, I find Christian and Ana sort of endearing.

I still love the sex scenes, but I am still pregnant. They're still intense and descriptive, but the fear that I had that Christian would try to take things too far isn't there anymore.

So, like I said last time, I enjoyed this book, but if you aren't into descriptive sex scenes, don't read this.

Fifty Shades of Grey

Wow. Intense book. It definitely lives up to the genre of Erotic Romance. I enjoyed the story, partly because I'm pregnant and my husband is deployed. So it was nice to vanish into a book of such an erotic nature. I will confess that it caused some rather intense dreams that I likely wouldn't have had if I hadn't been reading this right up to the time I fell asleep last night.

I will say, as someone who really enjoys writing, this was not something that I would call well-written. There are grammar mistakes, and at times the story is weak. But, it's an erotic novel. I didn't have high expectations for the writing. I went into it really wanting the erotic part of it. And that didn't fail me.

Don't read this if you can't handle sex scenes written in detail. Don't read this if you can't handle bondage and domination and control. Believe me. You would not enjoy this book. But, if you don't mind those, by all means, read this book.

Out of Oz

**Links: Book 1 * Book 2 * Book 3**

I am so sad to see the end of the Wicked Years series. Gregory Maguire's Oz is beautiful and his story telling makes me feel like I'm there.

The fourth and final installment of this series mostly follows Rain, the daughter of Liir and Candle, the granddaughter of Elphaba. It is not solely her story, but she seems to be the primary character who is followed. A girl who doesn't know who she is, doesn't know where she fits in. Someone that I think a lot of kids could relate to, not that I would recommend letting children read this book. But, hell, I was able to relate to her. I think everyone goes through some period of not knowing who they are or where they belong and you can relate to Rain.

A lot of questions are answered. But there is one big question that you will still be left with, although there are some inferences that you can make in regards to it: What happened to Elphaba? Did she really die? It's never answered as to what happened to her and whether she just disappeared or she actually was killed by Dorothy. But the question of what happened to the last Ozma, how each character would evolve, even what the Grimmerie is needed for.

Even though books two and three in this series are kind of subpar, the last book is amazing. It's on a level with Wicked and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves that first book. There are hidden gems in this book. References to classic novels, and even references to the musical. You just have to be paying attention and watch for them.

Othello

Ok. I have to admit, I kind of enjoyed this play. Granted, it's one of Shakespeare's tragedies, but it seems like I enjoy his tragedies better than his comedies.

Othello is a black man married to a white woman. This is something that was pretty unheard of in Shakespeare's time. You have Iago, who is basically the little devil on Othello's shoulder. He convinces Othello that Desdemona, his wife, is unfaithful.

I'm not sure what it is, but I find something interesting about how in all of the Shakespearean tragedies I have read, people die. They're either murdered or they commit suicide. No one dies a natural death in his plays, and for some bizarre reason, I enjoy that.

So, yes, I enjoyed reading the tragedy of Othello.

Shakespeare's Sonnets

Ugh. What a nightmare. Going through all of Shakespeare's Sonnets is a bit of a headache. Don't get me wrong, there are some great and memorable sonnets in there. But to sit and read through all 154 sonnets and try to understand them just wasn't happening. I struggled. A lot.

I'll probably never sit and read through the sonnets again, and I only did it now because I had to. I gave it a three star review on Goodreads because there are some great sonnets in there. Sonnet 18 for example is probably his most well known (Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?).

I think my biggest problem was how disjointed they felt. Each sonnet is 14 lines long, but multiple sonnets conveyed a single thought pattern. It's hard to keep things straight when you're not feeling very clear about it. I just didn't enjoy reading them that much.

The Tempest

Shakespeare is good at confusing plays. I just felt like I was floundering a little in this one. It's easily summarized as: the former Duke of Milan is mad that his brother has taken his dukedom and he and his daughter have been stranded on an island, so he comes up with a plot to gain back his dukedom by shipwrecking his brother and the King of Naples on the island. Yeah. Now stretch that to five acts.

It wasn't a horrible play. I was able to read it well enough, but it just has these confusing elements, particularly the spirits that Prospero calls to do his dirty work. And let's be honest, they do all of his dirty work. He just sits back and calls upon one in particular (Ariel) to go and either wrangle or confuse the characters that have been shipwrecked.

It was all very confusing.

The Merchant of Venice

I'm not quite sure about this play. The way it began made me feel as if I was being thrust into the middle of a story and I had missed the important things in the beginning. It didn't improve as it felt that there were two rather conflicting stories that were being forced to be one.

Granted, it was a comedy, and there were some funny moments. But it's rather anti-Semitic in nature, and I found the tension between the Jewish character Shylock and the Christian character Antonio to be rather cruel. It felt as if Shylock was acting the way he did solely because he was Jewish and Antonio Christian.

I don't know. I didn't love this play, but I have a fondness for William Shakespeare, so I liked reading it. It was a play I'd never read or really experienced, so I did enjoy that.