I read this, like many others, for the hype (and because my husband bought it for me), not expecting to like it. Well, Mr. Christian Grey has exceeded my expectations! There is something about this book... perhaps the naughty part that I am almost ashamed to have even read. Perhaps it is the underlying romance that is rather believable and touching. All I know is that I really enjoyed this book. 
 There is an exciting, dark, forbidden element to it, which alone, isn't enough to make me like it. What is great about this is that I got wrapped up in being there, with Christian Grey, and I can understand all the emotions that this girl is going through. I won't comment on the physical aspect... not necessary. Being a female though, and having loved and lost people that I was entirely conflicted with is a very familiar thing I can relate to. I totally understood the hesitation she had, the passion she felt, the confusion and frustration about the situation, which if you read the synopsis then you already know about it and I don't have to summarize. 
 Many people slammed the book for being poorly written, but I don't think so. The author writes simply and in first person present, and does a good job of drawing you in, which is part of why I was able to read it so quickly. That being said, there are a lot of strange words that seemed as if they were pulled directly out of a thesaurus, many repetitive phrases that I could see getting old ("holy crap", "oh", "he hitched his breath", "I flushed"), and the whole inner goddess and subconscious thing was right on the line of being annoying. But the scenes were all described quite well and very vividly, which if you're reading this book then you should appreciate it. If you are uptight or against this type of book then you shouldn't be reading it anyway, in my opinion. 
 Like I said, I didn't expect to enjoy this book nearly as much as I did. I can't wait to start the second one... this one was left in quite the emotional cliffhanger.