Sally Ember, Ed.D.

This book just got worse and worse. I did finish it, but I felt as if I needed to go visit a feminist consciousness-raising session for about a year to undo the horrible, misogynistic, retro/atavistic messages Myra Banks promotes in this book. I also dipped into Book 2, just to see what it was about. It is not so much a continuation as it is an expansion, focusing on 2 other characters.

However, same old, same old. Man possesses woman, woman surprises herself (but, somehow, not the man) by wanting to be a submissive. Bondage and more bondage, lots of similar sex to Book 2, repetition, obsessiveness, redundancy, psychological imbalances masquerading as interesting character traits, saying the same phrases over and over and over, planned and perfect orgasms, yada yada yada.

Am I the only one who found the "50 Shades" trilogy (and, yes, I read all 3) and these two books BORING??? I kept waiting for it to get more interesting. It doesn't.

I get that people want to read porn and pretend they're not, but couldn't the writing be better? Couldn't the characters (or, more importantly, the BOOKS0 be distinguishable? Couldn't the plots be more interesting? Couldn't the female characters have psychological strength and still be attractive? Couldn't the male characters NOT be so totally screwed UP yet somehow, "irresistible" to the females?

I despair of the mental and sexual health of 20 - 40-somethings if this is what they want to fantasize about for themselves. Are these characters really their role models for perfect lives? Sure, who wouldn't want to be a/be involved with a gazillionare. But do these guys have to be so horrible in relationships?

Am I just too old, too feminist, too realistic, too educated (especially about psychology) to buy these kinds of fictional worlds? Probably, yes. Not going on to Book 3. Thank goodness.