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3.06 AVERAGE
3.06 AVERAGE
So many things wrong with this book.
Many similarities FSOG.
Going back and forth from first POV to third POV drived me crazy.
Too many things that were just written to make the book longer that didn't contributed to the story.
I can go on but there's no point.
I don't think I'll be liking another book from Erika as much as FSOG.
Many similarities FSOG.
Going back and forth from first POV to third POV drived me crazy.
Too many things that were just written to make the book longer that didn't contributed to the story.
I can go on but there's no point.
I don't think I'll be liking another book from Erika as much as FSOG.
From what I have read of the previous series, I was expecting a bit more. The previous books (50 shades of Grey) were a lot better.
The writing is so bad. If you’ve read the 50 shades series, the writing style is the same. Most love stories have one major fall out where the couples work back together, this one has way too many too count, and is too much.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from The Mister, but I ended up really enjoying it. E.L. James delivers a modern Cinderella-style romance with a twist of suspense and drama. The story follows Maxim, a wealthy British aristocrat forced to grow up overnight, and Alessia, a shy but strong woman with a painful past who changes his world completely.
The dynamic between the characters is slow-building but intense. Alessia is a standout—quiet yet brave, and her backstory adds emotional depth. Maxim starts off as a bit of a cliché, but his growth throughout the book is actually satisfying to witness. The writing is descriptive, emotional, and occasionally melodramatic, but it fits the tone of the story.
There are definitely moments where the plot stretches believability, but if you’re in the mood for a passionate, escapist read with a fairy-tale feel, this delivers. It’s not Fifty Shades, but fans of James’ storytelling style will still feel right at home.
The dynamic between the characters is slow-building but intense. Alessia is a standout—quiet yet brave, and her backstory adds emotional depth. Maxim starts off as a bit of a cliché, but his growth throughout the book is actually satisfying to witness. The writing is descriptive, emotional, and occasionally melodramatic, but it fits the tone of the story.
There are definitely moments where the plot stretches believability, but if you’re in the mood for a passionate, escapist read with a fairy-tale feel, this delivers. It’s not Fifty Shades, but fans of James’ storytelling style will still feel right at home.
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was a good book. I wanted a little more in the characters.
That was by far one of the worst books I've ever read. I wanted to like it, but the more that I read the moee disgusting it was. It was cheesy, repetitive, boring, dull, EXTREMELY wrong, and if I had to describe it with one word, that word would be: cringy.
Now, make way, I need to read Jane Austen or Agatha Christie rn to get back the braincells that I lost reading this.
Now, make way, I need to read Jane Austen or Agatha Christie rn to get back the braincells that I lost reading this.
Shocked but I actually quite liked it, like watching a b rated film. Knowing it’s not gonna be amazing going in kinda made the whole plot pleasantly cozy? Like a comfort read & I love a simp ✨
Loved it but the ending you don't know if there is a second book coming or not. It could go either way.
In 2020, a YouTuber called "Dominic Noble" offered to read a chapter of this book in exchange for $200 donated to the ACLU. Naturally, his fans rose to the occasion. He hosted several livestreams and then pre-recorded sessions with his friends reading the book out loud to him. As of this review, the fundraiser has reached $46k in total raised.
I mention all this because I had been following along with the livestreams/readings, and thus it's my only exposure to the book. Dom chose to stop the live readings about halfway through the book and as I have no desire to finish it on my own, I'm only reviewing up until that point.
This is both worse and better (in ways) than the Fifty Shades trilogy. It's worse in the sense that it's much more boring-- my infuriation and hatred for Christian Grey at least engaged me. In this book, there are just so many long stretches of nothing happening and no interesting character moments. I can't even get that mad at either of the characters. Don't get me wrong, there is some really gross stuff going on with both of them, but it's more uncomfortable than maddening.
One of my big issues is the perspective changes. It always alerts me when one character is first person and the other is third: to me, that reads that the one in third person isn't as important. And in this book that third person narration is focusing on Alessia, for some reason. A choice that makes no sense on any level and really shoots the writer in the foot when it gets to the first sex scene. Readers can't even live vicariously through her experiencing it because it's narrated by Maxim, and of course he just describes what he's doing rather than how it feels. To me, how it feels is an important part of enjoying smut. But to each their own.
Another thing is just the writing style in general. James chooses to drag out scenes by describing the most minute, unimportant details that add absolutely nothing to the plot, story, or character but does add up the word count and the page number. Sentence and paragraph structure also really kills me and I swear she is just copying SMeyer because they both have a thing of doing a paragraph for each sentence for no discernable reason. And on top of all that, refusing to do something as basic as using words that properly define things (a cleaner referred to as a "daily" who DOES NOT CLEAN EVERY DAY) really makes my brain hurt.
Moving on to the characters, I guess I can commend her for being more honest about these two than she was about Christian and Ana, but maybe that's just because C and A were avatars for Edward and Bella, while Maxim and Alessia weren't constricted by that. Maxim acknowledges he's only interested in fucking Alessia multiple times and there's constant mentions of her "innocence" and giving her childish/infantine qualities. It's creepy, gross, and weird to me, but at least the reader knows what they're in for with these two. The backstories of the two were completely unnecessary as they added basically nothing to either character. Maxim fucking his sister-in-law barely plays a role in anything after the very beginning of the book, and Alessia being a sex-trafficking victim is equally meaningless.
I could go on, but instead I'll just point back to Dominic Noble's channel. The fundraiser I mentioned is still linked to the archived livestreams/readings he's done of this book. I'm sure the ACLU would welcome new donations!
I mention all this because I had been following along with the livestreams/readings, and thus it's my only exposure to the book. Dom chose to stop the live readings about halfway through the book and as I have no desire to finish it on my own, I'm only reviewing up until that point.
This is both worse and better (in ways) than the Fifty Shades trilogy. It's worse in the sense that it's much more boring-- my infuriation and hatred for Christian Grey at least engaged me. In this book, there are just so many long stretches of nothing happening and no interesting character moments. I can't even get that mad at either of the characters. Don't get me wrong, there is some really gross stuff going on with both of them, but it's more uncomfortable than maddening.
One of my big issues is the perspective changes. It always alerts me when one character is first person and the other is third: to me, that reads that the one in third person isn't as important. And in this book that third person narration is focusing on Alessia, for some reason. A choice that makes no sense on any level and really shoots the writer in the foot when it gets to the first sex scene. Readers can't even live vicariously through her experiencing it because it's narrated by Maxim, and of course he just describes what he's doing rather than how it feels. To me, how it feels is an important part of enjoying smut. But to each their own.
Another thing is just the writing style in general. James chooses to drag out scenes by describing the most minute, unimportant details that add absolutely nothing to the plot, story, or character but does add up the word count and the page number. Sentence and paragraph structure also really kills me and I swear she is just copying SMeyer because they both have a thing of doing a paragraph for each sentence for no discernable reason. And on top of all that, refusing to do something as basic as using words that properly define things (a cleaner referred to as a "daily" who DOES NOT CLEAN EVERY DAY) really makes my brain hurt.
Moving on to the characters, I guess I can commend her for being more honest about these two than she was about Christian and Ana, but maybe that's just because C and A were avatars for Edward and Bella, while Maxim and Alessia weren't constricted by that. Maxim acknowledges he's only interested in fucking Alessia multiple times and there's constant mentions of her "innocence" and giving her childish/infantine qualities. It's creepy, gross, and weird to me, but at least the reader knows what they're in for with these two. The backstories of the two were completely unnecessary as they added basically nothing to either character. Maxim fucking his sister-in-law barely plays a role in anything after the very beginning of the book, and Alessia being a sex-trafficking victim is equally meaningless.
I could go on, but instead I'll just point back to Dominic Noble's channel. The fundraiser I mentioned is still linked to the archived livestreams/readings he's done of this book. I'm sure the ACLU would welcome new donations!
