Monday 22 April 2019

πŸ’œ THE MISTER by EL JAMES πŸ’œ


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Well. Where do I start? πŸ€” This might get a bit long and ranty. ☺

I was thinking about not writing anything about this. People have to make up their own minds about things anyway. And even though I shouldn't care, I'm just so disappointed about all those really bad and mean reviews I've seen on here. I can totally understand a bad-ish rating or no rating if it's not your kind of book or if some things about it bothered you. But most of those 1-star reviewers just read the book so that they could complain about it! Why read it then? You probably didn't love Fifty Shades either. You're probably jealous of Erika's success or you think she stole everything from those sparkly vampire books. Or just the opposite - you've only ever read Fifty and you love it so hard and you expected the exact same story in The Mister. But how is the book or the author to blame if the book wasn't at all what you were expecting??? Nobody said it was going to be the new Fifty or that it was a porn book or a thrilling thriller. Ugh. I could rant on forever about this!

Anyway. As I've said - people have to make up their own minds. Read the blurb and some good and bad reviews and decide if you want to read this book. It's not Fifty Shades. It's actually better in some ways. But of course it's not the exact same funny and erotic and dramatic and slightly immature love story that Ana and Christian gave us. Why should/would it be? Makes no sense.

But it is a love story! A Beautiful Cinderella-ish Love Story with some very heartbreaking and adorable and funny and sweet and erotic and interesting moments! AND I LOVED IT! Yup - there. I said it. I LOVED THE MISTER! I really did. It took me almost a week to read it. On purpose. I didn't want to rush it. I wanted to savour every single moment of this story. It's not every day that we get a book written by Erika! And I enjoyed it. Very much. But I can also see why some of the more mature (not old) reviewers say it didn't grab them or that it was too slow or uneventful. It might appear that way to some people. Maybe to fast-readers especially. That's why you should really take your time with this book. Get some wine or a mug of hot chocolate and some snacks. (I always get snacky while reading!) Cuddle up somewhere comfy and let Alessia, Maxim and Erika pull you away from life and into this beautiful world...

Ok - before I start with my real review - should I be proud or offended that one of the bad guys got my last name??? πŸ€” Hm. Not sure.

OK - here goes. Hahaha - for a second here I was tempted to just write: I LOVED IT - 5 STARS - NUFF SAID - and leave it at that. But I just can't do it. I have to go into a bit more detail about what I loved and didn't love-love.

First of all here's my rating - just so you know that this is not going towards the one-star pile - it will probably sound like it a few times during my review, but it's definitely a five-star book for me!!
(I'll take this moment to advance-apologize to Erika for whatever I'm going to write next!)

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Should we start with what I didn't like? To get it out of the way? ☺ I'm pretty sure my don't-like text will be so much longer than my love text, but that doesn't mean anything! ☺

OK ... remember when you first read Fifty Shades? And Fifty was not your very first book - you've read a lot of good and even erotic books before. And then you read Fifty and you loved it - so much. BUT. I had my problems with Fifty. With the writing most of all. It didn't feel like a real author wrote it. Ugh - please forgive me for saying this Erika! But the writing in the Fifty books was not amazing. And it wasn't supposed to be. Erika wasn't an author. She didn't go to college to become an author. It was a hobby. I never expected to get some super-literature-thing when I read Fifty. I still loved the story. Even though some parts of it I could've done without - like the inner goddess and the bdsm. LOL!

But back to the writing in Fifty. It was totally okay and readable, but some little things bothered me. Like the fact that an English person wrote an 'American' book. That's a thing I always complain about - no idea why it bothers me so much, but it does. In Fifty you notice in almost every line or on every page, that the author is not American. Which is one of the best things about THE MISTER! It's an English author writing and English story. YAY! Finally! I still don't like the Britishness in some situations - like those situation where I just don't know what she's talking about!
What I hated in Fifty and what I still didn't love in The Mister, was the overuse of the word EXQUISITE! There must be another word that can be exchanged for that!?!? Please.

The positive thing about remembering that the writing in Fifty was a not-so-good, is the fact that the writing in The Mister is SO MUCH BETTER!!!! So much. Maybe it's still about the British-Author-British-Story thing, but I really think Erika got so much better! YAY!

Another thing I didn't like about The Mister ... and I'm not the only one. Almost every review I've seen mentions that they hate that. The POVs. The book is told in Maxim's first person POV. Perfect. I love that. But then we get Alessia's POV and she gets another POV thingy. Why? I heard other authors saying that they can't get into the minds of their male characters and that's why they do it in their books, but with this book it is the male character who we get the first person POV from. Maybe Erika couldn't get into the mind of Alessia? Or she just wanted the two to sound differently. Who knows. I didn't love it, but I got used to it while reading. But I know that many many readers will really hate that.

Next thing I didn't love. The book is pretty long. Which I love, but you get the feeling that it's blubbering along and nothing much exciting is happening and then we get a bit more action towards the end and that's it. I loved the blubbering. Every single scene that happened to our two darlings was beautiful to me, but I can understand why people will say that the story wasn't really happening for them. That there was no story. And that's a bit sad. Maybe something could've been added here and there to make it more interesting for some readers, but pfff - who cares. I loved it.

Another little thing. Some readers might run away in the beginning because Maxim comes across as a bit of a slut. He has a new girl in his bed every night. And it could've mayyybe be done a bit differently - maybe just mention it in some way, instead of showing us all the sexy moments with NOT the heroine!

Now I will write a bit about the end - I will put it into a spoiler thingy - so please don't read it if you haven't read the book. Or maybe - if you're too scared to read the book because you fear it's going to Cliffhanger you - you're allowed to read the spoiler thingy too: - just move your mouse or finger across the following - I'll write it in white! The end. Well. What can I say. It's all exciting and Albania and parents and betrothed and kidnapping and whatnot and then we get the happy end-ish moment and then it's over. 😯 We're pretty sure we'll get a second book by that point, but why do it like that? Couldn't Erika have said that it would be a duet? Or even a trilogy? I know she mentioned a few times that it might end up being more than one book, but I would've loved it more if it would say so in the book and on goodreads. And I know that publishers don't like to do that because they'll lose trillions of dollars because people won't buy book #1 until book #2 is out. But still - I would've preferred going into this story knowing that there will be more! It could've said in the blurb that there won't be a cliffy or at least not a bad one. Whoops, I forgot about all of you who were wondering about a cliffy. As I just said there is no cliffy really. There's no bomb that explodes and we're left to wonder who survived. No!! It's just that we don't get an epilogue and the last moments and lines definitely leave room for another book!! Lots of story left to be told! I want so much more. More of the sister, the mother, Maxim's new 'job', Alessia's music and hopefully a career, travels, wedding, children. SO MUCH LEFT TO TELL!

I think that's all the 'bad' stuff I had in my head...

What did I love about The Mister?
Pretty much everything. ☺

Let's start with the cover!
Isn't it pretty?!?! Erika made that herself! Perfect picture and perfect colors. I love it. And the title. It sounds weird at first, but when we get to know Maxim and Alessia and we 'hear' Alessia say that word - it is beyond adorable!! I can't wait to hear her say it in the movie!

Then we have our darling's stories. Maxim, the rich boy who used to be happy living his carefree playboy life. But he's not really that guy anymore since his brother died. He needs to grow up now. And Alessia comes along at the exact right moment.
Alessia. The super-talented girl from Albania who left her scary life with the hope of a future full of exciting and happy things. But of course it didn't happen that way. But now that second chance is possible with the Mister ...
It's so adorable to see them get to know each other and fall for each other. I loved watching them fight for their happy end. And it's not an easy journey for our two darlings. But they still give us a lot of fun and adorable and erotic moments to swoon over! I loved how he watches her play the piano. I loved how they smile and beam at each other, when they haven't had much to smile about for a long while. I loved how she takes his hand when they walk through town. I loved every little thing about their love story.
And even though I said that there's not much happening in this story, that's really not true. Yes, we don't have people shooting at us every other chapter, or some ex bit*h showing up to drive us apart or a parent or sibling trying to buy someone off. But there's still so much happening and if you let yourself - you will fall in love with that story too.

Then we have the typical Erika music moments. There's a lot of music in this book. Classical and modern - and I don't like one piece of it. LOL! But I don't have to like the songs. I still love that there's music in this book. So much music and food and drinks and cars and places and history and language and real-world problems like human trafficking and death and family expectations ... et cetera.

I was just wondering about something ... how will those Albanian lines in this book be translated into the Albanian version of the book??? There are so many Albanian words and lines in this book! The same thing I wondered when I read Ana Karenina - there was so much German in there! How do they do it??? πŸ€”

Ugh, I feel like I've written a whole book of my own ... why did I write so much? I probably didn't even make any sense!

The only thing I really wanted to say was ... I LOVED THIS BOOK! AND I REALLY HOPE WE'LL GET MORE FROM ALESSIA & MAXIM!



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