Fifty Shades Freed Book Tour: Author E.L. James Guest Posting

Bona Fide Reflections proudly welcomes E.L. James!! I am so excited to have her visit the blog today.

 There are three things going on with this post:

1.  Guest post by E.L. James

2. Bona Fide Review of Fifty Shades Freed

3. Complete the Rafflecopter to enter to win your own copy of Fifty Shades Freed.  

Without further ado, I am handing over the blog to E.L. James:

E.L. James' Guest Post

I love cars.  Funnily enough so does Christian Grey (boys and their toys!) and he’s wealthy enough to afford my dream car – a black Audi R8 Spyder.

But more on that later...

I have a thing about Audis, which is a little weird, because I drive a convertible Mini One - although I do love it. Christian only owns Audis.  His staff – Taylor, his additional security team (when they arrive) and Mrs. Jones - all drive Audis.  Taylor is lucky enough to get to drive whatever he’s told to, and as an ex-Armor Senior Sergeant, he can drive … anything. 

The first car to feature in the Fifty Shades trilogy is Kate’s Mercedes CLK. These are beautiful machines too.  Kate is lucky enough to come from a wealthy background, and her daddy not only buys her condos in which to live, but expensive cars too. Ana relishes the journey from Vancouver in Washington (where she’s studying) up to Christian’s Seattle headquarters, listening to loud indie rock music… the miles melt away driving this:

Of course the reason Ana takes Kate’s car is because her beloved Beetle, Wanda, would never get above 55 mph without something falling off:

When Christian takes one look at Wanda, he’s horrified. He thinks she’s a death trap, and he soon remedies the situation - the only way he knows how. 

I originally wanted to use the Audi A1 as the Submissive Special.  It’s a such a neat little car:

But unfortunately it’s not available in the US… yet. So I had to plump for the Audi A3 – which is not quite as cute:

In spite of the fact she doesn’t like receiving expensive gifts from Fifty, Ana loves this car.

Of course that doesn’t last long… for those of you who have not read the story, I won’t spoil it. Then Christian steps out of his Audi comfort zone and decides on a Saab.  Why a Saab?  I think Christian is trying to extricate himself from the associations of the Audi A3, which he purchased for all his submissives - and Ana is anything but. So this is what he buys her:

So - back to my favourite car, the R8. 

Those of you who have read Fifty Shades Freed will know there’s a certain… um… scene which takes place in the R8. When I was writing this story I rang our local Audi dealership and spoke with a salesman who shall remain nameless. I told him I was writing a romantic erotic novel, and  I could hear his gasp of surprise when I asked him if it was possible to have sex in an R8.  He stuttered for a moment, then said no, it was impossible - there just wasn’t enough room.  I thanked him for his time and hung up, deeply disappointed that I couldn’t write that scene.

Well, it just bugged me.  And I thought – I have to go and find out for myself.  The following Saturday I went to Audi’s very plush new West London headquarters, not far from where I live.  The first car you see when you walk in is an Audi R8 – a bargain at £124K (roughly $180,000.)  

I walked around it. I stared. I drooled. And then I plucked up enough courage to ask the ladies at the reception desk if I could actually sit in the car.  They told me this would be no problem, so, squealing inside with excitement, I climbed into the car.  Oh boy – was it sexy… the smell of new car, the short distance to the ground… the stunning dashboard… oh, I wanted to steal that car. And as I sat there I thought, you could TOTALLY have sex in here.  I got out of the car, walked round to the passenger side, climbed in there, and sat… and sat… and thought, and thought.  And those of you who have read Fifty Shades Freed will know what I thought. 

I think on that note I should wrap things up. Thank you, Laurielu, for letting me guest-post on your blog, I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have.  

Bona Fide Review

Excellent!

Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James is another stunner of a novel and a great ending to her Fifty Shades Trilogy.  Even though Chrisitan and Ana are now married, the excitement and intensity between the couple has not diminished. In fact, I think it was stepped up a notch. To add some levity to the serious issues dealt with in the novel are Ana’s inner goddess and subconscious and the snarky e-mail diatribes between Christian and Ana.

As the happy couple are enjoying their phenomenal honeymoon abroad, they still have Christian’s mercurial emotional swings and possessiveness to deal with. That being said, it adds to the voracity of the on-going healing process that Christian must face in order to heal. It is Ana’s love, understanding, and many compromises that continue to help him dig out of his dark emotional hole. 

While trying to deal with his inner demons, Ana has some personal battles of her own to wage. Even though it is her deepest wish to set Christian free from his personal demons, she finds herself needing to exert her independence and fight for some autonomy so that she continues to be her own person, not his possession.Adding to the angsty issues in the relationship is the antagonistic plot of the who-done-it portion of the story that began in the previous books in this trilogy. Running these two distinct plots side by side makes reading this book doubly enjoyable.

E.L. James is a wonderful story teller. Her voice is smooth and keeps the story going like a well oiled machine. Once you start, it is hard to put Ms. James‘ book down.  She gives her stories eroticism, emotional poignancy, humor and peppers it all with suspense to keep her readers very entertained.

Fifty Shades Freed is the perfect finish to the trilogy. The ONLY complaint I have is that Ana and Christian’s story has come to a conclusion. I know I can revisit them when by re-reading this series; but, it is just not the same.  I lament the fact that their story has come to an end. I highly recommend this book to all romance readers; however, I really think you should read the first two books in the trilogy (Fifty Shades of Grey and Fifty Shades Darker) to get the full impact of this story. This novel will mean so much more to you as a reader when you become completely invested in these two characters. 

Happy Reading from Bona Fide Reflections!!

(ARC provided by TWCS for an honest review)

To learn more about E.L. James please visit her website: http://www.eljamesauthor.com

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