Prelim Review: This book took me just over 2hrs to complete and had me laughing for almost the entire time. Knowledge of the source material (either Fifty Shades of Gray or Twilight--take your pick) isn't really necessary to get the humor, though some of the funnier bits are best found funny if you do know one or the other.

Shaffer (or 'Merkin') does a really good job at poking fun at everything under the sun in regards to the whole Fifty Shades travesty. Up front--I read the first book, under duress and simply because I was tired of people telling me to read it. At least after reading it I have every right to criticize it. Moving on, this is just pure fun. The sex is awkward and about as hot as table water, the characters are basically interesting because of how they mock Christian Gray and Ana Steele (or Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, again take your pick) and Earl Grey is about as screwed up as Christian Gray just with less sexual assault as a kid.

Full review to be posted at Poisoned Rationality ( )

Reminecent of Hot Shots and Mel Brooks movies, Fifty Shames parodies 50 Shades, Twilight, and any more dribble coming along the drainpipe of romance novel and midlife crisis (oh you know there's only going to be more trying to hop on that gravy train of shame).
I prefer to read 50 Shades of Suck and Reasoning with Vampire blogs but Shaffer's book is worthy of a few laughs. ( )

This book is a parody of the popular 2012 book 50 Shades of Grey. Having never read the original, it made little sense to me to try reading this parody, but it was such a short book, I tried it anyway. Unfortunately, reading this without the context of the original, the book was just stupid to me. Admittedly, this was my own limitation, not necessarily indicative of a flawed book. If you've read the E.L. James original, and are interested in something which is similar to, but pokes fun at the original, you may find this book amusing. It's a parody, so it's supposed to be silly. But if you haven't read the original Fifty Shades of Grey,there'll be no anchor for the ridiculous side of this book, and you may be as confused and disappointed as I. ( )

4.5 stars. If you are looking for a book that will make you laugh until you cry, then you need to pick up a copy of Fifty Shames of Earl Gray. It is a rollicking good time that you do not want to miss. To read my review in its entirety, please visit http://www.bookreviewsandmorebykathy.com/2012/07/26/fifty-shames-of-earl-grey/ ( )

Read my full review of the book at seriesousbookreviews.com! Spoiler Free!

NOTE: I never finished this book. I got to Chapter 3 before I gave up. Find out why below...

It shouldn't be too hard to write a parody of Fifty Shades of Grey. I mean, people can simply read a line from the book aloud and laugh.

I think it tries too hard to be "out-there". The story is just plain odd and weird, not funny. Some lines (maybe about 3 sentences of the 15 pages I managed to read) were actually witty and encouraged me to keep reading. They were what I was expecting the book to be like and not random calls from Beyoncé or a 40 year old roommate bits we get. The wit was just too few and far between so I had to put this book down.

OVERALL: This was awful--I don't know what else to say!

Check out more spoiler-free book and series reviews on my blog SERIESousBookReviews.com as well as read book series recaps!

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