Claim: Fifty Shades of Grey was released 2011.

Fifty Shades Darker is a 2012 erotic romance novel by British author E. L. James . It is the second installment in the Fifty Shades trilogy that traces the deepening relationship between a college graduate , Anastasia Steele , and a young business magnate , Christian Grey . The first and third volumes , Fifty Shades of Grey and Fifty Shades Freed , were published in 2011 and 2012 . The novel is published by Vintage Books and reached # 1 on the USA Today best seller list .