Review: Shades of Gray

by Maya Banks
Rating: 1/5

P.J. and Cole were sharpshooting rivals on the same KGI team and enjoyed a spirited, uncomplicated camaraderie. Until the night they gave in to their desires and suddenly took their relationship one step further. In the aftermath of their one night stand, they’re called up on a mission that goes terribly wrong, and P.J. walks away from KGI, determined not to drag her teammates into the murky shadows she’s poised to delve into. Six months later, Cole hasn’t given up his search for P.J., and he’s determined to bring her back home where she belongs. Bent on vengeance, P.J. is on a mission that will plunge her into a serpentine game of payback and make her question everything she’s ever believed in. Cole—and the rest of their team—refuse to let her go it alone. Even if it means sacrificing their loyalty to KGI and their very lives…

Shades of Gray is the sixth book in the KGI series, it’s the first to feature a couple with no fillial connection to the Kelly family, and it finally gives us PJ and Cole’s story which until now had mostly just been hinted at the tension between them. Unfortunately I took two months to even start this because I read Baba’s review on Goodreads and hesitated. Just a heads up the book and my review will discuss rape, please use discretion.

I shouldn’t have bothered. The ONLY reason I finished this book was that I still want to read Steele’s book. And this book has taken such a huge dent in my confidence with Maya Banks that I’m counting this as two and a half strikes instead of one. If Forged in Steele doesn’t absolutely blow me away I’m going to drop it.

This book is so flawed on so many levels. But the worst is that in my opinion it fails as a romance novel. There are only two requirements 1) that the couple (or more) end up together at the end and 2) their relationship is a big focus of the book. PJ and Cole hook up together after Cole follows her to a strip club (I swear that’s what really happens, and it’s not guys stripping) and then they get called into a mission.

Now despite me naively thinking that the conflict would be PJ and Cole leraning to work in the field together as a couple without compromising the team, it’s not. A slaver is in town and their plan is to send PJ in as bait to get information out of him. It all goes horribly wrong and PJ is raped. I am so furious over this. Because even in the story it doesn’t make sense.

First off they sent their sniper in to do this job which even if it had been a man trying to get info from a female slaver would be dumb. She’s not qualified to do the job, and there would have to be another way to do this. Two, Donovan had given PJ a flesh coloured patch to be their wire and a GPS bracelet. The bracelet is removed without their knowledge and PJ is moved anyway, by the time they work out where she was taken it’s too late and they can’t make it in time. So, why didn’t the flesh patch have a GPS chip? Third PJ is drugged. She’s with a known slaver and rapist and she drinks what she’s handed with no qualms, WTF?

But it was all worth it to save those little girls, holy fuck what is wrong with these people? Then a nurse help severely injured PJ leave the hospital while we run up against my least favourite thing in a heroine. She has trouble make female friends, because y’know she can’t be a badass and female, and she certainly can’t act female or have “female” interests.

“They were all on edge. Nerves were frayed. The women that had married into the Kelly family, and the woman who’d married Rio, were all resilient women who’d all experienced tragedy in one shape or another.”

That is a direct quote by the way. I wish I could put it out of my mind but I can’t. I think that for some reason Maya Banks felt that PJ was too different from her previous heroines and so she gave her some tragedy to make her fit in. And to be honest I can’t think of any other reason that PJ should have been raped, because so many Idiot Balls had to be juggled to get her in that position to start with.

Then we skip about six months and PJ’s on a roaring rampage of revenge. She’s killed all the guards that were there when she was raped and cut them the same way she was. For some reason all this straight up murder (even PJ admits it) is cool with everyone in KGI and not, a sign that PJ is in need of a counsellor.

Then the finale of stupid is achieved. PJ was told by her first rapist on his death (which she caused) that the second and the head slaver Brumley would be in Jakarta. One of PJ’s contacts emails her that Brumley will be in Vienna instead. Instead of seeing the obvious trap, PJ and Cole go to Vienna. PJ goes to meet the contact alone and finds her dead and message from Brumley saying that he has her partner. I don’t know why Cole was in the car and not acting as a sniper for the meeting in case it was a trap, or how Brumley knew that this time PJ would come with backup. I also don’t know or care why PJ kills all of Brumley’s men and him, instead of freeing Cole and letting him help (would it maker her weaker to take advantage of help? Apparently).

This is so far away from what I wanted and expected from PJ and Cole’s UST that I hope I have a horrible draft by mistake, because this can’t be the real book, right?

So the verdict is that this book is horrible. To qualify it is cohesive and well written. The plot and characters are horrible. If you can avoid it, I know I’ll never re-read it.

Currently Listening: Suicide Sunday – The Friday Night Boys