Product Description

White publisher Simon Kohl is in a relationship with hot black author Janice Lace. They originally began seeing each other simply as a no-strings-attached convenience, but now romance has bloomed, and is forcing them to confront all sorts of troubling issues. Janice's ex-lover keeps cropping up in her life in the most unexpected places, and Simon has learned that his family once owned slaves, a secret he desperately wants to stay buried. As secrets and deceptions continue to mount, Simon and Janice head for disaster. The only thing that can save them is trust, but it may be too little, too late.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #880034 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 300 pages

Customer Reviews

Just when you think you know an author
You find out you really don't and that's a good thing. I've read quite A few of this authors books and this is by far one of he best works in my opinion. I was becoming a bit bored with romance novels because they started to look alike but not this time.
At first I hated the hero and the heroine but man did that change because this story made me actually cheer for these two misfits who really deserved each other.
You know how there are those books where the characters make you so mad that you just want to ring their necks and render them unconscious well this is that couple.
The more you read the more you wanted to just slap some sense into them but you just couldn't put the book down. Like a massive train wreck you just couldn't look away. Then toss in the bitter ex and family secrets and all hell just breaks lose. But you still can't put the book down. Because you have to know how it's going to end and sleeping just isn't an option for the overly curious. So read the book scream then read it some more.

Not Great But Still a Good Read
First, I want to say I do like Dyanne Davis, she is a very creative writer and usually has interesting characters in her stories that you really can relate to but in "Many Shades of Gray" I really had some problems with the lead character's.

This story is about Janice an African American woman a star on the rise to becoming a major novelist thanks to the cleverness,diligence and business expertise of her publisher and lover Simon. These two in the begining leave me void of their chemistry, at one point I was wondering why they were together or even trying to salvage their relationship. They spend a great deal of time playing these neurotic emotional games with each other and it really gets exhausting just reading their encounters. Enter Janice's ex-lover Tommy, who also happens to be in the book business but is holding a huge grudge against Janice because of a terminated pregnancy, a secert she has kept from Simon. Though Simon is familiar with this past relationship and still wants very much to marry Janice he is incredibly insecure about their love because he feels Janice harbours some deeper feelings for Tommy. So he decieds to test her
feelings until she admits to loving him, and this was really exhausting.

This book is 441 pages and it takes Janice nearly 300 of those pages to tell Simon she loves him, not to mention reveal what happened between she and Tommy that has left this unfinished, emotinally unresolved business between them. I have a hard time believing in this century people get this caught up about unwanted pregnancy. I know people have baggage going into relationships but these characters "suitcases" were just too big, and it really disrupted the flow of this story for me.

I think Ms.Davis let these character's spend too much time dwelling on stuff that that they couldn't change, nor were responsible for. The characters were so drowned in such unrealistic crazy making that their appeal was lost to me. For example, Simon is consumed with worry and acts accordingly, because he fears that Janice will hate him and leave if she ever discovers his family wealth comes off the backs off slaves that were once owned by his ancestors. I think in this day and age we all know that people of color helped build the wealth of this nation and have never benefited from the fruits of their labor but it is ridiculous to expect a supposed insightful writer like Janice to hold this against a man whom she claims to love and who has tried to do good with his money once he learned the history of his family wealth. It was even more ridiculous to me that Tommy was actually using this information he discovers to drive a wedge between Janice and Simon.

It would have been much more interesting if Simon had indeed discovered, since it was eluded to in the book,that his right-hand and father figure, Harold was is real father. Clearly, Simon suffered from his parent's relationship indiscretions so it was understandable that he would have issues but it would have been a great way for Simon to evolve and become a better man learning that his real father is indeed the man he has grown to love, trust and respect.

I think the ending of this story was weak and not at all what I have come to expect from Ms.Davis. However, I was relieved when this story ended because the aggrevation of the characters was finally over. I rated this book three stars because I struggled to totally not dislike the characters, and I didn't totally hate the book. I wanted to be understanding of these character's and their issues but Ms.Davis really strecthed my patience with the reasoning, rationale and behavior of these character's. I will say that a turn of events near the end of this story does bring Simon and Janice past all this nonsense, but I think it was even a struggle for Ms. Davis to get her two main characters out of the box they were in so the story could end on a postive note.
If you are new reader to Dyanne Davis this is not a good first book, try reading "Two Sides to Every Story" or any of her earlier releases, then come back to this one. Lastly, for those of you that are swayed by the cover when purchasing a book, note that Indigo Love Spectrum Publishing never seem to get the covers right... the "Many Shades of Gray" cover are no visual clue for the characters, I find this annoying but have decided not to rely on cover art to help me decide to make a purchase, especially with Indigo...I sometimes wonder if their cover artist ever read the book or at least get a summary description of the main characters.

Something A Bit Different
Janice is an author and Simon is her publisher. The two have been in a three-year relationship that seems to have hit a roadblock because neither of them can bring themselves to say the three words that would take their relationship to the next level.

I enjoyed this book because I thought the stubborness of the two characters was real. It was annoying as all heck watching their secrets unfold and watching them get close, then pull back, but in the end it I took a deep breath and smiled at how they finally worked things out.

The pacing of the book was good and I liked that the the story was always about Janice and Simon without veering too much into other characters. This book is different from some of Davis' other work, but different in a good way.