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 enlarge | Author: Jessica James
Publisher: Patriot Press
Category: Book
List Price: $21.99
Buy New: $19.79
You Save: $2.20 (10%)
New (13) Used (5) from $15.83
Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 265789
Media: Perfect Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 468
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 1.4
ISBN: 0979600006
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780979600005
ASIN: 0979600006
Publication Date: January 19, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 A great read! July 7, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I was wrapped up in Shades of Gray from the very beginning. That the story is about relationships and core values and not a particular battle or campaign shows a perspective of the American Civil War not generally remembered or re-enacted. While Ms. James' story does not avoid the atrocities of the War for Southern Independence, they are not the focus either. The story is well written within historical reference points but still keeps the reader wondering what will happen next. Jessica James tells a great story in the language of the time with a fluency that makes Shades of Gray even more fascinating.
 Disappointed June 25, 2008
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
This book got rave reviews from a 'word of mouth' book review site. I have to say, I found this book to be too long, amateurish in it's writing, and the dialogue between the characters tiredly repetitive.
shades of gray June 21, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I just finished reading Shades of Gray by Jessica James, I found this book to be fascinating and hard to put down. I purchased the book in Gettysburg earlier this year (Patriot Point) but had put off reading it immediately. I met Jessica there and got a signed copy, I think it is the best Civil War fiction book since Cold Mountain. I know a little about Civil War history since I am related to six Condederate enlisted soldiers and General A P Hill. One of my relatives was with Mosby's Rangers 43 Va Calvary, which loosely resembles Captain Hunter's command.
Keep up the great writing, James D Bibb SCV Trimble Camp 1836 Treasurer.
A Portrait of Love and War April 21, 2008
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
"You think I think that an artist's job is to tell the truth," says U.S. Poet Laureate, Tabitha Fortis, in an episode of The West Wing. "An artist's job," she continues, "is to captivate you for however long we've asked for your attention. If we stumble into the truth we got lucky."
One may think that's a pretty bold quote to start of a book review, and it may be, but this reviewer was certainly captivated by Jessica James' Shades of Gray: A Novel of the Civil War in Virginia.
With her use of two diametrically opposed perspective points, Ms. James has successfully drawn the historical fiction and romance genres together and created a multi-dimensional picture. She begins with broad strokes of her pencil and sketches the outlines of two characters. The first, Andrea Evans, clothed as a boy known as Andrew Sinclair, is a scout and spy for the Union Army. The second, Captain Alex Hunter, the dashing and noble Confederate Cavalry officer who would like nothing more than to capture and kill his nemesis, Sinclair.
A novelist must ask his or her readers to suspend their disbelief and accept the world as the author has presented it to them. In the first few chapters of "Shades of Gray" I found it hard to suspend my disbelief; the plot twists and machinations which draw Ms. James' two characters together seem a bit contrived and forced. But, once Andrea finds herself confined to Captain Hunter's home the artist's rapid strokes of her pencil revealed to me all that came before was mere background to a much more intimate picture she was trying to draw.
Next Ms. James slowly begins the delicate job of drawing sharper lines and defining her characters through their conflict. Both believe strongly in the cause for which each is fighting, both have very strong opinions about the opposing sides and often the two characters seem to be at war with one another.
With an artist's touch she begins to smudge and gently soften the harsher outlines of her subjects. As affection grows between the Union spy and her dashing Confederate cavalryman, Jessica James' transforms her characters with small strokes of her pencil, intricately drawing in detail, shading darker here and or lighter there.
The reality of the outside world cannot be held back in a country torn apart by civil war, and the divided loyalties of Ms. James' carefully crafted subjects threatens to tear them apart. With an artist's gift she draws her audience into making assumptions about her subjects, and demands them to look closer at the picture. With a guiding hand, Ms. James allows her readers to discover that the picture they thought they were seeing isn't really the picture she has drawn at all.
In Shades of Gray, Jessica James' skills as an artist are unquestioned. She as drawn a picture filled with conflict and love, loyalty and betrayal, history and romance, and a passion of lives lived in the moment. And along the way I think she may have also stumbled into truth.
 A Conflict Of Ideas April 17, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
There were many, many, spies in the Civil War. It was hard to trust anyone. Jessica James tells a story of a Union spy, Andrea Evans and a Southern Captain, Alex Hunter. Each has strong convictions concerning their views of the problems that faced our country in the era of the Civil War. The author keeps your attention moving her story through the Civil War in Virginia. By Ruth Thompson author of "Natchez Above The River" - A Family's Survival In The Civil War and "The Bluegrass Dream" - A Wilderness Adventure of Early Settlers
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