Brooke McKinley
Author of Shades of Gray
About the Author
Works by Brooke McKinley
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Common Knowledge
- Gender
- female
Members
Reviews
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Statistics
- Works
- 3
- Members
- 149
- Popularity
- #139,413
- Rating
- 4.1
- Reviews
- 19
- ISBNs
- 4
- Languages
- 1
McKinley weaves a compelling and emotional tale with tight prose and fully-fleshed out characters. I loved seeing the slow build of Miller and Danny's mutual attraction and understanding, and the tenderness they shared when they finally got together. I thought the process they took from first meeting to becoming a couple was done in a fairly believable way. Granted, the entire premise of this book requires much suspension of disbelief, but I think if an FBI agent and a criminal informant were to get together, this would be how it happens. I really appreciate how McKinley never makes it easy for Miller and Danny. They both face some extremely difficult moral choices and have to live with the consequences of their decisions. I had difficulty imagining how McKinley would pull off a happy ending for these two considering their circumstances, but she managed to do it very convincingly without sacrificing the integrity of the characterizations or the internal logic of the plot.
There are only a couple things that keep this from being a 5 star read for me. First off, I think the timeline is a little fast. The way Miller and Danny's relationship developed was realistic, but the book mentions at one point that they had only been living together for about a month when they got together. That really surprised me, since it seemed like far more time had passed in the story. It didn't really ring true for me that they would have such deep feelings for each other at that point. Miller also makes a critical decision at the climax of the novel which would have been more believable if he and Danny had been together for longer.
I did like how McKinley dealt with the ending of the story. Too many authors wrap up their books really quickly after the climax and slap a happily ever after on it without really showing us how the characters would get there. Shades of Grey still had a significant amount of pages after the climax, which covered how Danny and Miller dealt with the aftermath. I liked that we got to see how Danny and Miller lived with the consequences of their actions and decisions, and how they were both changed by the events of the book. The ending, when it finally came, was incredibly touching and demonstrated the depth of the love Miller and Danny had for each other. The ending isn't a typical happily ever after, but it is deeply satisfying.… (more)