Gray's Blade

No More Maybes #2

by Elizabeth Stevens

You've read Hannibal's side. Now, read mine.

Cole Fielding just wants to take care of his little brother without getting anyone else killed.

Then, he sees Aurora Daniels. His Hannibal.

He wants her but she sees right through him – she’s beautiful, funny, intelligent and damned sexy.

But, she doesn’t fight him as hard as she could.

As Cole fights a growing attraction to more than just the body, his past catches up with him. Can he finally be free of it? Is she his Gray’s Blade?

Author's Notes: The two books in the No More Maybes series can be read in any order, but it is suggested to read them in publication order to gain the full impact. Much like the differences between Cole and Aurora, Cole's POV is rougher, darker, and dirtier than Aurora's - Cole is an angry young guy who swears a lot and has a tendency to react to serious situations with flippancy in order to keep some distance. So, it is recommended for Mature YA readers.

295 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 1, 2019

About the author

Writer. Reader. Perpetual student. Nerd.

I started out writing fantasy. But, I like to write anything, honestly. These days, I mainly stick to YA and there's always at least a sprinkling of romance, if not a 'whoops, I dropped the whole packet in'. Almost all my books are set in my home state of South Australia, either in real or fictional places - gotta write what you know - with Netherfield being the only current exception.

Like most writers, I love to read. Although, time for reading at the moment is hard to come by. When I'm not too busy writing, I'm usually reading a number of authors. Some of my favourites are Rick Riordan, Jane Austen, Kate Forsyth, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, Kasie West, John Flanagan, Terry Pratchett, Isobelle Carmody, Christina Benjamin, Emily Rodda, and many more.

I'm an avid fan of Marvel, DC, Doctor Who, Supernatural, Red Dwarf, IT Crowd, and pretty much anything similar. I've recently discovered Richard Ayoade's Travel Man and it's brilliant. I love watching soccer (go Gunners) and thoroughly look forward to seeing Eurovision every year. Celebrity crushes include Anna Kendrick and Chris Evans, because they are wonderful.

I live in Adelaide with my husband and a menagerie of animals – a cat reliving her (sixth) youth, a cowardly Beagle-Cavalier who thinks he’s smaller than he is, one meeping guinea pig who thinks any plastic bag has his greens in, two chickens who are terrified of free-ranging, and a turtle with a penchant for sticking her head up her filter pipe.

I have a Master of Arts (Writing) from Swinburne University of Technology. I also have a Master of Arts (Editing and Publishing) at University of Southern Queensland and, am now working towards my PhD. I also hope to one day undertake a PhD in Creative Writing - perpetual student, am I.

I also organise the Sleeping Dragon Emerging Fantasy Writers’ Collective writing group. The group self-published their anthology Tales from the Sleeping Dragon in 2012.

You can also find me on:
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NB: I'm usually happy to discuss review copies of my books. A track record of reviewing is preferable, but not completely necessary.

Reviews

[Loyalhistorian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the follow-up book to No More Maybes. It is the same story, just told from Cole's perspective. Just as I had suspected, I enjoyed hearing this story through Cole's eyes better than from Rory's. Because of its gritty subject, I felt like it came off better with the male character's point-of-view with his somewhat colorful language, but also because he was living it. I was happy to have to deal less with the vapid girly stuff from Rory's friends in this one, too.

My complaint would be that there were times when the author left out some things in the book, or only vaguely hinted at them, that had been in the previous book. Since I read the first book, I was able to piece together what had been left unsaid. Yet, if I had not read the first book not so long ago, I think I might have been confused in a place or two. So yes, I think there should have been some clarification in some spots to jog the memory more.

Normally, I hate reading a book about the same subject as the first one only from a different character's perspective. Normally I get bored and angry that it's just a complete rehash of the same first book. This one, I was pleasantly surprised, didn't annoy me. Even though it did follow the same storyline as the first, there was enough new stuff and new information to keep my interest. I guess because Cole was so secretive in the first book, it left a lot to unfold in this book.

I think had the author just combined the two POVs together to form one book, it would have been amazing, and so much better as a whole. That's just my opinion. Even so, I did enjoy this one.

[Regina · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

Having read "No More Maybes" before, I'd like to say that I liked the first book better. Which I find a bit weird, since I thought I might actually like the story even better told from Cole's point of view.

What fell a bit short for me was Cole's transition from insta-lust to like and finally love. Personally, I did not get - in this book - why he later fell in like and then in love with Aurora. We did not see enough of her or of their interactions to make this plausible for me.
I *knew* I liked Aurora from what I had read about her in book 1. I didn't get the same feeling about her in book 2.

What I *did* like was how we got more insights into Cole's world, and how he slowly opened up and made friends with Declan and the others.

Technicalities: There were some editing leftovers where passages from book 1 were taken and retold from Cole's point of view, and another proofread would have been nice.

[ANNE · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading No More Maybes from Aurora's POV. Gray's Blade is from Cole's POV.

Like in "No More Maybes" I love the heroine, Aurora. She's the perfect girl. She's a star athlete, smart, beautiful, kind, with a great family. She has a bright future ahead of her.

I'm still not a fan of Cole. He is a man whore, drinks and smokes a lot, a big turn off. Just a lot of bad and unhealthy choices in his life. His the type of kid you don't want your daughter to date.

Cole had been through a lot but he wanted to be a better for Aurora and his brother Matt.

Since Gray's Blade is from Cole's point of view was able to finally understand where Cole is coming from and my heart broke for him. I think he redeemed himself in the end.

Overall, this is good read. Four & Half Stars.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked Rory's story. I thought it would be interesting to see Cole's point of view and it was but it was also heartbreaking. A lot of what I read here came across in the first book. The insight we gain from reading this book is helpful but maybe it would have been okay to include it in the first book and make it a two part series that way. I'm glad to have read both books but I enjoyed the first book more because this one was so emotionally draining and I didn't feel the connection like I did with the first book because I already knew the story.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was really looking for to Cole’s story, I knew it would be deep and emotional and thought it was handled very lovingly especially being such a difficult subject, I loved Cole and Aura, thought their story was very touching, lovely ending 😊
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

He only has two goals in life one to keep his younger brother safe and to lose herself from his past. He pushes everyone away to protect them from the monster inside. She comes along and nothing he does will push her away. Can she be the one to help him overcome everything? See how he will get on

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Kathleen Bradbury (Bulfon) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great story. It was well written and fast paced. The chemistry between the characters was sizzling hot. This book has everything you need to keep you turning pages hot sexy men, steamy scenes and some conflict thrown in. I can't wait for what this author writes next.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Geraldine Streit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cole story is quiet touching. What he deals in this story is not an easy subject to talk about. It is really well made. And it complet so well Rory story.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a good teen and young adult romance read. The characters are good. The story is deep, emotional, and thoughtful read.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Christina Cannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story

Reading Cole's side answered some questions left after reading Aurora's story. My only issue was the grammatical errors that caused me to lose focus. But not enough that I didn't enjoy the book.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book has a good storyline that is gripping and captivating. The characters are intriguing, engaging, and well developed. I did like reading this book.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the first book better. While this adds a bit to the story some of the main plot points are rushed through. IContains: strong language, violence, domestic abuse

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a difficult book for me to rate. If I were rating this as a standalone novel without any other knowledge of No More Maybes I would probably give it a 3.5. That being said I did read it's counterpart, and I would actually more like rate this as a 2.5 based on that fact. So I'm splitting the difference here.

I love Cole. I love this story. This novel started out stronger than it ended in giving us insight into Cole's headspace. Some of his interactions left me feeling a bit cringy about his decision-making skills, but they were raw and real. I appreciated the knowledge of it and felt it only added to his character. That being said if you want to fall for Cole, read No More Maybes first. It's much easier to fall for him through Rory's eyes than from his own.

Much of this novel was quite literally cutting and pasting of it's counterpart. Large chunks of dialogue are repeated in multiple chapters, with very very little extra added to them. I was particularly disappointed to find that in the scene where Aura puts her heart on the line and tells Cole exactly how she feels after Summer Formal and the reader got......NOTHING from Cole. No inner monologue, no thoughts on how it was received, nothing. It was just the same exact dialogue as in No More Maybes, which don't get me wrong the dialogue was good at least on her end. But I was really hoping for more Cole in this scene. When the novel started out there were a lot of scenes that Aura simply wasn't in so the reader get's a stronger view point of just Cole's personality, I had hoped to continue getting this later on. Like when Cole fights Jaime for a second time, I wanted to see this from Cole's perspective! Instead, we got a one-liner about how he found out belatedly about the incident and felt he needed to step in. In the end, their relationship and story were still great, but I wanted a lot more Cole and it felt like I got more repetitiveness instead.

Oh, my holy grammar issues batman. I've read quite a few of Elizabeth Stevens' books by now (I'm a big fan at this point), I'm used to her Aussie/British writing and I like it. That being said this book was simply riddled with actual grammatical errors. Like something would be copy/pasted from Aura's perspective in No More Maybes and a word or two wouldn't have been changed or were changed wrong. So instead of saying 'I saw her' it would say 'She saw her', etc.

Overall a great story, I'm glad I read it. I really like Elizabeth Stevens' novels.