Color Me Grey (Book One of the Alexis Stanton Chronicles) [Kindle Edition]

J.C. Phelps (Author)

Book Description

...exciting, highly paid position for person with specialized training...

Recently unemployed after quitting a boring office job, Alexis Stanton finds a mysterious ad in the help wanted section that might prove to be the answer to her desire for excitement and adventure.

After an intense application process, including actually fighting with her competition, she gets the job of her dreams.

But is it going to kill her?

Product Details

• File Size: 368 KB
• Print Length: 147 pages
• Publisher: NewPub Binding (August 1, 2004)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003L202M0
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,251 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
  • #15 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers > Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue
  • #38 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Crime

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 83 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars tough chick with a bad vocabulary March 31, 2011

By Stephanie

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I enjoyed the first book. I really like female characters who are tough and capable. Except Alex isn't always. I thought she lived off her parents a little bit too much. That did spoil the effect a tad. However, she does keep up with the male members of the team pretty well. She is fairly confident about her skills and quick to learn new ones.
After I finished this one, I downloaded the 2nd book: Shades of Grey: Book Two of the Alexis Stanton Chronicles (Volume 2) (man, I love my Kindle.) I'm only about 1/2 way through but I'm not sure I'm going to finish. Once again Alex is having to rely heavily on her parents. I realize that part of the backstory is that her dad is a big deal in the military but it still bothers me.
I haven't even mentioned yet the biggest annoyance with these books. Incorrect word usage!! Holy mackerel, Batman! For starters, Alex and a teammate "repel" down a cliff. Then later, they get to the "birthing" floor on a boat. Unless it is a maternity cruise, I think that should have been berthing. Then they inject someone with a "vile" of liquid. That must have been some gross drugs in that vial. There were more but I think you've probably got the gist now.

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Pro-female Action/Adventure July 28, 2010

By Maria Elizabeth Romana

Format:Kindle Edition

J.C. Phelps' "Color Me Grey" is the first of a three-book series about Alexis Stanton, a spoiled rich girl who decides to trade in her easy life as a data processor living off Mom & Dad for one of action and adventure, by embarking on a new career with a mysterious company where everyone is code-named a color—Mr. Black, Mr. White, Mr. Red. Alexis, code-named Ms. Grey, is the first woman to join this team of highly trained professionals and quickly shows up the men with her skill, daring, and never-quit attitude. Much of the book is devoted to the details of Alexis' training as a fighter, scuba-diver, and survivalist, and only becomes a true action/adventure novel near the end when she joins the team on a rescue mission that hits close to home.

The novel is strongly pro-female in that Alexis is continually shown as being at least as capable, if not more so, than her male colleagues, which for me, was a bit unbelievable. That a petite woman could take down a trained male opponent twice her size, while intoxicated no less, was one of several points I had to take on faith, but for younger female readers, Alexis would likely be inspirational. The book also includes hints of romance, but in this volume at least, nothing that comes to fruition.

"Color Me Grey" is written in the first-person, past tense point-of-view, and at times, a bit stream of consciousness. I've said before I'm not a huge fan of first-person POV, but it does lend a youthful, up-to-the-minute air to this novel. The writing itself would benefit from some additional editing, as it suffers from occasional bouts of over-explaining, a few spelling errors, and some misused phrases. I would also prescribe a healthy dose of commas for the longer sentences. Editing issues aside, however, if one enjoys adventure novels where the focus is more on action and less on character and relationship development, "Color Me Grey" will be just what the doctor ordered.

38 of 44 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Overpriced At 99 Cents, Badly Needs an Editor February 5, 2011

By P. Fox

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was foolish enough to listen to a review on a Kindle-related blog about this introductury novel for only 99 cents. Little did I know that it would not be worth a nickel. Paying the $2.99 for the other books in this series would be laughable if not criminal.

There are elements of what could be a good story, but unfortunately the author gets mired down in absurd gushing over Alexis' incongruent childish lust for her employer and virtually every other halfway decent male she comes into contact with. She is supposed to be highly trained in self defense and receives even more training to be in covert operations yet she swoons like a school girl in proximity to any man shge finds remotely attractive.

Alexis is also supposed to be intelligent, but strangely she has reached her twenties supposedly both without a clue what her father actually does for a living and even more remarkably seemingly without even having been curious about it. We are supposed to view her as a competent, independent spy, yet we must believe that she would still insist on an allowance from Daddy while getting a substantial salary from her job.

If the weaknesses in the plot and character development were not bad enough, the reader must also suffer through apparently either nonexistent or entirely incompetent editing. The word "vial" is rendered as "vile" multiple times and the words "site" and "sight" are substituted for each other in a most glaring display of either poor spelling or appalling lack of vocabulary. Good editing takes more than a SpellCheck in a word processor, it takes an actual command of English.

The conflicts in what we are supposed to see in Alexis and how she actually behaves make her character cartoonish and shallow. The dramatic rescue plot element is very scetchily drawn and also not very believeable.

There is some truth to the axiom that you get what you pay for, but it certainly brings you up short to realize that even less than a buck was too much to spend.

More About the Author

J.C. Phelps is a wife and mother of three who writes from the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota.

The Alexis Stanton Chronicles have been the most enjoyable works she's written. Color Me Grey, the first book in the series, introduces the characters she has come to love. Shades of Grey and Reflections of Grey continue with the same characters and were equally as fun to write.

J.C. is considering another in the Alexis Stanton Chronicles, but is currently working on a couple other different stories to put to paper.

You can find her online at

Facebook -
www.facebook.com/authorjcphelps
and
www.facebook.com/jcphelpsauthor

Twitter -
@jeaniep3

Blog -
http://jcphelps.blogspot.com

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