Grayscale (ORCA Book 2) by Vinni George


Vinni George is back with the second book in the ORCA series! You can expect plenty of UST, banter, and an enemies to lovers vibe as Cal and Jack search to find the elusive missing painting we learned about in book 1!


From the Grayscale blurb:

Cal Hunter didn’t hate Jack Grayson the moment he met him. He actually kind of liked the arrogant great white shark shifter… until Jack left Cal zip-tied to a bed and stole Cal’s job. Now, every time their paths cross, things get heated, and they both have the scars to prove it.

Jack has always worked better alone, but there is something about Cal he can’t get out of his system. So it shouldn’t be a problem when they are forced to work together to figure out who is after one of the most famous pieces of stolen art in the world.

But both men are keeping secrets that compromise their mission, and when Jack’s life is threatened, Cal has to decide if holding on to his own secrets is worth it. Turns out fate has one hell of a sense of humor.

Grayscale is book two in the Organization for the Return of Criminals and Assets (ORCA) series, featuring an orca shifter former mercenary who hates taking orders, a great white shark shifter who’d rather work solo, and a worldwide chase to track down a missing painting that ultimately forces them to cooperate in more ways than one!


Jacqueleen the Reading Queen's review:

"๐—™๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ฑ ๐—ณ๐˜‚๐—ฐ๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฑ, ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐—œ ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐—ต๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐—บ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐˜ ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜ ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฒ ๐—œ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—น๐—ฑ๐—ป'๐˜ ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ."

Uhhh Yes Yes Yes!! Gimme all that UST Vinni!! I love it! I was excited to get Jack and Cal's story as soon as I saw them interacting in Black & White, the first book in the ORCA series. It was clear there was a lot more going on there than mutual dislike. Their needling banter is totally my jam, and I enjoyed their back and forth immensely. I enjoyed it even more when all that UST exploded into confessions and spicy times!

"๐—™๐˜‚๐—ฐ๐—ธ, ๐—–๐—ฎ๐—น. ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜'๐˜€ ๐˜€๐—ผ ๐—ต๐—ผ๐˜...๐˜๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜'๐˜€ ๐—ถ๐˜, ๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐˜†, ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐—ด ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—บ๐˜† ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ธ."

I mean fire, right!? (I hope I used that correctly because I am so not one of those who are down with the lingo of the kiddos these days. I don't even know what rizz means and every time I hear it, I think of certain bodily fluid that rhymes, but I digress. Back to Jack and Cal.) It was fun being in both the MCs heads and knowing how they felt about one another, while both being too chicken to say anything. I mean these are badass mercenary men. Give them a gun and target for it and all is right in the world. Ask them to talk about their feelings? I'd wager they'd run for the hills.

I did really love these two together as a couple. Even on "missions" they are kind of opposite, so it helped them to play to their strengths and support one another. Another thing I enjoyed were the scenes involving Cal's twin, Quin. Now those two are even MORE opposite and it made me kinda sad that they both claim to have lost their closeness with one another as they aged. Since the next book Full Color stars Quin and a certain side character you will meet in this book, I'm hoping to see more bonding happening between the twins in the future.


Angel's review:

When I read the first book in this series I was immediately invested in the Orca brothers lives. They each have their own individual personalities and quirks that I'm really excited to learn more about.

Cal and Jack have a lot of tension between the two of them, and while they both believe they hate each other.. there is a fine line between love and hate.

The mysterious and elusive painting that these two men are trying to track made this book really intriguing. This isn't just a romance book, but also a mystery and action book as well. I liked how they had to stake out different art thief's and had to try to figure out who had ownership of the painting. Those parts of the story were my favorite because in those moments we got to see these two men start warming up to each other more and more.

At first I thought Jack was a massive jerk for what he did to Cal, leaving him tied to a bed alone is messed up. However, upon reading further, I got to understand why Jack did what he did, and realized he wasn't as much of a jerk as I originally thought. He and Cal both are perfect for each other, even while they exchange barbs to one another, there is still plenty of teasing and they really do care about one another.

With the first book I thought the Orca's saddlepatch changing when they met their mate was interesting, and I still find it to be interesting with this story as well. That concept is really intriguing and I love that Vinni created something new with that.

The scene where these two were in their shifter forms playing together was so adorable and quite funny at times. I wish there were more scenes of these two men swimming together.

I'm so excited for Quin and Dimitri's story that's coming out next, I'm eager to see both of those men get their happily ever after. This story does end of with a slight cliffhanger as there is an overarching plot throughout the whole series. I wouldn't recommend reading this as a standalone, what I would recommend is reading the first book and then this one.


Grayscale is currently available as an e-book and paperback and can be read as part of your Kindle Unlimited Subscription

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