Saturday, July 28, 2012

If I Were You (Inside Out Trilogy #1) by Lisa Renee Jones Book Review


Fifty Shades of Grey meets Basic Instinct

Book 1: If I Were You
Book 2: Being Me
Book 3: Revealing Us

About IF I WERE YOU…

How it began…

One day I was a high school teacher on summer break, leading a relatively uneventful but happy life. Or so I told myself. Later, I’d question that, as I would question pretty much everything I knew about me, my relationships, and my desires. It all began when my neighbor thrust a key to a storage unit at me. She’d bought it to make extra money after watching some storage auction show. Now she was on her way to the airport to elope with a man she barely knew, and she needed me to clear out the unit before the lease expires.

Soon, I was standing inside a small room that held the intimate details of another woman’s life, feeling uncomfortable, as if I was invading her privacy. Why had she let these items so neatly packed, possessions that she clearly cared about deeply, be lost at an auction? Driven to find out by some unnamed force, I began to dig, to discover this woman’s life, and yes, read her journals—-dark, erotic journals that I had no business reading. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. I read on obsessively, living out fantasies through her words that I’d never dare experience on my own, compelled by the three men in her life, none of whom had names. I read onward until the last terrifying dark entry left me certain that something had happened to this woman. I had to find her and be sure she was okay.
Before long, I was taking her job for the summer at the art gallery, living her life, and she was nowhere to be found. I was becoming someone I didn’t know. I was becoming her.

The dark, passion it becomes…

Now, I am working at a prestigious gallery, where I have always dreamed of being, and I’ve been delivered to the doorstep of several men, all of which I envision as one I’ve read about in the journal. But there is one man that will call to me, that will awaken me in ways I never believed possible. That man is the ruggedly sexy artist, Chris Merit, who wants to paint me. He is rich and famous, and dark in ways I shouldn’t find intriguing, but I do. I so do. I don’t understand why his dark side appeals to me, but the attraction between us is rich with velvety promises of satisfaction. Chris is dark, and so are his desires, but I cannot turn away. He is damaged beneath his confident good looks and need for control, and in some way, I feel he needs me. I need him.

All I know for certain is that he knows me like I don’t even know me, and he says I know him. Still, I keep asking myself — do I know him? Did he know her, the journal writer, and where is she? And why doesn’t it seem to matter anymore? There is just him and me, and the burn for more.

IF I WERE YOU TRAILER

BROKEN BY LIFEHOUSE BOOK SONG


MY REVIEW
5 OF 5 FLOGGERS

***THIS IS AN ADULT BOOK, 18 YEARS OR OLDER. CONTAINS MATERIAL NOT SUITABLE FOR YOUNG ADULTS***

OH MY FLIPPING GOD!!!!!!!!!! THIS BOOK IS SO MUCH MORE THAN FIFTY SHADES AND BASIC INSTINCT. Man where to begin with this review. I have read a lot of erotica and adult books lately but I have to say That Lisa has added some things to her story that stands out among the rest. I did not feel like I reading about Fifty and I sure as hell did not thing basic instincts because this story really has so many dimensions to it I could not get my head wrapped around it. First the characters are so different from any I have read about. I know a lot of people have said no one can fall in love that fast, well to them I say they may not but other people do and it is reality.

I have done some research into the BDSM world and I have talked to people who are in it and I can see the pull towards it and I can see how people fall in love so fast because it is like a drug and the adrenaline rush you get from it is like no other. To them it is like para gliding or bungee jumping the adrenaline brings you places you have never been before and before you realize it you are hooked and can't remember how it has happened. So now that I have bored you with a little back ground I will get to the real deal and this the story.

Sara is a school teacher that is on summer vacation. She is looking forward to spending some quality time reading and enjoying her summer of tutoring students. One night her neighbor is over watching TV and enjoying Sara's company when her boyfriend calls her to go over to his house. The neighbor leaves and forgets her journal and Sara being curious reads it and is shocked to read what is in it. The next day the neighbor comes back to make sure she has not lost the journal and Sara is embarrassed because she read the journal. That is when her neighbor tells her it is not hers but it belongs to the woman who left her stuff in storage and is selling it. The neighbor is so excited about the paintings and the other journals and Sara tells her she can't sell someones private things.Her neighbor tells her she will make a lot of money by selling this things and has no intention on keeping them.

Sara is so shocked by this but what can she do. Then the neighbor comes and tells her the next morning she is eloping with her boyfriend and she is on her way to Paris and Sara can have the storage unit and sell it or whatever but it is her's to keep. Sara is excited because she really enjoyed the journals. They were dark and dirty and there is something in those journals that call to Sara. She decides from that moment on she will find this Rebecca and return her things to her. Sara's first stop is trying to find out information on Rebecca and when she starts to dig in the storage unit she finds a brochure for the gallery she worked at. Sara is excited because she loves art and majored in it in college. Sara goes home and looks up information about the gallery and decides she will go to a unveiling of a famous painter that she loves for a charity. While there she meets this guy who she is so taken with. Their is something about this guy and he is so knowledgeable about art that they talk and before you know it they are talking about different artists.

As Sara is looking for the Art gallery owner he finds her and they talk about Rebecca which he says she is on an extended vacation but Sara is not buying it. Then the oddest thing happens and Sara ends up selling a painting to a couple looking to buy a piece for their main party room. The owner of gallery is impressed by Sara and asks her if she would like to work for him and she agrees. See Sara has a secret that she is keeping and that is she has always wanted to work in the art industry but it does not pay the bills. So she has stayed away from it and became a teacher instead. She is not happy being a teacher because her passion is in the art world where Mark the gallery owner has offered her a great summer. After agreeing to work for him and start that Monday Mark asks her if Chris Merit who is one of her favorite artists she studied in school proud of her for selling his painting. She has no idea what Mark is talking about and he realizes that Chris never told her who he was. The guy she was talking to the whole time was Chris Merit and she never knew it.

Sara will soon learn that their are lots of lies and secrets shrouded in the disappearance of Rebecca. As she reads the journals and delves deeper into the life Rebecca had she will find out Rebecca was a tortured soul and did things in the name of love. She allowed her heart to rule instead of her mind and her instincts. She should have followed her instincts because some things are better left alone. Will Sara follow the same path as Rebecca or will she carve her own path? Will she be forced to face her own demons? Will Sara's past come back to haunt her? Will she be caught up in a love triangle? Or will she chose Mark or Chris? As Sara will soon find out everyone has a past and the past can be a dangerous thing. Will she succumb to lust? Will she giver herself to a broken damaged man? This is such a must read for this summer I am going to re-read it a thousand times! I love the story line and the ending is OMG! I have no words for the ending except I NEED BOOK TWO RIGHT NOW!!!!!! PRONTO!!!!!!!!

The Wine of IF I WERE YOU



Chateau Montelena is the featured winery and wine in the book.

Chateau Montelena: World-class winery most famous for winning the white wine section of the historic “Judgment of Paris” wine competition in 1976 which put Napa Valley on the world map. Recently featured in the 2008 film Bottle Shock.

The museum were Di Vinci is shown in Paris from the book.


Booklist says: Jones' suspense truly sizzles with an energy similar to FBI tales with a paranormal twist by Julie Garwood or Suzanne Brockmann. Alpha, military, and paranormal romance readers will want Jones' entire series. (About the Zodius Series -- Storm that is Sterling)

In 2003, award winning author Lisa Renee Jones sold her Austin, Texas based multi-state staffing agency and has since published over thirty novels and novellas across several genres. Her staffing agency LRJ Staffing was recognized many times by The Austin Business Journal and also praised by Dallas Women Magazine. In 1998 LRJ was listed as the #7 growing women owned business in Entrepreneur Magazine.

Her debuts with Blaze and Nocturne hit Bookscan's Top 100 list and her Blaze Hotzone trilogy made a showing on the list in 2011 also. With a new Blaze trilogy, a short story for Spice, the third book in her Zodius series published with Sourcebooks, as well as an rapidly growing indie following, 2012 will bring many new stories to her readers.

Lisa is active on Facebook and Twitter, and you can find her at www.lisareneejones.com.

No comments:

Post a Comment