ARC Review: If I Were You by Lisa Renee Jones

If I Were You (Inside Out Trilogy #1)

by Lisa Renee Jones

Purchase Links: Amazon  Barnes & Noble

E-book 330 pages

Goodreads

Blurb:

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.

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Review:

If I Were You has a fantastic plot that is original with Sarah possessing journals of someone she does not know and is trying to find out what happened to her. As she looks more into the disappearance of the journals owner Rebecca, she feels like she is living her life. This is a great start to a trilogy with loving, but also damaged characters. Whom some are just trying to better them selves and leave their tormented past behind them.

Chris is the sexy famous tattoo artist who wears his faded jeans, leather jacket and biker boots to any and all upscale events. His Art is shown in the Art gallery. I found it sexy that he can speak French, Italian and Spanish. He is funny and charming, but is troubled on the inside and at times this does leave him a bit moody. Loved how he donates most of his Art to charity, a children’s hospital. Lisa Renee Jones did an amazing job, slowly peeling away Chris’s layers through out the book.

Mark is the boss of the Art Gallery, who is powerful, controlling and arrogant. Chris and him do not get along, but you feel like they were friends at one time and something or someone got in the middle of them. I look forward to reading more about Chris and Marks past and how they met.
　
After Sarah’s mother Died, she left her rich father who is powerful and controlling, to be her own person and not what he wanted her to be. Sarah’s father is just like Mark and he brings out the rebel in her. When she is around Mark she becomes a smart mouth but she also finds herself doing what he says. Chris on the other hand makes her laugh and she is relaxed around him.

Lisa Renee Jones knows how to write a sexy hero and tastefully erotic scenes. I love heroes that are jealous, possessive, protective, dirty talker and dominate in the bedroom. Best part is when a hero tells the heroine she is beautiful while naked. A hero is sexy when he grabs the heroine panties and rips them off her. What girl would not want a hero to take off his shirt and put it on her naked body instead of going to get another one. I am a sucker for nibbling on the lips and a hero that presses his forehead against the heroine. But these have to be written well to make me smitten. Kudos to Lisa Renee Jones for creating a hero that is swoon worthy and well written.

Halfway through the book is when the heat really starts. When it starts it never lets up. If I Were You starts off slow, but it did held my attention with the journals and getting a look inside Rebecca’s Life. After the heat sets in I felt like the journals and its plot got put on the back burner.

I only wish it ended different. I new it would be a cliffhanger and love those, but it was not what I expected. It did not make me go “Oh No.” Sometimes I would have to read a paragraph over because I did not know who was talking. It seemed like they were blended together.

I look forward to reading the rest of this series and highly recommend If I Were You.

ARC provided by NetGalley for an honest review