If I Were You, I would Run and Buy If I Were You by Lisa Renee Jones

If I Were You is book 1 in the Inside Out Trilogy. It is described and marketed as Fifty Shades meets Basic Instinct. The description is kind of apt, not because of the story line, but more for the feel. It has the breathless feel of a young lady caught in the thrall of a powerful Dom but can’t help the draw; and it also has the intrigue of a missing woman with clues to what happened found in her private erotic journals.

This book consumed me from the start. It had me breathless, on the edge of my seat, totally melting, wanting to jump my husband but not wanting to stop reading, and it left me wanting for more.

Sara’s neighbor and friend Ella, quickly eloped, and left Sara in charge of a storage locker she purchased (think Storage Wars). Inside the unit are a number of journals filled with erotic stories of BDSM that have Sara enthralled and addicted. She can’t understand why the woman left all of her personal belongings in storage, and decides she wants to find the woman, Rebecca, and return her stuff.

The more she reads the journals, the more convinced Sara is that Rebecca’s erotic games have gone bad, and something may have happened to her. She finds that Rebecca worked at an art gallery. Sara, who went to college for her true passion, art, is on summer break from her job as a High School english teacher, and decides to go to a gallery show to find her. After Sara helps some patrons, she is asked to fill Rebecca’s position in the gallery until she returns from wherever she has disappeared to.Thinking this may be her dream come true job and a way to investigate what happened to Rebecca, Sara takes the job.

Mark is the gallery owner and Sara’s boss. A driven, gorgeous, wealthy, but very dominant, rigid & intimidating man; he makes Sara uncomfortable but she also finds him very alluring. She wonders….is he the mystery man in the journals?

Sara also meets the very famous & very gorgeous artist, Chris Merit. A bit of a bad boy, the wealthy, tattooed biker seems laid back, charming and humble; the exact opposite of the buttoned up, domineering Mark. But Chris is still controlling and has a darker, broken side. Chris and Sara begin a relationship that is so hot, I think my panties burned off. I’m totally in lust with Chris.

“I’m trying to protect you here. This world you’ve strayed into is filled with dark, messed up, arrogant assholes who will play with your mind and use you until there is nothing else left for you to recognize in yourself.”

“Are you one of those dark, messed up, arrogant assholes?”
He stares down at me, and I barely recognize the hard lines of his face, the glint in his eyes, as belonging to the man I’ve just had lunch with. His gaze sweeps my lips, lingers, and the swell of response and longing in me is instant, overwhelming. He reaches up and strokes his thumb over my bottom lip. Every nerve ending in my body responds and it’s all I can do not to touch him, to grab his hand, but something holds me back. I am lost in this man, in his stare, in some spellbinding, dark whirlwind of…what? Lust, desire, torment? Seconds tick eternally and so does the silence. I want to hold him, to stop whatever I sense is coming but I cannot.
“I’m worse.” He pushes off the wall, and is gone. He is gone. I am alone against the wall, aching with a fire that has nothing to do with the meal we shared. My lashes flutter, my fingers touch my lip where he touched me. He has warned me away from Mark, from the gallery, from him, and he has failed. I cannot turn away. I am here and I am going nowhere.

 

Though the book starts out as more of a mystery, it turns into more about the relationship that develops between Chris and Abby. And what a relationship it is! The pages sizzled. I felt that delicious tension of them both doing and feeling things they have never done or felt before.

“I’m going to lick you all over before this night is over, Sara,” he says in a seductive purr. “Suck your nipples until you are crazy with need, then spread you wide and lick you until you come and then, I’m going to do it all over again. I’m going to make sure you are so thoroughly fucked that being fucked has a new meaning.”

Ok, if you insist! Oh Chris, broken, rich, artistic, sexy but hiding something Chris……you are positively yummy….oh, sorry. Where was I?

Likes:

• The story within a story, similar to The SIren by Tiffany Reisz. The Journals had their own very erotic story to tell, way darker than the actual scenes in the book, but maybe foreshadowing things to come.
• The mounting tension throughout the book.
• The “cock fight” between Mark and Chris
• The very hot sexual tension and even hotter scenes.

Dislikes:

• The book started out with Sara so insistent on finding out more about Rebecca, but somewhere along the way (in Napa), it felt like that entire part of the storyline was dropped. Sure, Chris is a distraction, and I’d forget if I were with him too, but it seemed a bit strange.
• It is a HUGE cliffhanger and we have to wait until February for book two.

Rating 5+ Stars, and 5 on the Heat Meter

I’ll be honest. Normally I really hate cliffhangers. But to tell the truth, most of my favorite series have had them. This book was so freaking good that I can deal with the cliffhanger. It left me with so many questions! Who is the man in the journals? Where is Rebecca? Did Ella really elope? Who was the guy at the storage unit? Holy crap, the end!!??

Mark my words….The Inside Out Trilogy has the makings of a blockbuster. It has everything: sex, danger, love triangles, money, domination, mystery, intrigue, secrets, and more. This has all the makings of a great movie as well. I hope that books two and three are as good as book one. If they are, they will be well worth waiting for.

Purchase: If I Were You   Amazon || BN.com || iBooks

See The Full Series Order Here

Related Posts:

• My Favorite Books of 2012
• The Inside Out Series Order by Lisa Renee Jones
• Top Picks: Books with Hot Sex and Great Stories
• What to Read After Fifty Shades Of Grey
• Favorite Dom/sub or BDSM Romance Books or Series