Category: Review Sunday

TITLE: If I Were You
AUTHOR: Lisa Renee Jones
PUBLICATION DATE:   08/24/12
ORDER LINKS:  Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
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.

REVIEW:
The catchline of this book is “Fifty Shades of Grey meets Basic Instinct” and while I have never seen Basic Instinct I have read Fifty Shades and I can see the comparison of sorts. And since I would normally not compare one book to another the catchline, in and of itself, seems to show the author wants the comparison. If Fifty Shades was a book you enjoyed then this will be too.

Yes, both of the series take place in the BDSM lifestyle but let me say first off this book in the series did not have that introduced until the very end even though I am sure the next two books in the series will add more of that lifestyle in. Where I can see the most comparison is in the characters more than the story itself. At least the characters of the men. Both Christian and Chris are both very haunting and lost characters. There is a background there that we have yet to understand yet they are both so gentle and protective of the women they are with. There is just something that draws them to the reader.

Where the comparison stops is the women. While in Fifty Shades Ana is a innocent who has not known of this lifestyle, Sara has been reading the journal of Rebecca and is finding the lifestyle alluring. But, Sara has more in mind then just the lifestyle, she has become obsessed with making sure that the author is ok and in doing so has thrown herself into the world of art, sex and suspense.

I am sure this book will get a lot of the comparisons I talked about above and so many are going to say the author has jumped on the bandwagon (which I actually thought too before I started reading it) but I want to say that this book would probably have made a big impact itself if it had been released first. And since three books have been written in this series I do wonder how far along the author was already into these books before Fifty Shades even came out. I hesitate to call this book erotica because while parts are erotic there is nothing in it that a contemporary romance doesn’t have depending on the author (once again this is only based on book one), however, there are some pretty steamy sex scenes.

If you are a fan of romance, romantic suspense or erotica you should pick up this book. Will it have the same impact of Fifty Shades in the world? Probably not. Will you enjoy this book as much as Fifty Shades? I would think so (or at least close). Will you recommend it the next time someone says they are done reading Fifty Shades? NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.