Title: My Control
Author: Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year: Simon & Schuster 9/8/14
Length: 47
Series: Inside Out #4.5

Overview

I have lost who I used to be, letting guilt and heartache define who I am, letting darkness control me. Only one woman has seen what no one else has seen in me: the man I do not wish to exist. His lack of control led to tragedy, and I cannot allow that to happen again. But even as she offers ease, she challenges me like no woman ever has—and my hunger for her has driven me to the edge of sanity. But no more. She is about to find out that the Master has returned…

My Thoughts

I love how the bigger main series leads into these installments about Mark – and how you could in theory read this as a standalone, yet you get so much more if you’re reading everything.  So….it’s been a little while since i was last in this series, so i’ll admit i was a little foggy on where things were left with Crystal and Mark, but it’s not hard to pick back up.  If you’ll remember, there were new leads and information leading to discovering what happened to Rebecca, and of course that meant that a lot of folks were now being looked into, luckily it seemed as though Mark, Chris and Sara were off the hook, and attention was being directed towards Ava, Ryan and a younger kid.  This is the part of the story that overlaps with what we saw in ‘No In Between’ with Chris and Sara once they returned to the US.

Anyhow, in this next installment of Mark’s story, where we’re left with him is figuring out how to deal with his internal confusion about how he feels about Crystal and how he doesn’t want to allow those feelings to come through, partially because of what happened with Rebecca and partially because it goes against everything that he is.  The challenge of course is that nothing’s ever easy, and if Crystal weren’t so strong (at least in appearance), then this would be much shorter lived.

True to form of our lovely author, you feel the tension and attraction rolling off these 2 even if we don’t get into much sceneing between them.  it’s such a short installment that i’m not surprised that we really only had 1 scene between them, but at least it was hot.  I think that there’s a lead into something much bigger between them and i can’t wait to see what comes of it.  Mark seems to think that Crystal is hiding behind her faux strength, and i think that his need to control and dominate will bring that out.

The question arises though at the end of who’s safe and who’s going to be the next target.  We have always questioned Ryan especially after reading No In Between and there’s even more reason to now that we’ve gotten this novella.  Mark seems to think that Crystal’s next on the target list and he’s going to do what he can to protect her.  so….off we go into the next story – to see what’s to happen, if Rebecca is truly dead (which you guys all should know by now that i don’t believe to be the case) and who did it.  Enjoy!