Tag Archives: Inside Out Trilogy

Review: Being Me (Inside Out #2) by Lisa Renee Jones

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Title:  Being Me
Author: Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year:  Gallery Books  6/11/13
Length:  368 pages
Series: Inside Out #2

Overview

I arch into him, drinking in his passion, instantly, willingly consumed by all that he is and could be to me. . . .

Sara
McMillan is still searching for Rebecca, the mysterious woman whose dark,
erotic journal entries both enthralled and frightened her. Tormented by a strong desire to indulge the demands of her new boss while also drawn deeper into her passionate bond with the troubled artist, Chris Merit, Sara must face a past as deeply haunting as Rebecca’s written words. In one man’s arms, Sara will find the safe haven to reveal her most intimate secrets and explore her darkest fantasies. But is safety just an illusion, when the truth about Rebecca has yet to be discovered?

My Thoughts

I love that i was able to get this 2nd installment so quickly after reading the first, now i just have to wait another month and a half for the next one.  bummer!  So we pick up in this story with Sara and Chris in the midst of their relationship that’s growing stronger and stronger in some ways, but pulling them apart in others.  In the first book we began to see that there was a lot under the surface with both of these characters that make them damaged beyond saving, yet we didn’t want to think that was the case.   Sara is the kind of character that you want to root for, to think that she can solve everything and make Chris believe that he’s worthy.  It’s not quite that simple which is what we find in this bridge book.

This installment takes us through the gallery job that Sara seems to be excelling at – she’s great at what she does, and not only because she feels like she has big shoes to fill, but because it’s truly what she loves.  She pushes herself to learn more, and is pleased to reap some of those benefits.  They don’t come easily though since she has a co worker that continues to try to sabotage her, and a boss that she’s not sure what to make of.  We still don’t know what to make of Mark – since he’s funny and charming via email and text but in person he’s quite the force to be reckoned with.  Sara and Chris are basically able to confirm that he is the Master in Rebeccas’ journals and continue to see what he knows of her wearabouts.  What we learn from him though is quite the anxiety ridden story on it’s own.

Sara continues to find herself in the middle of a ‘cockfight’ with Chris and Mark and can’t seem to get the background on where that came from – and it’s unpleasant.  they kind of use each other against her, and that’s never a good thing.  Chris continues to try to bring Sara in until she pushes him away,and in doing so, she’s given access to his home/world/everything which Mark is quick to jump on and quick to try to tear down.

Along with this, Sara continues to worry about where Rebecca is, as well as Ella.  Both have not been heard from and that’s worrisome.  In some ways i wonder if they are connected but then i think that it’s too cliche and that it’s not related at all.  While Sara’s trying to learn more about Rebecca in the storage unit, she feels like someone’s out to get her, and Chris comes in to try to protect her.

The warm and tender side of this story comes through which is the dip in the roller coaster because it lulls us into a false sense of security.  things seem to be going just too well and then the rug is pulled right out from under us.  We see the softer side of Chris through his charity work and his relationship with a boy with cancer, but that has it’s own pain that seems to weigh too heavily on him.

So, the gist-  the chemistry that these 2 have with each other make for a great romance, but too much pain to really go down easily.  I think that it’s one of the best things of this story – you know that you’re not going to come by their happiness easily, and you wonder when the next secret will be revealed.  Throughout the story, we get hints that there’s a dark past for Sara along with Chris’ past but we don’t really know what it is or what it means.

The secondary characters in this story start to take a bit more of a priority – Ava, Ricco, Mark, Ryan….all adding to a complex web of curiousity and hot hot sensual interactions

so, my questions:

1) who can we trust?

2) what are Sara’s secrets and what are Chris’?

3) are they too much for the relationship to work out?

4) where’s rebecca and where is Ella?

5) is mark what he seems?

can’t wait until september for book 3…it can’t come fast enough in my opinion

Review: If I Were You (Inside Out #1) By Lisa Renee Jones

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Title:  If I Were You
Author: Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year:  Gallery Books  3/12/13
Length:  340 pages
Series: Inside Out #1

Overview

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. . . .

In the bestselling style of Fifty Shades of Grey, Lisa Renee Jones delivers sexy thrills and heart-pounding sensuality with a tantalizing page-turner in which the eyes of a high school English teacher are opened to a world she never knew existed, and she finds a passionate craving within that she never knew she possessed.

The journal comes to Sara McMillan by chance, when she inherits the key to an abandoned storage locker belonging to a woman named Rebecca. Sara can’t resist peeking at the entries in the journal . . . and she finds a scintillating account of Rebecca’s affair with an unnamed lover, a relationship drenched in ecstasy and wrapped in dark secrets.

Obsessed with discovering Rebecca’s destiny after the entries come to an abrupt end, Sara does more than observe the players in the woman’s life; she immerses herself in the high-stakes art gallery world Rebecca inhabited—and is magnetically drawn to two men. Which one seduced Rebecca with his masterful and commanding touch and brought her fantasies to exquisite life? On a daringly erotic escapade, Sara follows Rebecca’s path to fulfill her own hidden longings. But after she tastes the forbidden pleasures Rebecca savored, will Sara be helpless to escape the same submissive fate?

My Thoughts

I really enjoyed this book and let me tell you why.  We’re introduced to Sara who’s a school teacher and loves what she does.  It’s summer break and she’s trying to figure out how to fill her time.  At the same time we meet Ella, her neighbor and close friend who has gotten into the Storage Wars type deal where she buys storage units and sells things for profit.  She’s just bought a unit that has all of the belongings of a girl including personal journals that detail a very dark and ‘naughty’ time.  The story opens up with Sara reading through one of the journals that Ella has accidentally left in her apartment, and Sara gets the sense that things aren’t necessarily what they seem, but of course since they are so erotic and BDSM in nature, she’s not sure where to go with it.

The decision is made for her somewhat when Ella runs off to elope with her Rich boyfriend and has entrusted the unit to Sara to sell and do with it what she wants. (i.e. keep the money which is a good thing since it IS summer break and teachers get no paychecks).  Anyhow, What sara finds is that she can’t quite shake the sense that things aren’t what they seem and she sets off on a journey to uncover the truth.

This journey takes her to places that i’m really happy that they went.  We find that Sara has a passion for Art and that’s the same passion that Rebecca (the owner of the journals) had.  Sara basically steps into Rebecca’s shoes in the gallery that she worked at to try to figure out where Rebecca is and what happened.  In this journey, Sara finds herself in a place where she has an unbelievably attractive and dominating boss – Mark who’s more a master than anything else.  (actually he is a master, and owns a private BDSM club).  She feels strangely drawn to Mark and wants to please him, but challenges him in her own way.  She also has this sense though that he’s the man in the journals that Rebecca talks about and that makes her quite uneasy and second guesses everything that he’s doing.

\She also meets Chris – a successful and incredibly sexy artist that she also has an immediate connection with.  This connection in her mind is a good one and although she sees that Chris is the dominating type, she has more of a sexual chemistry that she acts upon and thus our story takes us on their roller coaster.

What you get in this first installment of the trilogy is a steamy roller coaster of emotions, anxiety, and you really never know who to trust.  I think one of the best features of this story is that you REALLY don’t have any idea who you’re supposed to trust, and you don’t know what the outcome is going to be.  i Pride myself on being able to figure out things pretty quickly, and i still have no idea who’s the good guy, who’s the bad guy and what’s going on.  The character development is great as well – we get a tease of what’s in both Sara and Chris’ history and it really does leave you wanting more.  I haven’t quite figured either one out yet since there has to be much more than what appears to be on the surface.

So my questions

1) What’s going to happen with Sara and Chris

2) what’s the deal with Mark?

3) Where is Rebecca

4) Where is Ella

5) Who’s hiding what, and why, and what does that mean?