Monday, June 9, 2014

If I Were You (Inside Out #1) by Lisa Renee Jones

Sadly, this one is a DNF at 38% (Chapter 12)
I kept reading another chapter and another chapter hoping it will get better, hoping I'll get why there are so many raving reviews to this series. 

Maybe it's better, you know? If I'm only a drop in a sea then it just means I have a different taste, I rather be that than another crushing review over a not appreciated novel. I get that every writer does his or her best when releasing a novel, I also realize they put an enormous amount of time, sweat, tears and blood into their work and so I hate writing a bad review. 


I've read two novella by Lisa - "Unwrapping Holly" and "Play with Me" (Form the "Heating Up the Holidays" bundle) and I really liked both of them. In both novellas I enjoyed the writing and the characters so I don't know why I feel the way I do about this one. But it is what it is, right? 

Since I haven't finished the book I can't write about the plot itself I'll just write what's important to know who the characters are and then I'll explain what didn't work for me and why I stopped reading it...

Our main heroine is Sara. She starts working in a gallery where she meets two very interesting and different men - Chris (a painter) and Mark (the owner of the gallery).

Where I'm at she is both intrigued by the both of them but nothing happens with either one. I'm not sure if this book suppose to be a romance with one of them or the both of them or what exactly but I CAN tell you that where I'm at, there wasn't even a kiss between right about anyone in the book. It's labeled under erotica and it's suppose to be something like Fifty Shades of Grey (I haven't read and would never read..) so I guess I thought this one with be splashed with sex but it's actually VERY slow going. So slow I was just, well, bored. We get to listen to Sara's POV for the whole time and she is just a very mild and not interesting woman. I wrote in my status update that she has no back bone. I"m not sure it's right, she does manage to hold her own in some ways but listening to her thoughts she is EXACTLY the mouse I thought she is. 

So I'm trying to say, Sara is just not interesting enough to follow and since we only hear her, it's not compelling enough to keep going though I know that there is a lot more to come. Well, I think so... there is the feel of a "love triangle" there.. 

Lets talk a minute about the two men - Chris is really sweet, I get why she is so interested in him. He is sexy, he is artistic, he is rich and famous, ya know.. the usual appeal those guys have.. and that's just it! She speaks (and thinks!) like a total groupie! She is too excited about any encounter they have, too nervous about him doing the most casual thing. It's just a total turn off for me. I can't seem to find HER appeal to him and I don't get what he finds so interesting (his word, not mine..) in her. He could find a thousand like her and she isn't even described as especially pretty.. 

Now we have Mark, the overbearing, bossy, obsessive and controlling owner of the gallery and also her boss. What's his appeal again? money? influence? good looks? because with SUCH a shitty personality I can't find ANY reason to be attracted to him for more than a whole minute! (meaning until he speaks and you realize he's an ass!). There is some attraction from Sara's part (?) and there is an interest from his part for sure but I simply don't get what makes a woman want a man like that. It's nice having someone taking care of you, nice when someone knows you so well he knows what you want before you utter a word but there is something, well, disgusting in a man that is so arrogant and controlling he can assume he knows what you want and especially what you can and WILL do for him or to please him. YUCK! I get playing a little when it comes to sex, it's a sort of a "game", it's for the fun, the rush and all that. But when someone is like that ALL THE TIME I really don't find the appeal, I'm sorry. I think women came a long way from being treated like an object a man owns so reading of someone who hasn't realized that isn't something I enjoy reading. I should say that Mark hasn't done anything terrible in the 38% I've read.. he's mainly arrogant and controlling but it's more than a gut feeling here that we'll only get to see more of his cave man side in the next pages (I'm not going to read...)

So actually the only one with an appeal in this book is Chris. Frankly everyone and everything else is of no interest what-so-ever. All the side characters are too sweet and friendly in a very unrealistic way, and the plot itself doesn't move an inch.

So that's it for the review. I really think you should read more reviews of this series before you take my word(s) for it.  I've always been different no matter where I am and who I talk to so you might totally and absolutely disagree with me on this one. Yet again, if you found my previous reviews helpful maybe we're in the same mind set so you SHOULD actually take this review seriously ;)

Well either way just remember - reading a book is never a waste of time :)

 (DNF 38%)


Additional Details: Kindle Ebook, 384 pages, 6-9 June 2014 / On GoodReads

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