review: if i were you by lisa renee jones

From the very first page, If I Were You is a steamy romp as schoolteacher Sara picks up the diary left behind by a friend. As it turns out, the diary is from a storage unit Sara’s friend bought at an auction. Sara becomes a little obsessed with the diary which documents Rebecca’s sexy adventures with an unnamed man. When Sara discovers that Rebecca hasn’t been heard from in months, she decides she must find her which leads Sara to have an erotic adventure of her own.

Refreshingly, there is an actual plot to If I Were You despite all the focus on sex. The mystery of Rebecca plus Sara’s own escapades keep the story moving so that every page begs to be turned. The biggest downside to this first book in the Inside Out trilogy by Lisa Renee Jones is that it ends in a cliffhanger. It’s great to end the Friday episode of a daytime soap the way Jones ends If I Were You, but it’s annoying to force a reader to pick up the second book just to have a satisfying conclusion to the first.
4/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Gallery Books.