If I Were You by Lisa Renee Jones

"If I Were You" by Lisa Renee Jones is described on the author's website as "Fifty Shades of Grey meets Basic Instinct." I was immediately intrigued by this tagline and had to see how this novel compared to one of my favorite movies and the hottest book in the country.

Unlike "Basic Instinct," there is no beautiful blonde with a penchant for murdering people with icepicks nor is their a detective risking his career for the love of the beautiful blonde suspect.  However, it does present an intriguing and erotic story set in San Fransisco that is definitely for adults only.  Sara McMillan is a high school teacher living a pretty mundane life.  Her mundane life soon becomes anything but when she inherits the journals of a young woman named Rebecca who had some sexually explicit and borderline dangerous adventures.  Sara becomes determined to find out what happened to Rebecca and soon meshes her life into Rebecca's by taking Rebecca's old job and tries to determine who the mystery man Rebecca mentions in the journals.  Soon Sara suspects everyone and can't help but fall for one of them.

This book is the first in a planned trilogy and so far that is the only parallel between this and "Fifty Shades of Grey" that I see.  Yes, both novels are erotica however, this novel features characters that are a lot more realistic and better developed.  Sara is not naive like Ana in "Fifty Shades" and thankfully never summons an inner goddess.  The erotic scenes were really hot and made for a fast and steamy read. Sara's potential paramours Mark and Chris are also both extremely interesting and while they are both are ridiculously wealthy and harbor dark secrets like Christian Grey, they're wealth and business dealings seemed a lot more realistic.  I won't spoil the novel by telling you who she chooses or what secret they're hiding.  However, the secret is somewhat predictable if you've read "Fifty Shades of Grey," but there is a twist plus a cliffhanger ending will leaving you begging for the sequel instantly.  If you enjoyed "Fifty Shades of Grey," I highly recommend "If I Were You," I bet you like it even more!

"If I Were You," will be released on August 24, 2012.  Head on over to the author's site as linked above for additional information.

Special thanks to NetGalley for providing a digital review copy of this book.  As always, I received no financial compensation for this review.