Rebecca's Lost Journals: THE SEDUCTION

TITLE: THE SEDUCTION

AUTHOR: LISA RENEE JONES

Pages: 40

Date: 25/02/2013

Grade: 4+

Details: no. 1 Rebecca’s Lost Journals

            An Inside Out Novella            

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Let me start with a warning. This novella, and its sequels are closely related to the Inside Out trilogy by Lisa Renee Jones and in this particular case to the first book: If I Were You. And while this diary makes for an intriguing and enticing little read in and off itself, you really should read If I Were You first to get the most out of it.

In If I Were You the main character Sara is worried when her friend Rebecca disappears and she finds and reads her friend’s journals. Reading them both worries and excites Sara and sets her off on a very exciting journey of investigation and discovery. These novellas give the reader the opportunity to read those journals for themselves and thus find out a bit more about what exactly has Sara so worried and excited. And, the reader will also have access to information that is not available to Sara.

In this first instalment we meet Rebecca, find out how she comes to work in the art gallery owned by the charismatic and domineering Mark Compton and see how she meets Ricco Alvarez, Chris Merit and other characters from If I Were You. And then Rebecca starts referring to “Him” and “Master” without ever identifying who He is. Master has a proposition for Rebecca; he wants her to submit to him. After an enticing evening together he sends her a contract. If Rebecca wants to be with him she has to sign this contract and bring it back to him, in person. But will she?

This was an interesting little read, especially after reading If I Were You. The reader gets a much better idea of why Sara is so worried about her missing friend while at the same time getting caught up in the exciting new turn Rebecca’s life is taking.

Lisa Renee Jones writes a good story. She picks her words well and constructs beautiful sentences with them. 

“His eyes met mine and I froze, spellbound by his stare. I was aware of him in every cell of my being, in a way that I’ve never been aware of another man in my life.”

The journal entries are realistic. Their length varies and they are not written every single day. This is the way a diary would be written in real life and that makes the story all the more vivid. 

Although there is a strong erotic undertone in this novella, there are little or no explicit sex scenes. It seems that while Rebecca is very good at describing her feelings in her journal she is not comfortable spelling out what exactly what she is being introduced to by "Master". We get hints but no descriptions. And although I hope that will change in the subsequent novellas I have to admit that these suggestions work very well and are very enticing. Sometimes it is nice to just use your imagination, I think.

Although this is a short novella we get a good introduction to Rebecca and what makes her tick. The balance between background information and the exciting new developments in her life is exactly right. And although a lot of information is only hinted at and not revealed at all – who is the Master, and what are all the secrets in Rebecca’s past? – I did not feel cheated when this book ended, only intrigued. This book left me looking forward to reading the subsequent novellas and has me captivated in the same way and to the same extent as “If I Were You”.