Escaping Reality: The Secret Life of Amy Bensen, Book 1

4 `Godzilla' KissesI feel like my brain is an egg that has been scrambled and fried. What just happened to me? I'm emotionally confused...actually just completely confused - I have so many thoughts and theories and possibilities and I can't do anything about it because I. Just. Got. Cliffed. I will address the cliff...eventually.Amy Benson - who once was Amy Reynolds...or just Amy...yeah we'll go with just Amy for now, is a brave but scared girl. She's 24 and for the past 6 years since 'the incident' has not been living her own life. She's been on the run, hiding, changing, adapting - not being allowed to be herself or do what she wants because that is a risk she can't take. The only 'constant' in her life is a handler that she's never met, her life run by arbitrary notes and decisions taken out of her control - walking around always feeling watched, afraid of the 'Godzilla's' and 'sharks' that surround her.`My heart races at the idea. I don't want another new name. Even more than I don't want to be back on the run, I don't want another new name. I feel like a girl having her hair chopped off. I'm losing part of myself. After living a lie for years, I'm losing the only part of my fake identity I'd ever really accept as me.'Liam Stone, 'Mr. Tall, dark and potentially dangerous' - they lock eyes in an airport, sit next to each other on a plane (he of course had her bumped to first class to sit next to him...Mr. Smooth Operator) and for a trip that only lasts a few hours...he makes a very memorable first impression. Too memorable. She runs, he chases. She gives in for one night, he wants more. It's a brilliant push and pull because you really never know what Amy is going to do next - go with her head or her heart. I swooned over Liam, but I was always very wary of him. He has a lot of secrets and I never really felt like I got to know him as well as I wanted to. Very `man behind the mask' kind of feeling, like we were only getting a very brief glimpse inside this gorgeous man.`He is money, power, and sex, and while I cannot make out the color of his eyes, I don't need to. All that matters is that he is one hundred percent focused on me, and me on him. A moment ago I was alone in a crowd and suddenly, I'm with him. As if the space between us is nothing. I tell myself to look away, that everyone is a potential threat, but I just...can't.'Liam is amazing though - I know that may sound confusing given what I just said, but...that's kind of Liam's M.O., and he pulls it off nicely! It's hard not to love him, from head to toe. The looks, the attitude, the words that just ooze and drip sex power and confidence. He had a Dom side too him, Like I didn't want him enough to begin with, that just tipped him over the scales. And the way he handles Amy is...just wow. It's like he has this road map of exactly how to react to her...what to say...what to do which is interesting because they've only known each other a short amount of time. I know what you're thinking, `insta-love' - but it's not. It's insta-passion, insta-chemistry...insta-hotness."If you want to sleep," he says, "I promise to keep Godzilla at bay for you." He couldn't have said anything more perfect and I know right then what it is about Liam that makes him so irresistible.'Speaking of insta-hotness, hold onto your panties ladies. Liam...is...wow. That little bit of Dom just does all kinds of good things for me, but then he has this insanely endearing and sweet quality. He's protective and alpha, but caring and cute. He's just a fabulous blend of all the yummy qualities we love in a book boyfriend. But he's got his flaws - his past comes back to haunt him, which in turn affects his relationship with Amy.`There is just me and this man, and I tingle with awareness, alive when I was barely living before meeting him. There are many things I want to say to him but cannot. I am confused and conflicted in all ways possible with this man, stuck between right and wrong.'So, throughout the whole this, Miss. Jones does a fabulous job of keeping me all tied up in knots. I had so many questions. SO many questions and for every one that I might get closer to answering, 25 more would pop up. It was a different spin on a romance because I am notorious for figuring stories out. Yeah...that didn't happen here. I have even less of a clue as to what is going to happen then I did before I started the book. While that aggravates and frustrates me, it intrigues me more. It's pushing the envelope in a different direction and I MUST know what is going to happen!`I have never felt like this about anyone. I don't know what "this" is, except that it's intense in all the right ways and I don't want my past to destroy it before it ever takes form, as it has every other relationship I've had in my life.'Alright, let's address this dreaded cliff. It is what it is...I had a feeling it was coming when at 90% there were still things that needed to be addressed that needed WAY more than 10% to address them in. So, I got thru to the end and sat back with my jaw hanging wide open. In terms of cliff severity...it's pretty up there...not in a bad way, I just really didn't see the ending happening like that, but like I said at the end of the day, it makes me crave that 2nd book more. Amy and Liam have a lot of explaining to do. This is not one sided, they both have secrets that need to be explained and I cannot wait to hear the explanations.`All I know it he's letting me see it, and him, and he is exactly what he preaches. Raw and honest, and intense, and I believe in this moment we are a rainbow of the same colors, none of them bright or beautiful. We are the many shades of gray and black, hoping to find a glimmer of light in each other, not more darkness.'Escaping Reality is a gripping page-turner that kept me anxious for what was to come next. I was on the edge of my seat, furiously clicking my kindle and tortured when I had to put it down. Now, I will desperately wait for The Secret Life of Amy Bensen `Infinite Possibilities' .

I had stumbled across the movie first and enjoyed it but was left hanging at the end and not wanting to wait to see what comes next so I dived into the book knowing it would be even better. The book was not a disappointment and I was shocked how closely the movie or tv episodes as they are followed the book it was all familiar as I was reading as I had seen it brought to life on the screen. I can not wait to unravel the mystery of Amy’s past and see how Liam, Meg, and Jarred are connected. There s something definitely off here.

RATING: 5-HitItOutOfThePark-STARS!I'm screaming, panting, sighing, almost sulking, most definitely whining. Mad. Excited. Tortured. Exhilarated. What the heckkkkk?! LRJ, you just FLOORED me with that ending! Are you kidding me? You cliffhanger queen, you. No but seriously, thank god I have the second book waiting for me on my kindle- although I'm sure it's not going to offer me ALL of the answers I'm looking for- that would make a series pointless. If I had 3 wishes one of them would be: the ability to write like Lisa Renee Jones, freakin AMAZEBALLS! Her skill/talent compares to EL James, Sylvia Day- YES, National Bestselling Authors! She's THAT good!Amy Bensen, a former NYC citizen, moves to Denver, Colorado after she receives a note from her handler stating she needs to move, and she needs to do it FAST. She's forced to throw away her life, her job, her friends, her home, all of her personal belongings and everything she's worked so hard for- all for her protection. Something happens in Amy's past that will haunt her forever. Having no family left and no one to turn to, she's struggles with financial hardship, having literally NOTHING to her name, living in an empty apartment, waiting for her next orders from her handler. She meets hot, sexy, strong, alpha male billionaire Liam and they hit it off from the beginning. Due to Amy's past and losing everyone she's loved, she pushes Liam away not only because of trust issues, but also for his protection and for fear of both of them getting too attached and getting hurt.Will Amy finally let Liam in? Will she confess all of the life-threatening secrets she holds in to him? Then there lies the million dollar question: WHO IS LIAM REALLY? The story portrays him to be this perfect, seducing, rich sex god but is he really looking out for Amy's best interest, truly falling in love with her? Or is he one of the people she's been running away from for so many years?*MINOR SPOILERS BELOW*Gahhh I really don't wanna think Liam is the bad guy here. Seriously, he's the hottest alpha male yet. Yeah, sometimes I get tired of the billionaire falls in love with the note so fortunate girl and makes her his queen, blah blah blah BUT this story is so much different. Liam doesn't use his money as his power. His power is his persona, his control over Amy, his love to her. No, they never said the 3 magical words to each other but it doesn't matter- I can see it. I KNOW Meg is shady, and I have a good feeling that Jared is, too, but I really don't think Liam is. I think he wants to dig deep and find out what she's hiding.I can't count on my fingers the amount of times I've said "This book deserves more then 5 stars". Escaping Reality deserves more than 20 stars! I couldn't peel myself away from it. I wanted answers so bad! Although I didn't completely get them, the clues and pieces Amy puts together make some things come together for me. I'm usually right when guessing outcomes, the 'bag guys', and so on... But LRJ is such a phenomenal writer, I wouldn't be surprised if this series completely throws me for a loop. The best .99 I ever spent in my life. I mean, come on, I'm going to rave about this book for the next six months and can't even buy a soda for 99 cents. I LOVE indie authors! It's no wonder her Inside Out series is becoming a hit television show! I just love this woman!

Liam, ese hombre me tiene a sus pies como a Amy 🤭.El suspenso y el drama que es la vida de Amy, pobrecita 🥺.

I have decided to read this book because of the good reviews and once again I was deceived and disappointed.Amy is so stupid I wasn’t able to connect with her nor Liam. I am not sure if it was because their story were told in such fast paced way. It was all so messed. The plot wasn’t the problem here, actually this made me stay and give it a time to the storyline move, even though by 20% I was already finding some annoying patterns. The problem to me was the way that the autor wrote, she was trying to make things happen in a intense way and and go deeper in Amy psychology.... ‘I think’... but things were getting worse and sans intensity sans depth. By 40% of the book I was just WHAT?????It doesn’t matter if the guy is gorgeous and filthy rich and the plot proposal is to bring mystery and not just the old and good romance. It wasn’t well developed, Amy was bipolar, without information about her own situation. Who is stalking her? Why? SIX whole YEARS FOR GOD SAKE!!!!and she doesn’t know anything.Her apparent tough life didn’t matured her, she was acting like she was stuck in her teens era. Liam was “open” and accepting her bullshits and practically declaring his love all the time. I am not a fan of a pushover hero😑. At the same time he was being ‘dominant’ to me he was just been a freak with angry outbursts and suddenly he was calm and comprehensive. WTH!!!! It was super weird. And the bending stuff was just awful not slightly sex, none of theirrendezvous was sexy whatsoever, the binding shit was just ‘what’s the point’ anyway’Well this love-mystery story didn’t buy me and was quite frankly unrealistic and boring. I am not telling that I do not believe in love at first sight on books or haven’t enjoyed a couple falling in love fast. I am a romance lover but I need feel their chemistry whether physical or emotional, their intensity while together or suffering because they are not. And for the love of god their depth. Why a plot so intriguing couldn’t give the attention to the individual characters better, where was the angst factor?Unfortunately Amy and Liam didn’t give me any of those things. I won’t even keep reading the sequences, finishing the book 1 one was painfully boring and frustrating enough.

Loved loved loved this story. The characters were pretty awesome, Amy is really likeable and Liam is total swoon worthy...hubba hubba!!! I was hooked from the start and kept trying to figure out the plot with the many twists and turns. Jared,...I love me some him too! The ending...holy sweet jesus arghhhhhhhh!!!!!! I can't believe it finished like that!Ok, heres my problem. The costs of the booked. Book number 1 is pricey enough at £4.99 for an ebook. Book 2: £6.33 Book 3: £7.03 pre-order. That's a lot of money for the first 3 book of a series. I can see why book 1 ended the way it did in the hope of enticing the reader into buying book 2. For me though and many other people out there, I can't justify spending that much money on an ebook. I'll have to wait and hope they go on sale but by that point I'm likely to have forgotten all about the series. Disappointing.

Okay, I really was not sure how to rate or review this book. I bought it because I needed a simple and fun read. It was good because it actually had some sort of story behind it. It wasn't just plain erotic '50 Shades of Grey' type story. I was really interested in the truth behind Amy's background and what she was running from. I really enjoyed Liam's character at some points, but at others, I really didn't like him. The way it all suddenly happened between them felt a little unreal to me -hey, I'm not saying this sort of thing can't happen in real life!- but... I'm sort of tired of reading about the poor girl running away from something to be saved by the tall, beautiful dark eyes, rich, but with a caring heart type of male. Of course he's rich and gorgeous, and of course, before meeting the main female character, all the other women were insignificant. Are you telling me that these player millionaires are going to drop everything to run after some girl? When they can have any supermodel? Yes, it can happen. Fairytales sometimes exist... but it's not your daily sun rising, birds s***ing, people dying, sort of thing. I can't imagine Cristiano Ronaldo dropping everything he has for this plain simple girl he's just met. The scenes between the two characters were good, though sometimes it felt a little unrealistic, as mentioned above. Maybe it's because I'm still young, but in my opinion most people don't behave in such a way? Yes, people hook up with strangers, and go all crazy over each other, and there is such a thing as sexual tension. But this felt a little too... 'unrealistic'. Maybe it's because I don't feel like ripping my man's clothes off every time he walks through the door (all women fantasize, but come on, I mean, that much? Maybe there's something wrong with me). And a man doesn't behave the way Liam behaves, saying the things he says... too good to be true. Men are normal plain creatures, and I still haven't met a man that behaves in such a way. The sexuality around him, everything about him is just plain unreal. Yes, there are very sexual masculine men out there but... come on! Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book, I read it in like a day (im a slow reader), it was fun and I kept reading trying to find out the truth. When it was over I immediately rushed to buy the second instalment. So yes, I did enjoy it. But it wasn't a serious read like other books, it was something fun, you don't have to think too much about. It's definitely not, in my opinion, anything worth an award, but just a simple great summer read by the sea.

This is my first book by Lisa Renee Jones and it didn’t disappoint, I’d describe it as an erotic, suspenseful read, there were lots of twists and turns and the heat and intensity between both characters was electrifying. Liam is a great alpha (if a little dominating) but Amy is a strong, independent character to hold her on. The book does have a cliffhanger but as the rest of the series is out I can’t complain, I will be quickly devouring the rest