Series Review: This Man – Jodi Ellen Malpas

Young interior designer Ava O’Shea has an appointment for a first consultation at The Manor with the owner, Mr Jesse Ward. She is expecting nothing more than an overweight, cravat wearing, well-to-do countryman, and on arrival, nothing would suggest otherwise. How wrong could she be? This Man is devastatingly handsome, charming and confident. He is also a conceited, hedonistic playboy, who knows no boundaries. Ava desperately does not want to be attracted to him, but she can’t control the overwhelming affect he has on her. Every instinct is telling her to run, so she does, but Jesse Ward is not so willing to let her go. He wants her and is determined to have her. She knows she is heading for heartbreak, but how can she run when he won’t let her?

Series:  This Man #1
Release Date:
Publisher:  Forever
Source:  NetGalley
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She knew she was heading towards disaster. Every instinct told her to run, but Jesse Ward was a hard man to escape.

It has been five days’ since Ava O’Shea left Jesse drunk and raging at Lusso – left behind a man who drowned her in his intensity and blindsided her with his touch. Getting over this man was never going to be easy. And now he’s back in her life.

She has questions she needs answering, but her determination to get these answers will give the pleasure-seeking playboy the power to destroy her again. She needs to keep her eyes wide open and caution at the forefront of her mind, an ambitious intention when Jesse Ward is within touching distance. And he plans to be.

He’s dark, he’s broken – Ava knows this, but the only way to find out how dark and how broken is to get beneath the steely exterior of this man.

Series:  This Man #2
Release Date:  January 15, 2013
Publisher:  Forever
Source:  NetGalley
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The very place where their passionate love affair began, The Manor fills with guests on what should be the happiest day of Ava and Jesse’s lives. She has accepted that she’ll never tame the fierceness in Jesse, and she doesn’t want to. Their love is profound, their connection powerful, but just when she thinks that she’s finally got beneath his guarded exterior, more questions arise which lead Ava to believe that Jesse Ward may not be the man she thinks he is. He knows too well how to take her to a place beyond ecstasy…but will he also drive her to the brink of despair?

It’s time for this man to confess.

Series:  This Man #3
Release Date:  July 2, 2013
Publisher:  Forever
Source:  NetGalley
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Reviewer’s Thoughts

When I saw a blurb that said this was like 50 Shades (yes, I liked that series) I figured I’d pick it up to see what it was about.  I have to say, after a bit of a slow start in THIS MAN the story picked up it’s pace and I found that there was no comparison between Jesse and Ava and Christian and Anna.

There are some similarities between Christian and Jesse.  Jesse hired Ava because she was the interior designer for the penthouse he just bought, but he had no idea who she was.  But the moment he set his sights on her, he wanted her.  He was pushy, over the top outrageous, but determined he was going to have her. He was overbearing when it came to her safety or knowing her whereabouts.  But that is where the similarities end.  He may own a sex club and he may have taken in some of the alternative lifestyle activities that went on there, but when he was with Ava he left all that behind.  He was able to read Ava and know that what he used to do, sexually, with women wasn’t going to be right with Ava.  He made adjustments and in the end understood that he used sex to ease the pain caused by family issues.  With Ava, he realized he didn’t need that any longer.

Ava was a character that I was equally in awe of and perplexed by.  She was so strong and determined to stand up to Jesse, except when she was right in front of him.  Once in Jesse’s vicinity, that all goes out the window.  No matter whether she’s pissed or hurt, she lets him take over.  While I loved her strong will, I just wished she was able to stand up to him a little bit more.    Then there was her sneakiness.  Ava would get tremendously pissed and hurt by the secrets Jesse would keep from her, but then she kept a pretty big secret herself.  I kept wondering how she could justify that (even while we were in her head to hear her rationale), given the hell she gave Jesse.

This was a series that got better the further along I read.  I liked the characters and I really enjoyed the story.  I’m willing to forgive those alpha men that come across as assholes if there is something that redeems them at the end of the book/series.  Jesse is this type of alpha man and he does get redeemed at the end.  I liked that what he had to redeem himself from were demons created by himself based on his reaction to family tragedies, not some childhood abuse (which I’ve read so much of lately).

If you liked 50 Shades of Gray, this is one to pick up.