Beneath This Man

This Man, Book 2

By: Jodi Ellen Malpas

Narrated by: Edita Brychta

Length: 19 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

Beyond undeniable passion is fierce love....

Jesse Ward drowned her with his intensity and blindsided her with his passion, but he kept her away from his dark secrets and broken soul. Leaving him was the only way Ava O'Shea could survive, but she should have known that Jesse Ward is impossible to escape.

Now he's back in her life, determined to remind her of the sensual pleasures they had shared, but Ava is equally determined to get at the truth beneath this man's steely exterior. That means letting herself get close to the Lord of the Manor once more. And it's exactly where Jesse wants her - within touching distance....

Includes a brand-new bonus scene from Jesse's perspective.

©2013 Jodi Ellen Malpas (P)2013 Hachette Audio

The Dysfunction Continues!!

I'm not even sure what to say about this book. I heavily defended the first book in this series (against the many bad reviews) because I felt like he was relentlessly pursing her because he knew that she wanted him, and she was just too afraid to admit it to herself. That book had lots of super hot sexual chemistry, and I enjoyed the funny banter in Ava's relationships with her friends. This book had none of that. It was like watching a train wreck slowly and painfully. It was actually difficult to get through at times.

Jesse goes far beyond anything that's remotely normal or attractive in his obsessive controlling of Ava. It was a little scary even. And Ava, good heavens, he apparently screwed her into the realm of brain damage. Someone could not be as crazy stupid and blind as she was. She couldn't even leave the room Jesse was in without him flipping his lid about not being able to touch her. Did this never throw up a red flag to her? Also gone was the warm funny relationship she had with her roommate Kate. What happened to Kate? She joined The Manor and forgot Ava existed. She hated Ava's prior boyfriend, yet she continued to watch Jesse control and manipulate Ava, but kept telling Jesse how much she loved him. I didn't get it at all.

I knew that Jesse had a dark past lurking to be found, but I didn't even really understand that. Yeah, so he lived a wild, out of control playboy lifestyle for most of his life. It just didn't seem like something that would cause someone to be as deeply disturbed as he obviously was. I was glad to see Ava finally take a stand and make Jesse answer some questions. I'm not sure I would have gone to the lengths that she did. I think at that point I would have been running, screaming for the hills. I can't really figure out why she loves him so much. There's never been any real love story. They don't even talk to each other much. It's Jesse's outrageous demands, Ava defying him, then insane crazy fighting, followed up by him screwing her until she relents, and that's just about it. That about sums up the first 29 chapters.

The final chapters of this book did shed some light on Jesse's behavior. It was able to pull my attention back around because I was really about to fall completely out of favor with this book. I did like that it ended on a happy note. I'm just hoping that the next book will go in a different direction. I don't think that I can subject myself to another book like this one. There was nothing attractive about Jesse Ward in this book. Gone was the sizzling chemistry. It was all just very disturbing.

Edita Brychta was great again with the delivery of the story.

I will probably listen to the third book of the dysfuntional relationship.