LisaP

You spin me right round, baby
right round like a record, baby
Right round round round
You spin me right round, baby
Right round like a record, baby
Right round round round

Dead or Alive

WOW.





I'M. EXHAUSTED.

MENTALLY. EXHAUSTED.

IN. NEED. OF. THERAPY.





I am not sure where to start. Perhaps with this, Ms. Malpas, you are brilliant! Period.

After how This Man ended, I was chomping at the bit to get my hands on Beneath this Man. I was put through the ringer with the first book so therefore I really was expecting no less from Ms. Malpas with book 2. Well... I. WAS. WRONG. I was not only put through the ringer with Beneath this Man, I was well and truly mind fucked! And, I'm bloody exhausted. Bravo, Ms. Malpas!

It’s been five days since I have seen Jesse Ward. Five days of agony, five days of emptiness and five days of sobbing. There is nothing left in me. No emotion, no soul and no tears – nothing.

Beneath this Man picks up five days after This Man ends off. Jesse and Ava were left heart broken and their relationship had despairingly ended. Ava is in pieces and Jesse is well on the way to self-destructing. Ms. Malpas did not mess around here. You can not help but feel how broken and overwhelmingly sad Ava is. The emotional roller coaster begins here my friends. Anyways, Jesse's friends come to Ava for help and so ensues the beginnings of their reconciliation. We are then led on a path of ups and downs, make-ups and break-ups, sense fucks and reconciliation fucks and everything in between.

What Jesse and Ava had in This Man was intense. What they have in Beneath this Man goes beyond that. Their already powerful bond is amplified as Ava learns more about Jesse. Albeit, not very much more as he is a bundle of secrets and contradictions. I don't think I have ever felt so strongly about a fictional couple. Jesse is so bat-shit crazy and Ava is all over the place, but somehow in all the madness you can't help but love them and want them to get their HEA. Admittedly, go into this book with eyes wide open. There are a lot of complications, many fights, copious amounts of "fucking" and some moments so tender-hearted and sweet you will be swooning. There were so many moments in the book that I would think - "Finally! They are both getting their act together." Then, Ms. Malpas would push me off the plank and I would once again be in the raging waters of Jesse and Ava's tumultuous relationship. What a ride! I did almost through my poor kindle numerous times. Almost. I would not do that to my beloved kindle.

"Tell me you love me."

"What?" I cry, when he hits me with a hard drive.

"You heard me," he says softly. "Don't make me fuck it out of you, baby."



"What was the first thing you thought when you saw me?" I ask.

He's silent for a few moments. "Mine," he growls and bites my ear.



"You brought me back to life, Ava."

I though Jesse was a crazy ass in book 1; however, he surpassed even my expectations of him and we truly see him in all of his dominant, arrogant, opinionated and alpha-male glory. There's no way I would have predicted just how broken, self-destructive and desperate Jesse truly is. He has been reduced from a strong and sexy playboy who lived a life solely based on carnal pleasures to a frightened and desperate man who is afraid of the intensity and depth of his feelings for the woman who has walked into his life. Jesse has never had a connection with a woman that went beyond the physical so these feelings are literally scaring him to death. Jesse is afraid and he is unable to process how someone like Ava can love him and need him. He becomes extremely over-protective, and over-bearing because he just can't handle the thought of losing Ava - the one good thing that has happened to him. I was seething at so many points in this book as Jesse's actions became crazier and more neurotic. How can these two despondent and troubled individuals find happiness with each other when all they do is destroy one another?

I want to be stuck to him forever, even with all of his challenging ways. I love him. I need him.

Ava was someone that challenged me as much as Jesse did. I so desperately routed for her during those times where she would begin to get more assertive with Jesse. Then, Jesse would be Jesse and he would trample all over her. I hated that she allowed it and I did get tired of her always succumbing to him and his need to resort to sex. Despite all this, I think I fell more in love with Ava in this book. Frankly, she has found herself in a relationship with an impossibly possessive and crazy alpha-male. What's a girl to do? Ava does hold her own at times and we see her win some of the many battles. She fights for her independence and, at the same time, has to deal with her all consuming love and need towards Jesse. It's a balance that I am unsure she has yet to achieve by the end of Beneath this Man.

"It's pure bliss, baby. Total gratification. Absolute, complete earth shifting, universe shaking love."

I was absorbed, enthralled and engrossed completely and utterly from the first page to the end of Beneath This Man. Like This Man, it is a book that was so intense and powerful that it will stay with me always. I was utterly lost and transfixed in Jesse and Ava's world and I experienced so many emotional ups and downs too numerous to count. Ms. Malpas threw so much at us and the moment near the end where we see more of where Jesse is coming from, I WAS FLOORED! This is why I am hopelessly addicted to this series. This is also why I will be on pins and needles anxiously awaiting the third and final book in this angsty and intense trilogy. What an intense ride. I need to mellow out and drink some wine.


Oh yeah... and Sarah....

"You EVER lay a finger on him again, requested or not, and I won't stop until I've snapped every bone in your fucking body. Do you understand me?"



I. HATE. YOU.


I love this man, in all of his perfection and in all of his challenging, unreasonable ways. He took me hard and fast. He made me fall in love with him. He made me need him.

He was so unexpected, so passionate and so absolutely irresistible. And now he is wholly mine, and I am undeniably his.

I finally understand him.

I've finally got beneath this man.



Re-read: June 28-29, 2013