Hello there, my bookworms! It feels like it’s been forever. I’m very much behind on reviews and other posts, but to be fair, it’s been a rather long week. Now that it’s Saturday, I hope we’re all enjoying a bit of sun and nice weather while we savor our latest reads.
Quick update before I get to my latest review. The reason I’ve been slacking on posts lately is because I was spending free evenings working on my resume and job-hunting like a crazy person, and as of a few days ago, I officially gave my notice at work. It’s simply time to move on, and while I’m not 100% sure what the future holds, it’s a bit exciting not knowing and enjoying having the time to work on writing projects and things that I’m genuinely passionate about (including this site)!
Also, if you haven’t joined The Blabbing Book Club yet, I did announce our first book the other day. Bear with me, because I am going to add a discussion area here on the site so that if you don’t have Facebook, or would rather just follow along here, we can do that. Stay tuned for an update post after this so you can get all the details for our May read!
Now that I’ve blabbed and gotten some updates out there for you all, let’s get to today’s review! I’m talking about With This Man, book four in the This Man series by one of my favorite contemporary romance authors, Jodi Ellen Malpas!
That’s right, people. The Lord and his beloved Ava are back for a fourth installment and I could not be more thrilled! If Malpas decided to write ten books about this pair, I don’t think I’d get sick of them. If you need to catch up, or introduce yourself to Jesse and Ava, you can find my reviews of books one through three here.
They’re still married and blissful on Central Jesse Cloud Nine over a decade later, and it all appears so dreamy, as if we just left them in book three. Then, there’s an accident that changes everything. Jesse’s world is turned upside down when Ava almost loses her life in a horrendous car wreck. On top of some severe injuries, she’s also lost most of her memory.. including her life with Jesse and their family.
Told from Jesse’s POV, he’s left spiraling and not knowing how to cope with the love of his life acting like they’re strangers. With every memory she’s missing, his heart breaks more and more. Knowing he can’t live without her, Jesse is nothing if not determined to jog Ava’s memory, woo his wife, and fall in love with each other all over again.
With This Man is an emotional rollercoaster and a truly heart-warming read. Jesse trampled his way into my life when I picked up book one years ago and this fourth installment just fanned the flames of love for this series back to life for me. Not only did I get more Jesse and Ava, but I got to cry and hurt with them, and travel back through all of their memories during Ava’s recovery. For being about 500 pages, I certainly hunkered down and had this one read in about 24 hours. I wished I could have put it down and walked away from it for a little while just so I could savor their story awhile longer, but instinct just had me flying through the pages with zero control on my end.
I obsessed over every gut-wrenching page and had to take a break from other reads for a few days after I finished with Jesse and Ava. Their love story is an intense and complex one that left me reeling after all their ups and downs during book four. For having this book on pre-order for almost a year, and waiting for my time with one of my favorite couples, it was absolutely worth the wait after I closed this book.
If you haven’t read this series yet, and you’re looking for a crazy and beautiful couple to fall in love with for four books, please please please go meet Jesse and Ava. You won’t regret it!
My Final Rating: five out of five stars
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