BOOK REVIEW — With This Man by Jodi Ellen Malpas

★ Buy With This Man (Kindle)

★ Buy With This Man (Paperback)

When I met my wife, it was like an atomic bomb went off in my chest... It was like a part of my soul fused with a part of hers, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. It was the most incredible feeling.


You know, it is not often that I want a story to continue after it has ended, especially after an epilogue but when a story leaves me wanting even after being given an epilogue, I know I've read a book that was and still is all consuming and I can get lost in its pages again and again and again.


This was one of those books that called to me everytime I tried to put it down to do some other work. I was consumed by the story and its characters and I was sad when I read the last line. I tried to slow down so that I could savour this book for a while but the events unfolding had me flipping pages at mad speed and I just wanted this book to go on forever!





You are my life, Jesse Ward. You keep my heart beating.
‘And my heart will only ever beat for you.’



With This Man is hands down my favourite book out of this series. Barely 20% in, I was highlighting line after line passage after passage and by the end of Chapter 1, I had laughed myself to a stomach ache.

It is exquisitely romantic and intense and frustratingly challenging but 12 years later it was Jesse and Ava. It was The Lord and his Lady down to the T and that made every obstacle, every pain, every sorrow, every joy worth the read.


From 38 to 50, Jesse Ward is still the infuriating, trampling but loving, nonetheless, man that he always was. From spending days at The Manor drowning in alcohol and countless women to becoming a father to two pre-teens and a husband to a woman whom his whole being revolves around.
The leather and lace, the countdowns, the tub talks and the endless versions of their love-making in a lot of ways, this was the same old Jesse and Ava but it was all new because it wasn't just Jesse and Ava anymore, they were Mum and Dad too and the equation with their children was something I loved reading about.


They were new because, after the horrific accident, Jesse and Ava were different. Don't get me wrong, Ava was defiant as always and Jesse was as trampling as ever but I saw a side of Jesse that I never read before. This time, this man could trample but he had to be careful, he had to bite back his demands and more heartbreaking than anything was watching The Lord crumble down to pieces and have hope only to lose it. He had to do things that weren't him but he did them with valour. He was romancing his wife in ways that he had never before and I couldn't stop smiling or laughing whenever he felt out of depth on ways to woo his wife.




We must love each other an awful lot.
‘It’s pure bliss, baby,’ I begin quietly. ‘Total gratification.’ I lower my lips cautiously and peck her wet cheek lightly. ‘Absolute, complete, earth-shifting—’
‘Universe-shaking love.’



This book was so so perfect! With JEM taking us back and revisiting the past to all the pivotal moments, from the good to the bad, I never thought I could love this series more than I already did. Everything comes to a full circle in this instalment and I haven't been this deliriously happy after finishing a book in a while.


I never thought I would fall in love with The Lord again but I did. He trampled his way into my heart once again and shall forever remain there. End of.