Jean itibaren Maasin City, Southern Leyte, Filipinler
French chef and tattooed roughneck Michael "Spike" Moriarty met the woman of his dreams, world class sailor Madeline "Mad" Maguire, when she walked out of his friend's bathroom and straight into his fantasies. She was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, and way out of his league. He has a lot of darkness in his past, things he's done that he could never change...wouldn't even if he could, but he was well aware his past wasn't likely to bode well for a relationship, even if Mad was interested. Didn't stop him from aching for her, dreaming of her, wanting her. When Mad asks him to accompany her to her family estate as backup while she deals with her unpleasant half brother and the responsibilities of her trust, he's offended. The gorgeous, rich woman wanted a rough looking thug to twist a bunch of hoity-toity panties. The thought doesn't appeal. He shows up anyway. And when he does, and sees what Mad's family is really about, sees through Mad's wallflower nature to the grace and insecurities that lie beneath that killer body and amazing face, Spike is both glad he had...and terrified. Because in that one weekend, the woman of his dreams became the woman of his heart. In this fourth book of the Moorehouse Legacy series, Jessica Bird (aka J. R. Ward) tells the story of Spike and Mad with her typical aplomb. It's a solid contemporary romance, and while the plot and characters didn't have quite the complexity and depth of the first three books in the series, and the development of the relationship followed a familiar formula, the likability of the characters makes it a worthy read. I didn't feel like the non-relationship aspects of the characters stories were quite as comprehensive as I'm used to in this series. Mad's issues with her brother and her own insecurities were well developed and both understandable and sympathetic, but the resolution wasn't as satisfying as I hoped, and I would have enjoyed more story surrounding her half sister. Spike's past was brushed upon a few times, and there was a poignant scene between him and his sister concerning it, but I would have liked to have seen that expanded. Secondary characters were also more briefly featured than I'm used to with Bird's romances. Regardless, I liked A Man in a Million and Spike in particular. He was a good guy, and I enjoyed his endearing uncertainty and the tenderness and understanding he showed for Mad. I thought Mad was a nice heroine, as well, and I loved the choices she made in her career and how she dealt with her brother and their supermarket empire. She was a little quick to jump to erroneous conclusion when something brushed against her insecurities and past pain, but she's a strong, competent woman with a good head on her shoulders. She had a lot of spine when needed. Together they were a sizzling and sweet couple, and their tale was a quick, satisfying bite of brain candy. ~*~*~*~ Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.
This book is really good, at first I was a bit confused, was hard to think about Avalon as a touristic place, filled with GAP's and Starbuck's stores and Faerie creatures all over the place, living happily side by side with humans. After this first shock, is easy to get into the story that is, in fact, very interesting. Jenna did an amazing job with all the details regarding the Faeriewalkers and the way they influence the world, at the beginning you spend some time thinking "why she is so damn important?", but after thinking about the implications of a faeriewalker's power and what you could actually do if you conquered one's loyalty, you start to see why everybody is after Dana, whom is, by the way, an awesome and charismatic character, you can't help but cheer for her as it seems that everybody around her are only interested in her power. In fact, all the characters are nice and well built, but you can never shake the feeling that they are only doing things out of interest, except for Keane, which is my favorite regarding the "who should Dana end with" topic. The book is funny, filled with suspense and intrigues, I loved Dana and the way she reacts and thinks, and after the way she ended this book, I totally want to see what she'll do next.
This book in the series was heartbreaking and honestly I had to skip most of it and go to the third book and come back later and read it. I think Stepehnie Meyer made a comment somewhere that she knew some people would do this. I think that's kind of interesting. Anyway, I'm glad I did come back and read it because it really does make you fall in love with Jacob a bit.