Customer Reviews

A Man In A Million (Silhouette Special Edition)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'll admit to not being a huge fan of SSE books in general, but this one was simply fantastic.

Spike is a man whose ugly past has him believing that he hasn't got a chance with a beautiful woman like Mad. And Mad's got a miserable track record with men that has her believing that sexy, confident Spike could never be interested in her.

But after a rough start Mad and Spike learn to talk and trust one another. The two work wonderfully together and their mutual attraction is so powerful it grips you from the first page and doesn't let go. I found the two characters interesting, believable, and well worth following on their journey to love.

Madeline Maguire has pretty much given up on love after being betrayed not once, but twice, however this hasn't stopped her fascination with Spike Moriarity. Spike thinks about Mad all the time and would love to have a chance with her. However, with the secrets in his past, he doesn't believe he is worthy of her. Now he's agreed to accompany her to a family gathering in order to protect her from her less than kind siblings. As they spend more and more time together, their feeling deepen into love. Can this new love survive the secrets of his past and the machinations of Mad's family?

Ripe with emotion, passion and family drama, A Man In A Million pulled me into Mad and Spike's life and kept me wanting their much deserved happiness to finally come! A Man In A Million left me anxiously hoping that Ms. Bird intends to write more stories for the other characters in this book. It doesn't matter if Jessica Bird is writing contemporary romance or paranormal romance under her alias J.R. Ward, each and every book explodes with her awesome story telling talent.

Melissa
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

I'm not normally a big fan of Silhouette books, but there's no question that I'll be seeking out more books by Jessica Bird. This book was impossible to put down. The writing was exceptional -- far better than the typical romance novel. The dialogue was sharp and so witty at times that I laughed out loud. The storyline is plausible, and the characters have depth and are instantly likeable. Unlike so many romance novels, the heroine in this story isn't a fragile wisp of a woman that needs to be rescued by the big, strong, ultra-masculine hero. Madeline is a tall, fiercely independent, athletic, muscular woman. It's a romance novel with intelligence, and I savored every minute of it!

A Man in a Million by Jessica Bird
Silhouette Special Edition # 1803 - January 2007
Moorehouse Legacy - Book # 4

Michael "Spike" Moriarty is a six foot four, tattooed bad boy. He has a dark past that he has confessed to few; that eats him up inside and makes him feel unworthy of love. Having the career of his dreams as partner and chef at a B&B in the Adirondacks is the best he expects for himself. The career and having his sister Jaynie stay with him where he can keep her safe, is all that he needs. That is until he meets Madeline "Mad" Maguire, the six foot Amazon who used to crew with a good friend on their America's Cup yacht. Mad's worked very hard and has earned herself tremendous respect among her crew; she's a helmsman who could crew on any yacht she chose. At 25 she's surrounded by men but has never had a relationship with one. There's something about Spike that makes her want to change all that. He's got an aura of danger but she senses that deep inside he's a man a woman can count on. The challenge would be to convince him that she was okay with the fact that he didn't do long term, she was ready to live just for the now.

I fell in love with these characters right from the beginning. This is another awesome book; one that I couldn't put down. Mad loves the look of hunger in Spike's eyes when he watches her and this makes her hungry in return. It's all the past insecurities that keep coming between them, and some misunderstandings from conclusions jumped into. It was fun watching Spike go crazy shy and Mad become a seductress. Well done! :D

Moorehouse Legacy series ...
Beauty and the Black Sheep - SSE# 1698 - July 2005
His Comfort and Joy - SSE# 1732 - January 2006
From the First - SSE #1750 - April 2006
A Man in a Million - SSE #1803 - January 2007

I really enjoyed this next installment of the Moorhouse Legacy. Spike is awesome!! He reminds me of some twins we all know from Jessica Bird's alter ego J.R. Ward

Spike Moriarty is a reformed bad boy, now working as a french chef. Madeline Maguire is the ultimate rich girl, albeit one with low-self esteem and a dysfunctional family to boot! When these two get together, boy, do sparks fly!

I've been dying to read a Jessica Bird novel ever since J.R. Ward replaced Sherrilyn Kenyon as my 2nd favorite author. And man, Spike was totally delicious. For those familiar with the BDB series, he's a delicious cross between Zsadist and Phury. Madeline is a hybrid of Beth and Bella.

The plot was rich and the characters fairly well developed, so why only 4 stars? Because there were so many misunderstandings between these two before they FINALLY found love that it became irritating. This may have worked in a longer story, but with one of Silhouette's shorter novels, it became quickly tiresome. I found myself skipping through page after page of silly misunderstandings. It seemed almost impossible that these two intelligent people could be so silly.

However, it appears that an even irritating Jessica Bird/ J.R. Ward story is still worthy of a read.

I've never read Silhouette Romance before but being a fan of JR Ward and the Black Dagger Brotherhood I wanted to give Jessica Bird a try. This is a good story and I loved the two main characters. Madeline is well written as a strong, take-charge kind of woman (especially for a romance novel) and Spike is just lovely as her troubled, tattooed love interest. I did find certain similarities between Spike and/or Zsadist/Phury and this wasn't a bad thing.

A Man In A Million is relatively predictable, following the standard romance recipe. Spike and Madeline meet at a party, each is attracted to the other but misread their intentions as Mad has trust issues and Spike had a troubled past he thinks would scare her away. A mutual friend sets the two up, sending Spike along as back up while Madeline confronts her brother Richard regarding her trust fund. The two manage to fall in love over the next few days at the family mansion before several misunderstandings tear them apart.

Whether writing as JR Ward or Jessica Bird the writing here is top notch. I really enjoyed the fact that Madeline was an Olympic athlete and Spike was a tattooed, Harley riding French chef. These were different character traits then I'd read before and made for an interesting story. The conflict between Mad and her brother was also well done as was the eventual forgiving found with her sister Amelia. The secondary characters are also well developed and the banter between Spike and his friend Sean is as I'd previously enjoyed between the `Brotherhood'. At times I did find myself irritated by the several misunderstandings our duo had to endure before they found their HEA but all in all this was still a worthwhile read.

If you like tattooed, Harley riding romantic leads with troubled pasts and strong females then this is a book that you will enjoy. Cheers!

Spike is a wonderful hero. He's six four, tattooed, an ex-con, and rides a Harley. What's not to love?? Especially since he's also a great chef, incredibly kindhearted, and totally adores the heroine, Mad.

Mad comes from serious money and is a professional sailor and a powerful athlete. She's confident about sailing and her athletic ability but lacks confidence everywhere else, especially with men. She met Spike briefly in another book (From the First), and although Spike was blown away by her he assumes she's way out of his league and doesn't pursue anything with her. In this book, Sean O'Banyon (the fabulous hero of his own book, The Billionaire Next Door,) decides his two friends would be perfect for each other and sets up a situation where Spike can be Mad's knight in shining armor--he goes with her to confront her half-brother, who's always done his best to tear Mad down and destroy her self-esteem. With Spike at her side, Mad stands up to her brother and gains a lot of much-needed confidence. Along the way, she falls in love.

I loved Mad as a heroine. She's tall--six feet--and fanatical about her athletic training. She can swim faster and harder than Spike, and one of the things she loves about him is the fact that he's confident enough in himself not to care. She and Spike are a perfect fit, and I loved the build of tension between them. Highly recommended!

I've never read a Silhouette before, and the only reason I picked this up was because the subtle connection between the JR Ward BDB series. Also because it was used.

Mad, the heroine, is an olympic sail girl material, whose half brother has always taken over her life and her half sister has always stolen her possible mates. Full of insecurities about herself, she still tries to approach the dark, tall, mysterious, and handsome Spike. Unfortunately, Spike himself is full of his own insecurities after only a year out of prison for manslaughter.

If you've read the JR Ward series, the book was too much like a Zhadist & Bella rehash. Both heroine & hero of this Silhouette book give off similar personality traits of the BDB characters. Even the dialogue is somewhat similar, although Spike is a little bit of a combo of Zhadist & Phury.

I would have preferred the plot to be a little deeper rather than a dependency of the tiresome "Great Misunderstanding" plot of hearsay and deceiving appearances. In addition, the background of Spike was not very clear. If Spike has served his time in prison since he was 24 or 25, how long was his prison term? How old is he? How did he get involved in the popular restaurant business? How did he become a French chef? Why did the inmates give him the "Spike" nickname? What's with the tatoos down his spine? Those and more questions bothered me in the book. The intimate scenes were hot though, too bad it's not a full length novel.

I gave the book 4 stars only because I had too many questions about Spike's history even though the story was well written and a little bit of an alternate universe Zhadist story.

I love all Jessica Bird (JR Ward)books! :O)I hope she continues her romance series as well as her supernatural books.