I cannot begin to say enough good things about Ms Singh's stories and books. She knocks it out of the park for me every time and I've become a lifelong fan of her work. This one is no different and I've been eagerly anticipating this story. What a great emotional pull.

I loved this book! I am not familiar with the Indian culture, so I really enjoyed that setting. The characters were engaging and believable. The culture was rich, which just enhanced the story and experience.

Everyone I know who read this story loved it. I enjoy learning about Indian courtship and about Indian wedding. I love the story between the two main characters and would have loved the story to another 100 pages.. I also like that is story was happening at the same time as Cherish hard.

Finally, it's Nayna and Raj's time to tell their love story!

Premise
When I finished Cherish Hard, Ísalind and Sailor's story (Sailor being one of the Bishop's brothers), as is a signature of any of Nalini's books, I craved to know Nayna and Raj one's because I was already hooked on what was going on with them. Their story, as often is happening with this new contemporary series of Nalini's, was strictly entwined to Ísa and Sailor's, with one couple's story entering the other and enriching it (that's also why as soon as I finished this I went back and re-read Cherish Hard... it made everything even better).

Review
Going back to the story itself. As I said, for those who already read Cherish Hard, Rebel Hard is finally the opportunity to discover what was happening to Nayna and Raj. Nayna is the rebel in the title. She is a woman who loves her family and wants to please them after her sister's behaviour wounded them deeply. However, she is also an independent and successful professional accountant who wants to build her career and decide for herself about her life. Still, she finds herself bound by her culture traditions (she is Indian) and what her family expects from her as a woman that is of marriageable age. The pressure to be an obedient and respectful daughter who follows her parents' wishes is what is driving her to meet a list of awful potential candidates at the beginning of this story. If not for a last act of freedom before tying the knot with some boring doctor (or whatever). In fact, Nayna decides to go to a party, dragging Ísa with her, and it is there that things start to get interesting.
Raj, instead, is searching for something completely different and is happy to follow tradition. He wants a stable family, something that lacked in his childhood before his parents adopted him. He wants someone who will be happy to build a family with him, creating a warm and cosy home for them and their children. Someone who is not set on making a career but who will stay home. He isn't counting Nayna, though.

Conclusion
I truly enjoyed reading this book. Raj is one of the sweetest MCs I have ever had the pleasure to read about. Nayna, on the other hand, is the epitome of the heroine who needs to win personal emotional challenges to find and understand herself and what she wants from life. During all the reading, I could feel the author's personal experience of Indian culture and the influence it had on her life seeping in what was happening to Nayna. This ability to portray a culture in the story made me appreciate even more the book.

Raj was abandoned as a small child but adopted by an amazing and loving family. Focused on tradition, Raj is allowing his family to arrange the perfect marriage for him until he encounters a beautiful siren.

Little does he know his siren is Nayna Sharma! Nayna is also from a traditional Indian family, which Raj discovers the next day when their parents set them up!

Beautiful, hot, and full of heart.

What a fascinating glimpse into modern, 21st century arranged marriage. The Hard Play series, which so far appears to just be two books spun off of a different series, features super hot, hunky, strapping heroes who tumble hard and tumble first for the women they love (see Cherish Hard for Sailor Bishop, swoon).

The New Zealand setting is phenomenal, but I was a bit irritated that the audiobook narrator dropped all of the Kiwi accents for this book (she also narrated Cherish Hard and I listened to them back to back).

I also enjoyed that Singh includes a full cast of characters who are all important to the plot, even if their overall page time is small. While there is one 'villainous' character, she isn't portrayed as a stereotype.

SPOILERS

Raj is a virgin! I kind of figured, but you were slowly led up to the big reveal. It was nice to see two lovers exploring each other and enjoying learning each other without it being exploitative or yucky. I also loved that Nayna wasn't willing to compromise on her desires for a mate, for a future, and for a life. I loved that Raj was able to adapt his expectations of what marriage should be, for what it could be.

<strong>Rebel Hard</strong> is the second book in Nalini Singh's <a href="http://bookbinge.com/reviews/series/hard-play/">Hard Play</a> series and it follows the best friends of the couple in book 1 as they journey toward their own happily ever after with each other. We first meet them in <a href="http://bookbinge.com/2017/12/review-cherish-hard-by-nalini-singh/">Cherish Hard</a> when they meet each other and kiss and kiss and kiss and then Nayna runs away. In <strong>Rebel Hard</strong>, we find out where Nayna went and what happened with Raj.

I didn't think that I would like this book as much as I did because Nayna low key got on my nerves in the last book. I didn't really connect with her running away after every encounter she had with Raj. It felt childish and I didn't really want or care about reading her story. I'm glad that I changed my mind and read this book because I ended up really enjoying getting to know both Raj and Nayna. Raj was everything and even though Nayna frustrated me throughout this story, I ended up really liking her.

Raj Sen is a traditional man that wants to live a traditional Indian life. He wants a wife and a family to come home to every night and he thinks he found that partner in Nayna Sharma but Nayna is just realizing that living her life being the good and dutiful daughter to her parents has chipped away at her identity. She doesn't want to be the dutiful daughter. She doesn't want to live her life for her parents, so that her parents don't hurt the way that they were hurt when Nayna's older sister ran away and eloped but she also doesn't know who she is without family obligations holding her down. So it's really unlucky for her that she comes to this decision to strike out on her own when she meets the man that she does see a future with.

Getting both Raj and Nayna's background, their backstory brought their relationship and their romance together for me. I connected with the ties that their culture binds them with. I saw a lot of the Polynesian culture in the Indian one (haha, even the whole kava stuff) and the sneaking around even though you're a grown ass woman reminded me of the times that I did the exact same thing with my friends. The pressure to marry the right person for your parents, to be the perfect daughter, to not shame your father's name, I connected with all of that and made Nayna's story real for me.

I thought Nalini Singh did a great job of writing characters that understood and loved each other, supported each other enough to want them to chase their dreams. I thought Raj was the perfect hero for Nayna and I really, really loved him. Nalini Singh did her thing with this book and I can't wait to read more of her stuff. She's one of the good ones.

<strong>4 out of 5</strong>

I love the multiculturalism in this book. I didn't understand everything that went on, and honestly that is great. Nalini Singh has written a book not explicitly tailored for what I, a middle class white lady, know. Bravo!!

That is NOT to say, that this book was not relatable and approachable for me - Nalini Singh did a great job explaining aspects of her characters' culture without it feeling too much like a lecture

Absolutely brilliant! Nalini Singh never disappoints. From the very beginning I was eager to see what would unfold for Nayna as she sets out for a night of rebellion and I couldn't be more pleased that she ran into our self made hunk of a hero, Raj.
Watching their love story unfold was pure magic. I loved the touches of their family history, the culture that was seamlessly integrated and just how realistic our hero and heroine were.
This book made my heart so happy and full. We need more stories like this. Ones that are brilliantly written and highlight a diverse cast of characters without having to throw that diversity in your face for diversities sake.
An exceptional story I couldn't put down!

Nayna is in the process of interviewing prospected grooms for an arranged marriage when she decides to go out and get a little wild. At the party she meets a gorgeous man who sets everything about her on fire. He's exactly what she's looking for as a fling before she's put in the marriage cage. The heat level between them is enormous but things don't exactly work out quite the way Nayna wants them to.

Enter Raj. Raj is an amazing man. He's traditional, alpha as heck and he cares about Nayna enough to listen to her. He also has a sensitive side he only shows to Nayna. I really liked him. He too straddles between tradition and love. His heart is delicate, and he has reason to guard it, yet he knows he wants Nayna and is willing to risk his heart for her. It doesn't get more swoony than that. I really loved getting both perspectives in this story.

Nayna challenges the notion that she's only valuable as a wife and wants to develop her own self before she makes the decision to marry. Some of it is caused by fear of being caught in a loveless relationship. She's seen people change and fall out of love. She wants to be something herself, before she commits to another and she needs a man who understands that.

Felt like I was transported to a world I knew nothing about, and yet everything seemed so familiar. Aukland is not a setting I see often in my reading, nor is arranged marriage. It was all so very interesting and I adored how tradition was explored in this story. I loved everything thing about Rebel Hard. There is so much more to this story than just a set of abs on the cover. I don't think the cover does this book justice.

My favorite character, besides Nayna and Raj is most definitely Nayna's wise and wonderful grandmother who manages to sum up life in one meaningful sentence... "Love grows when it's tended." There are so many jewels in this story, and Aji is one of them.

Definitely on my favorites of 2018 list...

An ARC was provided for review.

Rebel Hard by Nalini Singh ranks up there with some of the best contemporary romance books today. Wonderful characters, easy to read, at times hilariously funny and yet touching.

I love Nalini Singh"s Psy-Changeling series but her contemporaries have been a hit or miss for me. This one was on the hit side, I'm happy to say. It’s modern arrange marriage romance of sorts set in the Indian community in New Zealand. The story is full of cultural and everyday details about the community and the tension between tradition and modern values/desire for freedom which cause the main conflict in the story. I’d say it’s a kind of an epic love story, one about choice and freedom, loyalty to oneself and one's family. I liked seeing how immersed in the community/their families both MCs are. And I absolutely loved them both.

Nalini Singh tells a moving story about how one’s dreams can change because one’s circumstances change. It’s about finding a way to make things work, about trust and compromise which are at the centre of any relationship. Breaking free is not a goal in itself, it's a means to achieve happiness and when being with another person is what makes you happy, you two work to give each other that freedom and that connection and support.

It’s a past paced story, rich in details and ultimately one big celebration of love (it features multiple wedding, mostly Indian style ones but also one non-Indian beach wedding). And it has a fabulous ending full of love and quiet happiness.

REBEL HARD is the second book in Nalini Singh's Hard Play series. The events in REBEL HARD run parallel to those in the previous book CHERISH HARD, but this works as a standalone book. Since her older sister's rebellious defection a few years ago, Nayna Sharma has been the good daughter doing everything she can to keep her family together and keep things harmonious to a large degree. A twist of fate delivers the hot guy from her fling as a wild girl and turns him into a prospective arranged- marriage suitor. REBEL HARD has humor, a smidge of drama, and sexy romance that make it a must-read for romance fans.

I've read more books than I can count that have been various takes on Jane Austen's book PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. In REBEL HARD, the allusions to Jane Austen's books are there but skillfully done without being obnoxious. Most PRIDE AND PREJUDICE inspired stories focus on the "Mr. Darcy" type character and emphasize his personality flaws, even as they try to capitalize on the popularity of that character. In REBEL HARD, Nalini Singh succeeds in capturing, as Austen did in her books, the intricacies and complexities of family life - - the delights as well as the cringe-worthy moments. This story beautifully details the Indian culture and customs as they relate specifically to courtship and marriage in a contemporary setting.

I laughed at the moment when Nayna is exasperated to find that her life is suddenly mirroring one of her favorite books. Nayna finds herself in a bit of an existential crisis. It's at this time in her life that she meets Raj Sen. Raj proves to be the perfect man for Nayna but it's at a time when she is looking to explore and be independent rather than tie herself to anyone in marriage. While it initially seems as though Nayna and Raj are at cross-purposes, their feelings for each other grow and Raj is determined to give Nayna exactly what she's looking for. As this story progresses, I'm inclined to agree with Nayna that Raj is infinitely more attractive than Mr. Darcy. While Raj may have longed for a woman to fit a traditional role, knowing and falling in love with Nayna changes his perspective. In addition to backing his lady love up at a crucial moment, he does something more seductive. Raj listens to Nayna and industriously tries to help her realize her dreams and life goals.

REBEL HARD is a Jane Austen- inspired story yet uniquely and fabulously a Nalini Singh one as well. There are just as many laughs in REBEL HARD as there are swoon-worthy moments and brief interludes of family meddling. Nayna's older sister Madhuri proves to be more of a Marianne Dashwood from SENSE AND SENSIBILITY rather than a Lydia from PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, and I can't help hoping that Nalini Singh would write a story for her. I can't wait to read the next book in Nalini Singh's Hard Play series.

I have been a huge fan of Nalini Singh's Rock Kiss series and was super excited to read Rebel Hard. Right from the beginning I was hooked as Raj and Nayna were both sexy and honest and their connection and initial meeting was fabulous. This story almost felt like a bollywood soap opera as there were so many feelings and issues that needed to be addressed. I was hooked from the getgo.

As a Desi woman and an Indian American I was overjoyed by the fact that this story told the story of traditional over the top Indian families and all of the customs and expectations attributed to that despite the difference in opinion their children (first generation offspring) may have. I just loved Raj. God he was just amazing and everything I love in a man. He was honest, protective, respectful and determined in winning his girl. Nayna likewise was just as fabulous. I loved their physical connection and chemistry and the way they loved one another. They had deep personal feelings about marriage and I loved how the author brought them together.

All in all, this story was moving and heartfelt and I never wanted it to end. I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book for an honest review. Bravo! 4 stars! ~Ratula

‘I’ve played it safe my whole life, and now I feel like I’m going to shatter if I don’t spread my wings.’

Look, when I say I love Nalini Singh, I mean it. Because not only can she give me angels and vampires, and wolves and bears and dolphins, but she can also give me . . . this. Swoony, funny, heartfelt words that feel good and are immediately addictive.

Truly, I was more than 60% in before I managed to tear myself away the first time—so taken was I by Raj (I want one of his selfies, please and thank you) and Nanya, and their (look, I don’t want to say over-the-top, but…) families.

Centered around those families, Rebel Hard made for an especially interesting read—traditions and foods and languages that I don’t see or experience in my day-to-day—while still being exactly the kind of book that I seek out at every turn.

Like a blend of Jane Austen’s finest romance, with a dash of Bend It Like Beckham-style rom-com, nestled alongside Ms. Singh’s signature witty writing and diverse characters, Rebel Hard is a wonderful, easy, enjoyable read. And I’m not just saying that because I love her.

“Raj, did you dream of a homemaker wife and lots of children?”
“I didn’t know you then,” he said simply. “Now when I think about my future, I see you.”

I really enjoyed this. It's very sweet and romantic, but has a satisfying amount of emotion, steam and drama too. I loved the characters, and the New Zealand setting and Indian cultural aspects made for a refreshing change from most romances. This is contemporary romance at its finest with a decided taste of rom-com and Bollywood.

Favorite Quote:

Other people would chase fiery passion and wild adventures. Raj was planning on stability and loyalty.
Nalini Singh’s latest contemporary romance delves into the Indian community and their tradition of arranged marriage.

Nayna Sharma agrees to an arranged marriage to make her family happy. She is the younger daughter, and after watching her parents grieve and worry over the many bad decisions her sister has made over the years, Nayna wants nothing more than for her parents to find joy as they look for the perfect man for their daughter. Sometimes being the perfect daughter can be too much, which is why she agrees to go with her bff to a house party and wear the shortest dress possible and maybe find a good-looking man to help her forget her husband hunt for a few hours. What she gets is Raj Sen, and he is almost too good-looking and their kisses are hot enough to burn them both to ash.

Family is everything for Raj Sen. Adopted as a young boy, he wants to be the best son he can be to his parents. That includes traditions, and rules, and finding the perfect wife and mother. His almost puts his search for a wife on hold when he meets a gorgeous, sexy woman a party one evening, only to discover later that week that she is one of the woman his parents want him to meet. Perfect.

I think this is my very favorite of Ms. Singh’s contemporary romances. I loved how Raj and Nayna worked so hard for their relationship, and how they really fought to maintain their individual identities. Their colorful, loving families brought all the love, laughter and drama that I’ve come to expect from this author who does familial, both blood and chosen, relationships so well. While not quite as open door as some of her previous novels, Raj and Nayna have a very sensual connection and I could feel the chemistry between them practically jump off the page. I absolutely adored how their love affair unfolded.

The Hard Play series is a prequel to the author’s Rock Kiss series, linked by my and the rest of the Book Pushers favorite alpha male, Gabriel Bishop, better known as T-Rex. But you certainly don’t have to read Rock Kiss or even Gabriel’s book, Rock Hard to get right into Rebel Hard.

As I said, this series is a prequel, so those events haven’t happened yet. However, the series is absolutely marvelous!

Rebel Hard is the second book in the Hard Play series, after last year’s Cherish Hard. Again, absolutely awesome. But you really don’t need to read Cherish Hard to get into Rebel Hard, because these two stories are happening in parallel.

Isa, the heroine of Cherish Hard and Nayna, the heroine of Rebel Hard, are besties. Really, really solid besties and have been forever. Both stories begin at the same time and place, the party where Isa meets Sailor, and where Nayna meets Raj. And it both cases it’s at least lust at first sight, if not something more.

In Cherish Hard, we saw what transpired between Isa and Sailor after this fateful party. Now it’s Nayna’s turn. And while her story, both before and after the party is completely different, both do end in the same place.

Rebel Hard isn’t really a story about rebellion, at least not in a big way. But it is about the kind of small rebellions that happen in everyday lives. And that’s true even though the chapter headings of Rebel Hard reflect the way that Nayna’s life seems to be taking a turn straight into a Bollywood melodrama.

This is, in the end, the story of Nayna’s rebellion. She begins the story as her parents’ “perfect” and perfectly reliable daughter. Nayna has suppressed her own desires, and had them suppressed for her, in the wake of her older sister’s very big rebellion – where she married someone completely unsuitable, ran away from home, and eventually got divorced.

In their fairly traditional Indian family, Maddie went pretty far off the rails – and it seems that Nayna is the one that was punished for it, with her movements and teenage life claustrophobically restricted by their frightened parents. Now Maddie is back, and she and Nayna are both adults, but Nayna is still letting her parents control her life while Maddie seems to get away with everything.

Nayna feels resentful and taken for granted – and she feels the walls of her world closing in. She had agreed to let her parents arrange a marriage for her, but now that the process is underway Nayna feels like her cage door is closing. That the candidates she meets turn out to be self-absorbed douchebags probably isn’t helping.

So she and Isa break out one night, and go to what to them seems like a fairly wild party – not that it actually is. But they are among strangers, and for one night they can be whoever and whatever they want to be. They are free from the different but equally restrictive expectations they live with.

And Nayna, intending to take a little bitty walk on the wild side, meets Raj, and discovers a part of her that wants to be wild – but only with him.

Of course he turns out to be the next candidate her parents introduce her to. Because that’s the way these stories always work. Just as she’s finally figured out that as much as she loves her parents, and as much as they love her, she has to experience life on her own terms before she gets married. And that she wants to marry someone who sees the real her, whoever that turns out to be – even though her parents don’t.

The story here is the tug of war, both within and between Nayna and Raj, and with all of the conflicting sets of expectations set up by not merely the two of them, but between both of their close, loving and hyper-involved families.

Everyone wants what’s best for everyone else. But in the end only Nayna and Raj can make that decision – no matter how much pressure is put on them, from each and every side.

Escape Rating A-: It took me a long time to get into this one – longer than usual for one of Nalini Singh’s books. In retrospect, I don’t think it was the fault of the book. I just wasn’t in the mood for a romance for several days.

Once I got into it, it turned out to be a breathlessly fast read, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Part of what made this story so interesting was that it is steeped in the Indian expat culture as it is lived in New Zealand – the setting from which the author herself springs. The families are very close-knit, as is the entire community. The interconnectedness of family and community is something that used to be a lot more common. People used to rely on not just their marital family but also their birth family and their extended family all their lives, and that’s something that doesn’t happen in the wider Western society as much anymore.

Nayna is a great character through which to portray both how lovely that can be and equally how smothering it can be. At the same time, the recognition that she has caught herself in her own trap is familiar no matter what culture one comes from. She has become the “good” daughter because her sister was the “bad” daughter, so she feels that she will only be loved if she is perfect. And she is afraid of what will happen if she isn’t.

Her relationship with Raj is fraught, not because there is anything wrong with him, but because she doesn’t want it to seem like she has given into expectations, and she is afraid that she will give into his. Not that she doesn’t fall for him, and very much vice versa, but he has always claimed that he wants a traditional wife, and Nayna doesn’t want to be that. Not that she doesn’t want to be a wife, she just doesn’t want to be that kind of wife. They have to work hard, both with and against all the various family pressures, to figure out a way to be together that satisfies what they both want and need – not just during the first flush of love, but for always.

Their sometimes desperate realism about what will and won’t work for each of them is what makes this story sing. And dance. Definitely dance.

my first Nalini Singh book and what a delight it was. i love books with meddling families and traditions so I was entertained from start to finish. Raj and Nayna were great characters! I loved how they worked their relationship out, making both their ideals work for the relationship and no one greatly sacrificed anything.

What a great cast of characters here! I really loved Nayna's grandma (Aji). Besides Nayna's interactions with Raj ;) conversations with her grandma were really my second fave thing ever. This book would make such a fun movie, with allll the shenanigans and drama that went down.

Honestly, I just had so much fun reading it and now i suppose I must devour everything in Nalini's backlist :)

A good romance like Nalini has a secret. I love Nayna, she is a little bit like me with her family. She love them and she wants so much to make them happy but she needs independence. The romance is sweet and intense. The characters are endearing ! I'm fan like every times with Nalini's books.

I love this Author particularly her Psy Changeling and Guild Hunter books which are brilliant ……………... so this book is a departure for me .
This story is one of sweetness , love in a multicultural society and willingness to sacrifice that love for the wellbeing of the other's dreams and happiness .

Two people wanting to please their families agree to an arranged marriage , both for different reasons .
Nayna wanting to put behind her the scandal of her sister's past behaviour , Raj wanting to give back to the family that adopted and loved him .
After many meetings both have come to realise that perhaps this route is not for them - not knowing that both families have decided that they might suit and have arrange a meeting .
BUT they have already met at a party where their attraction was immediate , a meeting that neither wants revealed .
What follows is a story of expectations by family and culture against a wish to feel free for the first time and make their own decisions for the future .
I particularly loved the idiosyncrasies of Nayna's grandmother which made me laugh out loud .

This was an enjoyable beautifully written book giving an insight into Asian immigrants' wishes to retain their culture whilst adapting to modern Society .
I will however stick to the Author's other series as the are more to my preferences in reading matter .

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own .