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Karen Scott's review Apr 07, 2020 · edit
it was ok

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars

I knew I was taking a risk jumping in with the third book of a series but I had never read a Nalini Singh book and I thought I would give it a try. At first, there were a mess of characters from the previous books to figure out but it didn’t take long to get them all connected and let the story begin.

The story was somewhat predictable. Juliette and Jacob shared a past through Juliet’s best friend and Jacob’s former girlfriend. They did not like each other back then but reconnecting brings forward a new attraction. See, not such an unusual plot line. You can imagine how this all plays out and so could I. Of course, there was the self-doubting, the attempt to talk oneself out of the attraction, the “Oh, but I shouldn’t” moments meant to create tension but instead made my eyes roll. At this point, I felt like I had a pretty good sense of what Singh is like as an author and I can see that I probably would have liked her writing when I was a younger reader. I’m no longer a young reader nor am I new to this genre so it all sort of felt routine.

Where this story really fell apart for me was the overplayed drama involving Juliet’s ex-boyfriend. None of it made sense. Not his motives, not the reaction, not the dramatic conclusion. All of it seemed contrived and unbelievable and that’s when I knew the wheels were off the cart. It’s hard to keep a story moving without wheels and this one dragged on in the final half.

So, now I know. I gave it a chance. I can cross that off my list and move on to something that will hopefully work better for me.

Anything Nalini Singh writes is an immediate yes for me. I am glad to say this holds up with this book too. Love Hard is the continuation to the sports romance series of the Bishop-Esera brothers. Love Hard focuses on single dad Jake and his late love's best-friend Juliet. This book was full of hot moments but also a lot of tender and sweet ones too. It was geniunely hard to put down as I wanted to read more about their love and the development of their love. Also the cameos of the other couples had my heart. I also appreciate the little angst to this book,

If you’ve been following my reviews, you know I’m more of an escapism reader so I am a big fan of Nalini Singh’s past works. Reading a contemporary romance isn’t beyond my comfort zone so when I saw Love Hard, I jumped at the chance to read Singh’s take on the contemporary sports romance genre … and I was not disappointed.

Love Hard has relatable, likable characters with an absolutely swoon worth romance. It was a delight watching Jake fall for Juliet. Did I mention, Swoon Worth, it is worth repeating.

If you love a really sweet, endearing romance then Love Hard will touch your heart and leave a smile on your face.

I received this ARC copy of Love Hard from Independent Publishers Group - TKA Distribution. This is my honest and voluntary review. Love Hard is set for publication on March 10, 2020.

My Rating: 4 stars
Written by: Nalini Singh
Series: Hard Play (Book 3)
Paperback: 340 pages
Publisher: TKA Distribution (March 10, 2020)
ISBN-10: 1942356692
ISBN-13: 978-1942356691
Genre: Contemporary Sports Romance

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Love-Hard-Play...
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love...
Itunes: https://books.apple.com/us/book/love-...
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Love Hard continues Nalini Singh's sports romance series about the Bishop-Esera rugby-playing brothers. This installment focuses on single dad Jake, who falls for his late girlfriend's best friend, Juliet Ms. Singh writes a sweet story with just enough smexy times to satisfy without overpowering the storyline. Her characters are well-developed, and I would give her extra kudos for Esme. Writing believable children is hard, but Esme came off with just the right amount of sweet mixed with normal child behavior. .

There is plenty of interaction with the rest of the family, including Charlie and T-Rex (my favorites). Danny's story is up next, and my fingers are crossed for his partner...I know who I want to fill the role!

I've been taking my time with this book as I know finishing this book and then waiting for Danny Esera's book is going to be painful.

Gosh, I love Jake and Jules together. Two brokenhearted people (with long history!) finding love and ending up together is my kink. The story wasn't as angsty as I had hoped (Jake was very firm on Juliet once he decided, and so was Jules) but I didn't quite mind because the sexy times made up for it, LOL.

Also it's so great to be reunited with the characters from the previous books (Charlotte & Gabe's wedding!!! even Nayna and Raj were in here!!!). I highlighted that bit about an Esera cousin having a security firm???? MS. NALINI PLEASE WE NEED A SPINOFF.

Thanks so much for a wonderful read! Loved the interactions with main characters, the chemistry was on point. I would love to read more from this author! Great job!

I absolutely adored Rebel Hard, so that was a hard act to follow, but Love Hard is a worthy followup and a solid addition to the series.

As always, Nalini Singh's writing is engaging and I love spending time in the world she has built around the Bishop Esera clan. The large, boisterous, loving family we were introduced to in earlier books is very much is evidence in this one, which kicks off with the wedding of the main characters from Rock Hard. This time the story revolves around Jacob Esera, a younger member of the family and the only one who isn't a Rugby pro. Jake is a loving, very hands on single Dad to an adorable six year old girl whose mother, the first love of his life, died shortly after the birth. His new love interest, Juliet, has known him forever. Though they're very different people, they are closely tied through family, friends and, shortly after the story begins, work. They went to high school together and his high school sweetheart was Juliet's best friend. There's some hostility at the start, but this is mostly a lovely relatively low conflict story involving forced proximity and great chemistry. The perfect comfort read for right now.

Juliet and Jacob were awesome. They had great chemistry and I felt that their encounters were natural. I did like their common friend and that it was helpful but not the whole you should be with them because it my dying wish.

I had only read one Nalini Singh book before this one (her mystery-thriller Madness of Sunshine), but I really enjoyed it and knew she had legions of fans, so I was excited to read this one. I hadn't read the previous books in the series, but was able to follow without any problems. (That being said, I think you'd enjoy this one more if you read the others first, and you'd find it easier to keep track of all the side characters - there are a LOT of them!)
Anyway, this book follows rugby star Jake and his childhood frenemy Juliet. They meet again at Jake's brother's wedding, and find that they like each other a whole lot more as adults than they did as kids. I really liked both Juliet and Jake, and they acted like adults, talking things through and trusting each other. Jake's a single dad, and his daughter Esme was super cute but a real kid too (she throws tantrums when necessary). I also enjoyed the New Zealand setting, the rugby, and Juliet's whole storyline. Overall this is a pretty low key, low conflict book, which I really appreciated and enjoyed. If you're a fan of Singh definitely pick this one up. If you haven't read her before, maybe start with the others in the series, but make your way to this one too!

3 STARS ★★★✩✩

This book is for you if… you’re not letting your grand experience with the psy-changeling books tempt you to have high expectations for Nalini’s other worlds (I feel like an utter traitor even thinking it).

⤐ Overall.
I am very sad to report that I have indeed come to the conclusion that Nalini's work outside the psy-changeling universe will probably never satisfy me in the ways I hoped, given how great and familiar this world is.

To explain what I do not like about this book, I'll have to underline what it is that I love about that other series so much: the fact that there is something substantial going on in the bookbesides the romance part. That stretches throughout all the books and actually knits them together like a tight network. The psy-changeling universe is very intricate and detailed - which makes it possible to explore many spheres of the story, not just the individual love of the MCs.

That's what I'm kind of missing here. Although the romance is pretty hot, the dialogues are funny and there's some interesting side plot going on, the rest of the books is still just aimlessly throwing bits and pieces of a wider plot at the reader so it doesn't seem like yet another shallow romance.

Well...that didn't work.

⤐ What’s happening.
‘He’s amazing, Jules. Just give him a shot.<’
‘With a tranquilizer dart you mean?’

...a brief summary of Jake and Jules' relationship thus far. But when they get into closer contact during a wedding, they can't help but notice they might not actually dislike each other quite as much as they'd thought.
Con:
⇢ paparazzis always on the lookout for another scandal
⇢ past still looms over them
⇢ principles, damn it
Pro:
⇢ being together is effortless
⇢ cravings of having a family
⇢ the sex

_____________________
writing quality + easy of reading = 3*

pace = 3*

plot/story in general = 3*

plot development = 3*

characters = 3*

enjoyability = 3*

insightfulness = 3*

OMG I love Jacob and his daughter!! They have such a beautiful relationship. Juliet brings out the man in Jake and bring him back to life. I am loving the Bishop-Esera family and can't wait for more of this family.

Dear Nalini Singh,

Sometimes a book arrives at just the perfect time and that special alchemy that happens between story and reader happens; a combination of great book and the exact right reading mood. That’s what happened here.

I admit enemies to lovers isn’t generally my favourite trope. But Jacob (Jake) Esera and Juliet Nelisi aren’t enemies for long. And they never were really enemies per se. More, they clashed in high school but shared a very special someone and so, made an effort to get along for her sake. Calypso (Callie) was Juliet’s best friend and Jake’s girlfriend. That link drew them together as teens but it’s been six years since they’ve seen each other and a lot has changed since then.

Callie got pregnant and Jake and she became teenaged parents to daughter Esme. Shortly after her birth however, Callie became unwell with meningitis and sadly, died. At the time, Juliet had returned to Samoa, banished by her aunt and was basically kept incommunicado from her friends in New Zealand. She managed to get a message to Jake though, expressing her condolences and her own sadness.

Juliet had been a bit of a wild girl in school, always getting into trouble and not applying herself to her studies. Callie was her virtual opposite but they were fast friends. Juliet tended to get into trouble for sticking up for people weaker than her and Jake always respected her loyalty.

Jake was pretty much a good boy in school and devoted to Callie. Juliet, for her part, always knew he would do right by Callie and trusted in his word.

So, even though there was some animus between them, the foundation of a solid friendship existed even back in school. Of course, there was never any suggestion of a romantic attachment between Juliet and Jake as teens. Neither of them ever remotely considered it. Jake was Callie’s and that was that.

Read the rest: https://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/overall-a-reviews/a-minus-reviews/review-love-hard-by-nalini-singh/

I am a huge Nalini Singh fan - I started reading her books via the Guild Hunters series, and then the Psy-Changeling series (which is probably my favourite of her series) and since then I've tried to read as many books from her backlist as possible. I was really excited to see Love Hard on Netgalley and immediately requested it because I'd recently been dabbling in some of her contemporary works, so I was grateful to receive a review copy.

Love Hard is the third book in the Hard Play series, which follows a similar group of characters (friends and family) who turn up in the various books. You could read it on its own but it is more fun when you've got the histories and backstories (and it helps a bit with knowing the timeline as some of the stories run parallel to each other rather than strictly before or after). I decided to read the stories in order so I had  read them all before beginning this book and I enjoyed the experience.

Love Hard follows Jacob Esera who is a young single father looking for privacy and stability for his daughter. He's a rugby legend and wants to make sure that his daughter is safe, especially after the death of her mother. Everything's going great until Juliet Nelisi, the best friend of his daughter's mother, blows back into his life. In the past, they'd never quite gotten along, and despite an attraction, he knows that she draws too much attention wherever she goes, especially after a very messy, public divorce from one of New Zealand's cricket players. This is the story of how straight-laced Jacob and wild-girl Juliet try to overcome their own issues and priorities and decide whether or not their attraction to one another is worth fighting for.

This was a really fun, really heart-felt read. I really enjoyed digging  a bit deeper into Jacob's backstory. He had appeared in previous books as the much younger brother of the Esera clan and so in this book he's in his early twenties, growing up quickly after a teenage pregnancy leaves him the sole carer and provider for a young girl (who's an awesome character in this book, too, just saying!). I think the teen pregnancy and death of his girlfriend, which happens off-the-page prior to the beginning of the book and retold through memories was really well done, and while it's not everyone's experience, it's one experience of loss and growing up quickly. In the Hard Play series, on of Singh's defining characteristics is strong family ties, and Jacob has a lot of support from his family and it's clear how much love there is between everyone.

I also really appreciated Jacob and Juliet's relationship growth throughout the book. They're both trying to overcome their past feelings for one another, which weren't very positive, and see the other for who they truly are. There's an understanding that needs to take place - recognising that everyone grows up and has the opportunity to change. Juliet's struggled with being in the limelight with her ex-husband's very public betrayal and Jacob hides from the limelight to protect his daughter. But, being public figures, means they need to work out how to be together in way that allows them to develop their relationship, and I enjoyed reading about it.

One of the best scenes in the book was when Juliet and Jacob have to work together on an advertising campaign and Juliet has to work at helping Jacob relax. The scene itself is pretty funny, due to being an underwear campaign, but it highlights how well Juliet knows Jacob.

Overall, this was a really fun, entertaining read, and I highly recommend the whole series.

Truly enjoyed this book.

The characters were likable, very interactive with their family, their love for sports and the people around them. My most favorite part of this book is that we get a lot of interaction with other characters which is a major hook for me. I enjoy when characters aren’t just background or plot devices to further the story. Which it isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s a major hard on with writing for me when all characters are important.

Another thing I would love to point out is that their actions were level headed for the most part when taking action towards the antagonist and we don’t see that enough in books. I was very pleased with this and it made the story 100% better.

We got a strong lead woman with a badass job, taking decision. She's surround by family-friends and has a great support system in them. They want to help and she allows them to help, I love this type of character. She knows her strengths and that's very important.

Our male lead is a lot to handle. He's kind, strong and loving. A family body and such a soft indicia who worries for everybody. So, does our woman lead, to be honest. He's a professional rugby athlete, famous and a legend on his league. He's quite the character and I couldn't like him enough.

These two are by far my favorite couple of 2020. Their dynamics are something I couldn't get enough. I'm very happy that I was allowed an advance reader copy of this book. Thank you so much to NetGalley for that opportunity.

As my first Nalini Sighn book, I have to say I was given a lot to expect from my next read of hers. Again, sports romance is something I read a ton of and I’m very picky with my selection of it. I couldn't be more happier that my first rugby book was a success. Will keep reaching out for more hooks that have the sport.

This was good, so good. I dont think there any thing that Nalni can't do. Everything about this one is so loveable and I was here for it all. Contemporary romance at its best.

Jack and Jules are the couples no one would have bet on in highschool. First Jack was with Juliet best friend, second Juliet moves out and Jack girlfriend Callie (her bbf) was pregnant. He was the idiot bf and they tolerated each other only for Callie sake. Long story short, a beautiful baby girl was born (Esme) Callie got sick and die, all witting a year. they lose contact and if it wasn't for the coincidental friendship of Jules and Molly (Rock Hard) and being chosen as a bridesmaid for her wedding with Gabe they probably wouldn't have met again (that is until he found out she was the VP for the company shooting the new underwear add that he and his new teammates were staring in). And what a meet? the instant attraction with the same antagonistic relation they always had. They had to reconcile the guilt of being attracted to each other because of their past, the new baggage they had now (him being a single dad and her coming off a marriage with a cheating ex). But done, it is a beautiful romantic story that gets you smiling from beginning to end.

As usual, Nalini Singh does not disappoint. What a sweet, lovely, and sexy book. This whole series just warms your heart. Singh manages to take a lot of the tropes/issues the come up with celebrity contemporary romances and turn them on their head, resulting in a sweet, lower angst book that carries no less of an impact. Jake is a protective, good man who is woke enough to identify his own issues with needing to protect everyone from harm so that he can work to rein it in. So you get the perfect mix of a protective man who supports and nurtures the independence and strength of his little girl and all the other people he loves. And Juliet is a woman who comes across as a hard ass (and she is) but who has such a big, loyal heart she’s just aching to share with someone. And the chemistry between the two is off the charts.

I love this series but so far this book is not a favorite of the series.

Jake is such a sweetheart. But his daughter is even more amazing. Juliet is also a great character. They do well together.

My major issue is that there are some plot points that never get tied up but overall the book is still pretty good.

Single dad romance... YES PLEASE. Jake was so sweet to his daughter Esme and super protective.

Jake and Juliet are so wholesome and sweet.

Some of these scenes were making me sweat.. in a good way!

I also loved the vulnerability between the two characters.

Sexy ‘enemies-to-lovers’ romance Love Hard is book three in Nalini Singh’s Hard Play series. This tender love story is thoroughly satisfying from its amusing chapter titles down to the hero’s amply-filled boxer briefs.

When Jacob ‘Jake’ Esera’s high school sweetheart died, he lost his true love and his baby daughter lost her mother. Six years later, Jake is a successful New Zealand rugby player and a doting single parent with one priority – his little girl, Esme. To ensure Esme’s safety and happiness, Jake surrounds himself with supportive family and friends, and maintains a respectable lifestyle that keeps the tabloids at bay. He believes that his stable, closely guarded world is all that he needs. But, Jake’s life changes forever when Juliet ‘Jules’ Nelisi shows up at his brother’s wedding. Jake is none too pleased to discover that Jules, his former high school antagonist, is bridesmaid to his groomsman. When they last saw each other, Jules was a rule-breaking wild child and Jake was a popular play-by-the-rules athlete. Despite the mutual hostility that still exists between them, Jules and Jake are insanely attracted to each other’s gorgeous adult selves, and as the couple learns to let go of their past differences, they form a close friendship. Jake is in awe of the capable, accomplished business professional that Jules has become, and Juliet admires Jack’s transformation into a devoted dad who sometimes trades in his stern resting face for a dazzling smile. With newfound respect comes an unquenchable desire that neither Jules nor Jake are prepared to handle.

The first eight chapters of Love Hard take place during the wedding day festivities of Jake’s older brother, Gabe, a secondary character who was featured in Singh’s Rock Kiss series. While I enjoyed Jules and Jake’s electrifying wedding day reunion, I was exhausted by the lengthy exposition overflowing with ‘character dumps’ and marital euphoria. As soon as Gabe goes on his honeymoon, Jules and Jake’s narrative takes center stage and the pace picks up. The plot complications and conflicts that follow are too quickly and neatly resolved. Either Singh feared exceeding her word count, or she doesn’t like to keep readers in suspended states of anxiety and curiosity for very long.

I have one nitpicky personal complaint to share before moving on to more favorable comments. I am not a fan of Singh’s use of alliteration in selecting her protagonists’ first names – ‘Jacob’ and ‘Juliet.’ Since the lovers are frequently called ‘Jake’ and ‘Jules,’ there are actually four ‘J’ names that refer to the main characters. The resulting ‘brain muddle’ occasionally interrupted my reading flow.

Criticisms aside, Singh is talented at writing sympathetic characters who passionately fall in love with each other. She deftly crafts an affectionate opposites attract relationship between Jules and Jake that tugs at the heartstrings. Jules is fun and sassy, but cynical and wary; Jake is serious and shy, but warm and welcoming. She makes him feel alive; he makes her feel safe. Together, they are a perfect pair. Their shared history adds poignant depth to their intimate connection, and their heady mutual physical attraction leads to steamy, sexual gratification. Speaking of sweet, sweet lovemaking, Singh’s sex scenes are moderately graphic, some are barely on the page, but she is aces at building sexual tension and writing seductive foreplay – mental, as well as physical.

In short, Love Hard is an enjoyable romance that engages and delights. Sure, the first quarter of the novel is slow and the cast of characters is eight-feet deep, but the loving is just right. If you’re seeking a romance novel that will wrap you in a super soft blanket made of ‘forever love,’ then Nalini Singh’s Love Hard is the book for you.