Love Hard isn't something I can review right now. It is confusing from the start, as there's a lot going on. It is obviously part of a series that I never read. I will need to go back and buy the previous books before I review this one.

This book was like peeling layers of the flower pedals for me. Each petal (chapter) felt - i was mesmerized to peel another and pick another and another until I reached the end and no more petals (chapters) were left.
Her beautiful writing, and plot and detail in research made me her biggest fun now! Loved it! NO dull moment here!

Loved this one so much. It was sweet, sexy, and I'm all for more New Zealand based books.

As always Nalini writes well-rounded characters, who have a lot of depth and layers.
And it's wonderful to read her contemporary stories -- her paranormal romances are already so phenomenal but seeing this author do something different, but keep to her core writing powers I expected something great and I wasn't disappointed.

Sigh <3 I just love Nalini SIngh. I love her paranormal romance. I love her contemporary romance. I bet if she wrote historical, I'd love that too! Does she? Lol. Love Hard is written in the style that suits me so well, with well-developed and dynamic characters, immersive stories, and heart-wrenching love stories! Jacob really shines in his relationship with his daughter showing his sweet side, but there's also the dirty male hero we love so much! He's a perfect blend of sweet and sexy, but Jules' struggle is captivating as well. Five stars. loved everything about it!

Jacob and juliet go to school together but are far from friends. His brother Gabriel is getting married to Charlotte. Charlotte drank and jumped off buildings to celebrate getting married. Gabriel went rafting. Jake is a single dad to Esme. He is a rugby player. Jake runs back into Juliet before the wedding. I liked juliet

Love the series. Love the book. Love the characters.

Nalini Singh's stories always fill me with joy and comfort me when I need them most.

This was a really cute and sexy book with some emotion thrown in! I enjoyed the banter and chemistry between Juliet and Jake as well as their frenemies to lovers/second chance relationship. I also really appreciated that miscommunication wasn't part of this book.

I did feel like the pacing could have been better as some scenes were a lot longer than I think they needed to be. That's really my only negative though. I would definitely recommend this if you're a fan of sports romances as well as the tropes I listed above.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

Love Hard (Hard Play #3). By Nalini Singh. 2020. Independent Publishers Group (ARC eBook).

Tall, dark, and deliciously straitlaced Jacob Esera is a top rugby player and young widowed father to a six-year-old daughter. At his brother Gabe’s wedding he is reunited with his high-school frenemy, Juliet “Bad Influence” Nelisi. Jules was the best friend of Callie, Jake’s sweetheart and the mother of his daughter; and while he has always appreciated Jules’ loyalty to Callie, the two of them could never pass up needling each other. It turns out their knack for ribbing hasn’t diminished in the years since they last saw each other, but now there is also a strong sexual attraction. In this opposites-attract sports romance we get a swoon-worthy hero and a sassy heroine taking a chance at love.

The Hard Play series is a must for readers that are fans of big, lovable families and fantastic pairings. And Love Hard scores a perfect match with Jake and Jules and is another shining example of Singh’s wordsmithery! I would recommend a book by Singh, any genre, without reservation.

Loved this book, love this author, this book was a perfect follow up in the series and I loved both man characters.

Love Hard is book #3 in the Hard Play series by Nalini Singh. I’m a huge fan of the author’s contemporary romances and have been reading this series since she started writing it. For this installment, we have Jacob Esera, rugby star, single father and bane of Juliet Nelisi’s high school existence. Jacob was in a relationship with Juliet’s BFF Calypso, who unfortunately, passed away shortly after their daughter was born.

Now I’m a sucker for a good single dad story. And then you add in hot rugby players and a redemption story, and SOLD. Juliet had a reputation has a bad girl in high school but has fought her way into a great career and a life far different from her teenage years. Juliet and Jacob reunite at Jacob’s brother’s wedding and the sparks fly immediately. I was unsure how I felt at first because it felt a little wrong for Juliet to be crushing on her former enemy/BFF’s baby daddy but I got over it quickly. I enjoyed the banter between the two characters (I’m a sucker for witty banter) and how they fought their relationship for so long.

I think Juliet showed a lot of growth during the course of the story but in a nice change of pace, so did Jacob. What I especially liked was the two of them helping each other overcome demons, preconceived notions and their past to form a great relationship.

While this is #3 in the series, each book can stand alone. I gave this installment 4 out of 5 stars. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy.

Who knew I'd love rugby romance so much but Nalini has definitely converted me. I absolutely adored Jacob. Bests single Dad ever. It made him all the more a swoon-worthy hero.
And Juliet while almost his opposite was such a great heroine. The flashback scenes really helped to show the woman she truly was and not just the version of herself that she showed everyone else.
We saw some familiar faces in this book and while I really enjoyed that, some of it overshadowed our latest couple. Regardless, Love Hard was a love story of epic proportions and I can't wait for the next book in the series!
An absolute must read as all of Nalini's books are!

I've been looking out for this book since the first time Jacob appeared in Rock Hard. I don't think anyone could not fall in love with the Bishop-Esera family. The way Nalini writes her characters is so compelling that's impossible to not connect with them. This bunch of strong, hot and family-centred guys could melt an iceberg. And Jake has always been my favourite... probably because I am a sucker for a guy who's a single dad so young.

I was soo curious to see how Nalini would turn his story around - and his head as well obviously - with another strong, unique female counterpart.

Having said this, I wasn't 100% satisfied with this book, unfortunately. I felt it was laking that uniqueness I am used to finding in Nalini's stories. I don't know how to explain it. The story and the characters are alright but nothing really special. I didn't see the "why" Jake and Jules got together. It looked like it was just an "I find you hot and that's enough for me" sort of relationship. Not as Isa and Sailor or Naina and Raj had done before.
I liked the story, don't get me wrong. I may get to love it the second time around if I get to re-read it.
But I didn't love it as much as I would have wanted for my favourite character after The Bishop and the Mouse.

This had a lot of qualities I usually really enjoy in romance like big families, hate to love, but nothing felt like it was developed very well. The writing was so repetitive about how much everyone loved each other and how beautiful everyone was, it had me rolling my eyes rather than feeling a genuine connection for any of the characters. It lacked a lot of the conflict and excitement I look for in romance.

The plot felt so contrived and disjointed in places, by the time the ending happened I didn’t really care anymore.

This one was just fine for me, there was nothing particularly memorable or outstanding about it. I hadn't read any of the other books in the series, so the focus on a wedding of two characters I didn't know didn't really hold my attention so it took me a while to actually get into the book.

Love Hard by Nalini Singh is the third book in the Hard Play series. In this engaging opposites-attract novel, Singh gives readers all of the feels and swoons. Juliet and Jake’s budding and hard-fought relationship is one that readers will be cheering on throughout the novel. Love Hard by Nalini Singh is a solid addition to the Hard Play series.

Perfectly nice contemporary sports romance, so it's a case of it's me, not you. I will be reviewing it in full. I just confirmed for myself that romances with small children at the center just don't work for me.

Juliet and Jacob knew each other in highschool but only tolerated each other for the sake of Calypso, Juliet's bestfriend and Jacob's girlfriend. When mutual friends bring them back together, Jacob is a now a single father and Juliet has managed to become vice president of a lingerie company. They get thrown even more together when Jacob's celebrity as a star Rugby player has him modeling for Juliet's company.
These two still rub each other the wrong way but now the friction is starting to cause sparks.

Love Hard is third in the Hard Play series but also has a strong connection to Rock Hard from the Rock Kiss series. The first 20% of this story deals heavily with the wedding between Gabriel and Charlotte (Rock Hard), Jacob is a groomsman in the wedding because Gabriel is his brother and Juliet is a bridesmaid because of her friendship with Charlotte. I've read Rock Hard and absolutely loved it, so I delighted at revisiting this couple but the focus even started to get a bit long for me, I'm not sure how new readers to both series would feel about all the characters that they would have no prior connection to. This could be read as a standalone but you'd miss emotional connections to characters that could dampen some enjoyment.

Jake “Golden Boy” Esera and Juliet “Bad Influence” Nelisi? Nope. Nope. Triple extra nope.

There is little flashback to Jake and Jules in highschool but the author does it right by just having our characters think back and discuss their relationship back then and reminisce sweetly about Calypso. Calypso was the mother of Jake's little girl, they had her in their teens and Calypso ended up getting a bacterial meningitis infection and passing away soon after giving birth. There was absolutely no romantic feelings between Jake and Jules when they were in highschool and the way the author had them growing close and developing attraction in the present was done perfect. They already have an emotional connection because of their mutual love of Calypso and I love how that brought them together instead of worried angst to keep them apart.

I also liked how the author developed Jake's character, Jules knew him to be a pretty straight and narrow guy in highschool while she pushed the boundaries because she didn't have a caring home environment. Jake comes from an extremely loving and supportive family and Calypso's death makes him want to become even more of a control freak but because of therapy and his support system, he recognizes that about himself and actively checks his impulses. Jules lost her parents young, spent time with an uncaring aunt only to be moved in with grandparents that put their issues with her parents on her for the majority of her young life. These character foundational developments clearly showed why Jake was sweetly more open at times and why Jules kept her walls up more.

That night she dreamed of tracing the coils and shapes of his tattoo with her tongue, fantasized about licking sweat from his skin after a hard game of rugby, and woke at midnight to the impression of his strong body pinning her to the bed while he smiled down at her. “Oh hell.”Juliet was in trouble.

I loved these two together, they had a great ease to how their characters flowed together and delicious heat to their tension. The story did at times though, butt them out too much as the focus went on the great Esera-Bishop family members; their greatness can eclipse. I did enjoy the slight drama that came from Juliet's ex-husband and how that tied in threads of how Juliet didn't want to get involved with another sports athlete and allowed to show Jake's caring and protective side, he was seriously sexy in how he treated and supported Jules through it all.

They might’ve scratched the itch, but in doing so had turned it into a chronic ailment— because now they knew how good it could be between them.

This book had sections that I loved sinking into and others that dragged but Jules and Jake were characters that I enjoyed separately and together. The time that Jules let Jake know how his supportive family made it easier for him to be the more open person and the way Jake supported Jules but ultimately let her make her own decisions, made the romance flourish in the story. I also liked how they couldn't battle their sexual heat anymore, came to an agreement to scratch the itch once to get it out of their system, but didn't drag out the stubbornness on adhering to that when after they slept together, they both admitted to themselves and each other there was deeper feelings involved. Singh always does a great job on making characters feel real, the little additive of Jake not being a morning person and Jules delighting over that because he showed a normally hidden grumpy side was enchanting. If you're looking to immerse yourself in a big loving family, the Esera-Bishop clan, and their friends, is well worth reading about as Singh delivers on the emotions and love.

I adore Nalini Singh and was thrilled when I was approved for this ARC. Love Hard is the third book in her Play Hard series. The series is set in New Zealand — which I love — and follows the sons of rugby family the Bishop-Esera.

Juliet is used to been misunderstood and considered troublesome but she’s loyal. Something her ex-husband and cricket player used against her for years. I adored Juliet. She has a tough exterior and is used to fending for herself. As the narrative progresses and she explores her relationship with Jacob, we see past her walls and glimpse her vulnerable side.

After the death of his childhood sweetheart and the mother of his daughter, Jacob has dedicated his life to his daughter, Esme. He’s made it his mission to provide her safety and stability. As a rugby player, he’s focusing the game rather than get caught up in fame he leads a conservative life. Juliet manages to get under Jacob’s skin and allows him to have fun and feel young again.

The banter between Jacob and Juliet was front and centre the whole narrative. This is a slow burn relationship, the pair’s dynamic shifts from teenaged enemies to a tentative friendship before they give in to their attraction and start dating. When Juliet’s ex sparks up a media scandal, her first reaction is to push Jacob away. She knows he has Esme to think about and prefers to stay out of the limelight. She’s also used to being alone and having no one to rely on. However, Jacob doesn’t let her go and instead does everything to protect her. When the rest of the Bishop-Esera clan bans around Juliet it brought my heart so much joy.

This story is told in alternative third-person perspectives from both Juliet and Jacob. Sprinkled throughout are flashbacks from when Jacob, Juliet and Callie where teenagers. I loved this element because we got an insight into the person who brought the pair together. Nalini Singh does a fantastic job of creating the perfect balancing the pair’s grief of the loose of Callie and their budding attraction.

Oh my god, Esme was just the cutest! Even though I do not want kids right now there is something about reading about a single dad who’s doing anything and everything for his daughter that just makes my ovaries want to explode. And when she gave Juliet permission to kiss her dad! It was so sweet!

If you love Nalini Singh’s paranormal series — Psy-Changeling and Guild Hunters — and haven’t yet tried her contemporary, I highly recommend this series. The first book is Cherish Hard.

This was a good book, normally I rate books by Ms. Singh as great books, but it just didn’t hold me attention like her books normally do.

But that being said it was a good story, it was sweet and sexy an easy beach read or relaxing bath read

11443588
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.