Review - Rebel Hard by Nalini Singh

New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh continues her Hard Play series with a sweet, sexy romance featuring big, fat, OTT weddings, a meddling grandma, and a too-serious hero who needs to be unbuttoned…

Nayna Sharma agreed to an arranged marriage in the hope it would heal the fractures in her beloved family… only to realize too late that a traditional marriage is her personal nightmare. Panicked, she throws caution to the winds, puts on the tiniest dress she can find, and ends up in the arms of a tall, rough-edged hunk of a man who has abs of steel—and who she manages to mortally insult between one kiss and the next.

Abandoned as a child, then adopted into a loving family, Raj Sen believes in tradition, in continuity. Some might call him stiff and old-fashioned, but he knows what he wants—and it’s a life defined by rules… yet he can’t stop thinking about the infuriating and sexy woman who kissed him in the moonlight then disappeared. When his parents spring an introduction on him, the last woman he expects is her. Beautiful. Maddening. A rulebreaker in the making.

He’s all wrong for her. She’s all wrong for him. And love is about to make rebels of them both.

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Unfortunately I still don't have as much time as I'd like for writing reviews, the publisher is still generous enough to give me a copy of the Rock Kiss and now the Hard Play books. So I continue this blog - which rather seems like a Nalini Singh fan one until now - with the newest addition in the spin-off Hard Play series, titled Rebel Hard.

I like to keep my reviews spoiler-free, because I don't want to ruin others' reading experience by cracking all the jokes, so to say. I don't like that either, because then the big moments and turning-points don't have the same effect. So this will may be a shorter review.

I mentioned many times now things that I love generally in Nalini Singh's writing style, for example the detailed descriptions about the scenery, the environment, and also the characters, which brings them closer to us. How every book has its unique qualities, and even if it seems like one will be very similar to another one, Nalini finds a way to prove that assumption wrong. I could go on and on with the positives of this author's stories that don't change from book to book, no matter if we read a Psy-Changeling book, a Guild Hunter book or one of the Rock Kiss / Play Hard books. But there are shades of them, and that can depend  for example on the genre, and within the genre, the specialities like the main characters and the actual plot. So henceforth I would like to highlight the things that made Rebel Hard its own original story for me, the thing that stood out maybe more in this book than other ones.

Firstly,  I cannot not mention the characters complexity. It usually shows in every Nalini book, but not more than here. What I am talking about is that these players in the story can't be labeled, can't be put in categories, they aren't wholly good or wholly evil beings like in the books from romanticism. As life itself isn't black and white, the people in it aren't either. Nalini Singh masterfully makes it possible to love to hate or hate to love someone. 

For example, there is heroine, Nayna. Though she is a generally likeable character, who everyone can simpathize with if they have ever been in a situation where they felt like they didn't have control over their own life. But that didn't stop me from feeling like shaking her or even shouting at her to stop hurting Raj, even if inadvertently. Or there is Komal, who really is a cruel b***h slash soon to be sister-in-law, like in the soap operas. But there are reasons why she is that way, which makes us understand. (I say understand, not agree with her.) Or there is Madhuri, who I think could be the most divisive person in the book. On one hand, she is just a pretty girl who likes to live the life fully and cheerfully, but it turns out she has serious problems. I wouldn't like to say more about her, because I think that hers is one of the most surprising and this way spoilery plotline.

So all in all. this book is the typical instance of complex characters, and it shows that you don't have to be an archangel or a cardinal spy to have the power to cause grand change, be it good or bad, in others. Simple human psyche can be as complicated as any other.

This bring me to the next thing, the development of the characters. I liked how Nayna and Raj were willing to compromise and fight for each other.  Though at first glance it seemed like their relationship was doomed with Nayna's newly found rebel streak and Raj's traditionality, they understood in time that they could have everything they wanted with a little change or expansion of views, and compromise. It also became obvious that they cpuld bring things out of each other that maybe no one else could, for example serious and solid Raj vould got sometimes playful and even smiled and laughed. (Not to mention that certain office scene that was seriously smokin' hot.)

As for Raj, I think he is gong to be a next all-time favorite book boyfriend for me and for a lot of other readers. Enough said.

It is known that Nalini Singh has characters from different cultures, but this was one that described in detail one, namely the Indian culture. (Of course, this adds up to the distinctiveness of the book, too.) We could see some components that got modernized somewhat, and some that stayed the same, very likely for centuries. I was always amazed by special cultures like the Indian, so I just drank up every information, customs and expressions as a sponge does water. 

At times it really got like we read a Bollywood story, but as this was a contemporary romance book mainly with characters of Indian anchestry, it was fine by me. Of course, I would like to add that I do think that if Nalini could write a whole series with just these people, their problems wouldn't be concentrated in just so many pages, everyone could solve them in his or her own book, and that would make it seem less like a drama movie where every kind of trouble can happen in a short time, seemingly out of the blue. But I also think that that is what brought the plotline and the story forward at times, so for example Nayna could decide that being a wife doesn't necessarily mean giving up all freedom and wishes.

The only negative for me was the little tardiness after the MC started a relationship, there I think the plot got a little repetitive, but maybe it is just me, and overall it was a small thing in comparison to the general easy flow. 

It was a sweet, sexy read with enough drama for it to make us sit up on that certain roller coaster at times. 

Copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.