Rock Hard by Nalini Singh

Title: Rock Hard (A Rock Kiss Novel, 2)
Author: Nalini Singh
Genre: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
Publisher: TKA Distribution (10th March 2015)
Blurb:

In New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh’s newest contemporary romance, passion ignites between a gorgeous, sinfully sexy man who built himself up from nothing and a shy woman who has a terrible secret in her past . . .

Wealthy businessman Gabriel Bishop rules the boardroom with the same determination and ruthlessness that made him a rock star on the rugby field. He knows what he wants, and he’ll go after it no-holds-barred.

And what he wants is Charlotte Baird.

Charlotte knows she’s a mouse. Emotionally scarred and painfully shy, she just wants to do her job and remain as invisible as possible. But the new CEO – a brilliant, broad-shouldered T-Rex of a man who growls and storms through the office, leaving carnage in his wake – clearly has other plans. Plans that may be equal parts business and bedroom.

If Charlotte intends to survive this battle of wits and hearts, the mouse will have to learn to wrangle the T-Rex. Game on.

Rating: *** (3 stars)
Review:

ROCK HARD by Nalini Singh is the second book in her self-published series Rock Kiss. This book tells the story of Charlotte Baird, Molly’s best friend, and her boss Gabriel Bishop – who Charlotte refers to as T-Rex. ROCK HARD takes place almost simultaneously with ROCK ADDICTION (review), though ROCK HARD starts a little later.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, this book has everything I love about a book by Nalini Singh: it’s fun, it has great characters, and there’s some plot to go along with the romance. On the other, I’m not totally sure how I feel about how Singh handled Charlotte’s past. Don’t get me wrong, I think that overall Singh wrote about it a sympathetic manner but there are little moments that niggled – and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. That being said, I did enjoy the book.

One of the things that drew me to the book was that rugby was somehow going to be involved – and I really liked the fact that both Gabriel and Charlotte had a love of, and connection to, the game. I also really enjoyed Charlotte’s phone calls to Molly – they were just as fun hearing them from Charlotte’s point of view, as they were from Molly’s in the previous book. I thought that splitting the narrative between Charlotte and Gabriel worked well – I liked the fact that I could see things from both their viewpoints.

I found Charlotte to be a likeable character, and I really enjoyed watching her grow as a person as the story progressed. It was nice to see her slowly stand-up for herself. Gabriel was pretty typical for one of Singh’s leading men, but I enjoyed his wooing of Charlotte and I thought his backstory was quite interesting – loved his interaction with his family.

ROCK HARD is an entertaining read, and if you have enjoyed any of Nalini Singh’s previous books then you will almost certainly enjoy this one too.