International bestseller Nalini Singh has now dropped book 4 in her contemporary romance series Hard Play.  KISS HARD brings us a rugby player and a paralympic runner.  I love how inclusive Singh contemporary romances are.  Set in New Zealand, KISS HARD features the fourth brother in the Esera clan, and so we get to see all the couples from the previous books, but newcomers to the series will be able to dive right in without any problem.

I really enjoy Singh’s paranormal books.  Her Psy-Changling books are great, and her Guild Hunter series books are absolutely marvelous.  I am less of a fan of Singh’s various contemporary romance books in the Rock Kiss and Hard Play series.  The action always feels a little smoothed out and not intense enough.  It’s a gentler vibe.  Characters are, for the most part, very self-actualized.  People respond to situations like they’ve had years of therapy.  The characters have these amazingly unreal support systems.  It seems artificial- without the grit of everyday life and struggles.  Even the emotional challenges seem muted- gentle and quickly resolved.

Catie is a runner who lost her legs as a child and is now a world class Paralympian.  She’s overcome both her physical disability as well as a craptastic childhood due to her absent father and remote mother.  Catie is super independent- she’s had to be due to her upbringing- but I still found it jarring.  Catie agrees to a fake romance to help her sister’s brother-in-law, who happens to be her arch nemesis.

Danny is a hotshot rugby player who was drugged without his knowledge in a bar.  Catie helps Danny out of the bar and gets him to the hospital, but the media is now linking these two sports phenoms.  Danny and Catie embark on a six-month fake romance, but of course they actually fall in love (raise your hand if you’re surprised). Danny is such an awesome guy. I love how noble and caring he is. 

This gentle romance is an easy slide into love for two athletes.  Plenty of supportive characters make for a well-rounded story.  Fans of Nalini Singh will want to read KISS HARD to complete the series.