Love Hard by Nalini Singh, A Lovely Drop by Darynda Jones: reviews

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Love Hard by Nalini Singh

 

Love Hard by Nalini Singh is the third book in Hard Play contemporary romance series featuring four rugby playing New Zealand brothers. Jake is the second youngest, a single dad of a six-year-old after his teenage sweetheart suddenly died right after giving birth. His counterpart is Juliet, a wild-hearted best friend of his former love. They didn’t like each other at school, but years later, they are different people and sparks fly. 

I love romance novels with lots of happy tears, and this one made me cry an ocean. Jake and Juliet were a great, balanced and grownup couple despite their young age. Both came with package, on top of which they had the shared past they needed to work through too. All problems got solved fairly easily, but in a satisfying way. And the entire Bishop-Esera family made me want to be adopted by them. This was perhaps my favourite in the series so far, but there’s one more book to come and I have high hopes for it.

4/5 stars on Goodreads

A Lovely Drop by Darynda Jones

 

A Lovely Drop by Darynda Jones is a novella or a short story of about eighty pages. Despite the length, the story is fully developed, and I didn’t feel like anything was missing. The premise is interesting: Andrea has the ability to ‘drop’ twenty-four hours into past and observe everything that has happened. She has operated under radar, helping anonymously to solve difficult crimes. But now she has been caught by the Homeland Security who demand she help them. She’s not entirely willing, a memory of her mother’s downfall in the hands of law enforcement clear in her mind. The agent assigned to her case is compelling, however, and so she complies.

The crime(s) are fairly easily solved. After all, all Andrea has to do is go to the past to see what happened. But there are some twists and turns that stem from her ability, which keep matters interesting to the end. And there’s a romance developing between her and the agent, which spiced things up too. Andrea is an interesting character, as is Agent Strand. The book ends at a good place that makes me wish that there are more stories or even a complete series featuring the two in the works. I’d definitely read them.