Love Hard

Jacob Esera is a single dad and rugby player. The mother of his daughter died from a sudden illness when they were both still teenagers, since then he's become even more serious and protective. His polar opposite is Juliet Nelisi, a former class mate and BFF to his dead girlfriend, she was wild and bad and the two of them have never liked each other. Brought together by the marriage of his brother and her friend, the barbs are flying but underneath there is an unwelcome attraction. This hit so many of my favourite tropes: sports-romance; single parent romance; enemies to lovers; New Zealand rugby players; bad girl and good boy ... the list goes on. It wasn't all plain sailing, I haven't read the previous books in this series, or the Rock Kiss series from which I believe this is a spin -off, consequently I felt I was in character overload at the start of the book as couple after couple are introduced as if I should know who they were (and of course I expect I would do if I had read the other books). Also, there seemed to be a lot of thigh clenching every time Juliet sees Jake which was not only monotonous but also slightly yucky. Anyway, I persevered and honestly once the wedding was over the book settled down into a charming, sexy romance. I loved Jake, such a great dad, brother, family man, rugby player and all-round good guy. Juliet was the ying to his yang, she's had a hard life, an orphan brought up by an aunt and then strict grandparents, she's come out of a relationship with a New Zealand cricketer which put her in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. She's envious of Jake's large and warm family. Overall, I loved this book and now I'm going back to read the previous books in the series. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.