This feature keeps changing because I’m trying different things out but I think I’m going to stick with this format from here on out. Thanks for coming along this ride until I figure out what the hell I want to do here. LOL.

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.

This week’s book boyfriend is Raj Sen from Rebel Hard by Nalini Singh. Rebel Hard is the second book in Singh’s Hard Play series and he’s my book boyfriend this week because I read this book weeks ago and Raj is still one of my favorite heroes that I read in the month of October.

Rebel Hard is a diverse romance that I connected with on so many levels. The Indian culture and the Polynesian culture are kind of similar in the way that they treat their elders and the way that they think about their spouses and futures. Raj’s sense of tradition and his longing to wed an Indian woman and lead a traditional Indian life is something that I understood. I know a lot of Samoans who want to marry other Samoans to lead and bring up their kids in the Samoan way. I really admired Raj for how much he came to love Nayna and his attitude toward the kind of future they could have together.

There wasn’t anything that he wouldn’t do for her and I loved the lengths that he went to, to make sure she knew that her future was safe and hers to choose. All he wanted was to be by her side through it all. There’s a part in the book where Raj thinks this:

Raj watched Nayna sleep that night and knew he might be the architect of his own heartbreak. The Nayna she was now wanted him, but the Nayna she became as she found her wings… that Nayna might decide a man so rooted in tradition and culture wasn’t the man she wanted by her side.

Man, it hurt my heart to see him thinking these things because he didn’t think he was enough for Nayna and I wanted to smack Nayna upside her head for not seeing what was right in front of her for so long. The angst was real in this book and Raj just kept right on winning me over left and right. The way that he wouldn’t let her parents or his parents rush Nayna into coming to accept him and a marriage between them on her own and without outside influence. The way that he supported her hopes and her dreams made me swoon into a puddle of love for him. He was honestly such a great guy and I wanted so much for him to get the happy ending he wanted and was thrilled when he finally did.

On top of being one of the sweetest heroes that I’ve read about in a long time, Raj was always a Mr. Sexy Pants. He worked hard and his hard work paid off with a body that was sculpted from the Gods. I completely adored everything about him and if you haven’t met him yet, you should change that because Raj Sen is such a great hero and I know that you love him.

Hero Casting

This is who I pictured in my head while I was getting to know Raj. I think he fits the description well and I adore the hell out of this guy.

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Hard Play Series