Cherish Hard (Hard Play #1) by Nalini Singh-Review & Excerpt Tour
CHERISH HARD
Hard Play #1
by Nalini Singh
Genre: Adult,contemporary, sports, romance
Release Date: November 14, 2017
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date November 14, 2017
Sailor Bishop has only one goal for his future – to create a successful landscaping business. No distractions allowed. Then he comes face-to-face and lips-to-lips with a woman who blushes like an innocent… and kisses like pure sin.
Ísa Rain craves a man who will cherish her, aches to create a loving family of her own. Trading steamy kisses with a hot gardener in a parking lot? Not the way to true love. Then a deal with the devil (aka her CEO-mother) makes Ísa a corporate VP for the summer. Her main task? Working closely with a certain hot gardener.
And Sailor Bishop has wickedness on his mind.
As Ísa starts to fall for a man who makes her want to throttle and pounce on him at the same time, she knows she has to choose – play it safe and steady, or risk all her dreams and hope Sailor doesn’t destroy her heart.
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Sandy’s Review
CHERISH HARD is the first instalment in Nalini Singh’s contemporary, adult HARD PLAY erotic, romance series-a spin off from the author’s ROCK KISS series. This is twenty three year old landscaper Sailor Bishop, and thirty year old teacher/businesswoman Isalind ‘Isa’ Rain’s story line. CHERISH HARD can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty-you do not have to have read the Rock Kiss series to understand or follow the premise. The timeline of CHERISH HARD takes place several months ( or years) prior to the events of Rock Hard (Rock Kiss #2) where in we were first introduced to Sailor’s older brother Gabriel Bishop.
Told from dual third person point of view (Isa and Sailor) CHERISH HARD follows the building romance between teacher and businesswoman Isa Rain, and professional landscaper Sailor Bishop. Seven years earlier Sailor and Isa’s paths would cross when Isa’s boyfriend publicly humiliated our story line heroine in front of a group of high school and college aged friends. In the ensuing years Sailor has never forgotten the beautiful and heartbroken redheaded young woman that called to his heart-a woman who barely acknowledged his existence or presence. Fast forward to present day wherein Sailor will be hired by the burgeoning and billion dollar ‘Crafty Corners ‘ to redesign and update several properties. Enter Isa Rain, Crafty Corners new VP, shareholder and owner’s daughter, and the woman with whom Sailor will fall in love. What ensues in the building relationship and growing love between Sailor and Isa, and the potential fall-out as Sailor’s plans for the future never took into consideration the desire for family and love.
CHERISH HARD is a story of family and friendship. Isa’s mother and father have been married and divorced so many times she is unable to keep track of the growing numbers but our heroine’s lack of success in the love department is predicated on one man’s tirade that left Isa a shell of her former self. Sailor Bishop has known struggle from an early age including the abandonment by his father, and the battle his mother endured to keep the family fed, and off of the streets. Meeting Isa Rain finds our hero thinking about a future-a future that is in direct conflict with his business outline and plans to expand, but plans that are meant to be redirected when he falls for the woman he met years before. Growing up the privileged daughter of a wealthy businesswoman whose less than stellar track record of unsuccessful marriages meant Isa martyred herself to care for her younger siblings, and a step brother that has all but been ignored by both sides of the family.
The relationship between Isa and Sailor begins when they reconnect with one another in the school parking lot where Isa currently works. Barely recognizing once another their paths will cross several times before either one realizes the who and what of their previous encounter. The $ex scenes are intimate and intense.
We are reintroduced to Sailor’s brother Gabriel (Rock Hard), a professional rugby player; their younger half-brothers Jake and Danny, and parents Alison and Joseph Esera; Isa’s domineering mother and billionaire businesswoman Jacqueline Rain; her half-sister Catie, and step brothers Trevor and Harlow, as well as Isa’s best friend Nayna- a woman who is battling her parents in regards to her future.
CHERISH HARD is a sweet story of romance where the conflict level is low; the angst is limited to dysfunctional family fallout; and memories of the past that remained burned in the mind but never to be forgotten. The premise is engaging and inspiring; the characters are dynamic and intelligent; the romance is provocative and impassioned. CHERISH HARD is a charming and wonderful start to a new series by an amazing author.
Barb’s Review
Cherish Hard by Nalini Singh is the first book in her new contemporary romance Hard Play series. Cherish Hard was a sweet fun and sexy romance that is not my normal Nalini Singh read. I really did enjoy this romance, mainly because the couple and all the supporting characters in the story were simply great. Sailor Bishop is our hero, and from the start you fall in love with him. He is hot, sexy, swoon worthy, and the perfect man for any woman to want.
Isa Rain was also a great heroine, though it will take awhile before she allows herself to fully fall in love with the wonderful sweet Sailor. Isa remembers Sailor from her teenage days, when one of his friends embarrassed her in public, and she has never forgotten. When she realizes he had nothing to do with that awful memory, she allows herself to befriend and slowly open her heart to Sailor.
Isa, who would prefer to teach and write poetry, is forced to work during the summer for her mom, who is determined to bring Isa fully into the business. She must take over a new project for the company, which will turn out to be working with Sailor, and his landscaping business. Isa is also the one who keeps her family together, as she is the glue who keeps the peace, both in happiness and financially.
What follows is a fun, lighthearted romance, with the background of two wonderful families, and a couple that was simply great together. Sailor is determined to make his business grow, but has financial issues. Isa just wants to do what she likes, which isn’t working for her mom. It is Sailor’s hard work and determination that keeps Isa fighting her feelings for him, since she wants a life of children and a husband to love, who will always be there for her. Sailor knows that Isa is the woman for him, and he has to find a way to convince her that he is the man for her.
Again, all the characters created by Singh made this a wonderful story. I loved Sailor’s family, and Isa’s sister and brother. It was so much fun to see both families together. Eventually even Isa’s mother gets better, and Isa’s best friend was fun. Cherish Hard was a fun, cute story that was such a pleasure to read; not to mention a couple that had so much chemistry together, it burned the pages. If you want a pure romance, with a sexy couple, family, and a fun read look no further then Cherish Hard. It goes without saying, anything written by the wonderful Nalini Singh is not to be missed.
Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley
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ÍSA WONDERED WHAT THE HELL she was doing.
Being a devil woman, she reminded herself. Having fun for a change. Not being a grandma at twenty-eight years of age.
Still, she couldn’t stop second-guessing herself as Sailor led her out of the house through a side entrance that opened out into a small, manicured garden. “I’ll have to take off my heels,” she whispered when she saw the pebbled path snaking through the garden.“Want a piggyback ride?” A playful grin. “I promise not to molest your thighs.”
Goose bumps broke out over Ísa’s skin, her nipples tight. Reckless as she was feeling tonight, she might just have taken him up on his offer if she hadn’t been worried her damn dress would split in two. “Maybe when we’re naked,” she said instead, Devil Ísa in full flower.
Groaning, he doubled over as if she’d punched him.
Her lips twitching despite the melting sexual heat liquefying her bones, she leaned down to slip off her heels.
Sailor waited, his hand firm around hers, until she was done. Taking the heels from her, he carried them in his other hand as Ísa padded beside him on the grass that lay on this side of the pebbled path. The path ended at a weathered wooden gate, which, when opened, put them at the top of a narrow walkway that led down onto a beach Ísa couldn’t yet see but could hear.
Her heart crashed in time with the waves as they made their way down to the beach while the mansion behind them pulsed with light and music. But she didn’t turn and run away, she didn’t stop and talk herself out of it, she didn’t attempt to be a sensible adult. She followed a gorgeous, blue-eyed man down a dirt pathway to an effectively private beach.
The sand that had been tracked onto the path was gritty under her feet, the air coming off the sea cool but not cold.
“The water’s going to be icy, isn’t it?” she whispered to his broad back.
“Don’t worry, spitfire. I’ll keep you warm,” was the deep-voiced response. “Stop here.” Jumping down to the beach, he reached up to grab her by the waist, swinging her down as if she were a featherweight.
Something fluffy and mushy came to life inside Ísa. “Here?”
Shaking his head, he said, “Raj told me there’s like a little cove area—not a proper cove, but caused by— There.”
Ísa saw it at once. A huge tree had fallen into the water at some point and smashed up against some rocks where it appeared to be stuck. Between the jutting rocks on either side and the fallen trunk was a naturally created pool. The water within it was pretty calm, and it looked as if they could get to it by clambering over some rocks that didn’t appear too sharp or slippery.
Of course, she’d be walking over those rocks naked.
Ísa looked up at the moon. Imagined it shining on the stark white of her body. Gulped. “Will you close your eyes while I go in the water?” Even Devil Ísa wasn’t up for blinding him with her glow-in-the-dark form.
A glance back. “What’re you going to bribe me with?”
Ísa scowled. “Not pushing you into the water right now.” It was a toothless threat given his muscles and her lack of them.
Rubbing his jaw, he said, “Three tongue kisses. That’s my price, and I’m not budging.”
Ísa wanted to pounce on him all over again. “Two,” she countered.
“Nuh-uh. Three. Or I’m keeping both eyes wide open.” Leaning in, he pressed his nose to hers. “I really want to keep my eyes wide open.”
And Ísa really wanted to kiss him and run her hands all over that sculpted chest. “Three,” she whispered.Copyright © 2017 by Nalini Singh
Nalini Singh is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Psy-Changeling, Guild Hunter, and Rock Kiss series. She lives and works in beautiful New Zealand, and is passionate about writing.
If you’d like to explore her other books, you can find lots of excerpts and free short stories on her website. Slave to Sensation is the first book in the Psy-Changeling series, while Angels’ Blood is the first book in the Guild Hunter series. The Rock Kiss books are all stand alone and can be read in any order.
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