Rowena’s review of Rock Hard (Rock Kiss #2) by Nalini Singh.

In New York Times Bestselling author Nalini Singh’s newest contemporary romance, passion ignites between a gorgeous, sinfully sexy man who built himself up from nothing and a shy woman who has a terrible secret in her past…

Wealthy businessman Gabriel Bishop rules the boardroom with the same determination and ruthlessness that made him a rock star on the rugby field. He knows what he wants, and he’ll go after it no-holds-barred.

And what he wants is Charlotte Baird.

Charlotte knows she’s a mouse. Emotionally scarred and painfully shy, she just wants to do her job and remain as invisible as possible. But the new CEO—a brilliant, broad-shouldered T-Rex of a man who growls and storms through the office, leaving carnage in his wake—clearly has other plans. Plans that may be equal parts business and bedroom.

If Charlotte intends to survive this battle of wits and hearts, the mouse will have to learn to wrangle the T-Rex. Game on.

Nalini Singh is turning out to be quite the author for me in 2015. I’ve read more books by her in the last two months than any other author. I just can’t seem to get enough.

This is the second book in the Rock Kiss series and it follows Charlie Baird, Molly’s best friend from Book 1 as she battles her new boss, Gabriel Bishop. When we first meet Charlie in Rock Addiction, she’s a mouse of a woman. She’s shy and being taken advantage of at work but she’s used to it so she just goes about her day…until the new boss comes storming into the office and cleans house.

Charlie is shocked as all get out when the new boss, ex-rugby pro baller Gabriel Bishop offers a promotion to be his personal assistant. Gabriel is a very demanding boss and a big man and he scares her but the more they work together, the more pissed off she gets at him that she forgets that she’s scared of him. The more he pushes her buttons and sees her react to him, the more attracted Gabriel is to her.

I have learned that Nalini Singh writes grown folks romances. You’ll find passionate characters who get mad and then figure their problems out and I really enjoy that about her books. There aren’t a whole lot of characters crying about everything under the sun and then pouting like two year old kids. In this book, we have a woman who has a problem with people getting too close to her because of an experience that traumatized her and when she meets her boss, he crowds her and makes her uncomfortable but he’s also extremely patient with her and their romance melted me at every turn.

It’s no surprise that I loved Charlie. I loved her in Rock Addiction and was pretty anxious to get to know her more and to see the romance between her and T-Rex blossom. I wasn’t quite prepared for her story because I don’t remember expecting what we got but holy cow, Charlie was real and she was brave and she was everything I hoped she would be. I saw what Molly saw in her and I cheered when she started to see those very same things in herself.

Then there was Gabriel.

Holy cow did I fall in love with him…and not just because his Step-Dad is Samoan and he had a Samoan tattoo to honor his step-dad’s culture (though my Samoan heart swooned when I read that because there aren’t very many Samoan characters in the romances I read). I just flat out adored this man. He was strong and he was caring and he was everything that Charlie needed without trying to overwhelm her at every turn. His understanding for her situation and his desire to stick around and help her get stronger for herself and for them as a couple just had me in a puddle of swoon throughout the entire book.

I loved this book. I loved seeing Charlie grow stronger with each passing chapter and I loved the love that Gabriel had for her. I loved that we saw their love grow over the course of the story. It wasn’t love at first sight or insta-love, their love grew over time and it made for such a great story.

This book was a nice treat and I can’t wait for more from this series. I’m greedy for more. Kudos to Singh on writing another winner because this book completely won me over. Charlie was a great heroine and Gabriel was her perfect hero (and mine too! Ha).

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

Reading Order:

This book is available from TKA Distribution. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.