Rebel Hard by Nalini Singh

When Nayna Sharma was 14, her sister ran away to get married. This wouldn't be so bad if their family weren't so darn traditional. Seeing how it affected her family, Nayna has since become the perfect daughter. And more and more she's starting to feel like she's in the perfect cage. Now that she's agreed to an arranged marriage, she sees the door to the cage swinging shut. For one night, she just wants to be a "normal" twenty-eight-year-old woman. So she goes to a party and makes out with a guy. At least she does until she sticks her foot in her mouth. And he disappears. Until he shows up at her parents as the next possible marriage match...

Raj Sen is traditional and he wants a traditional life. That means a wife who stays home and takes care of him and, hopefully, his future children. But when he meets Nayna at a party, he decides that he needs to find her again before he can fall into marriage. He is shocked that the dutiful daughter he is meeting is the same woman. But he asks her if they can see where the relationship is going to go. Working around old pains, meddling families, and family health issues makes the path to an HEA rather hard but worth it.

I might have been anticipating this book a little too much. It was very good but I got rather annoyed with the frequent mentions of Nayna being so dutiful and Raj being long suffering. It may also have been different if I had read it rather than listening to it. edited to add: It was different reading it. I liked it so much more as an ebook.

Four stars

This book came out September 18, 2018

Follows Cherish Hard

Followed by Love Hard

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Reread as ebook from Libby January 2022