Narrated by Justine O. Keef
Rebel Hard is the second book in Nalini Singh’s Hard Play series, which in itself is a spinoff of her Rock Kiss series. While I haven’t listened to all of them, Justine O. Keef has narrated all of them. I remember listening to Rock Hard and being disappointed at the time at the lack of a New Zealand accent from the narrator. I’d forgotten about that by the time I started Rebel Hard, but I remembered pretty fast. But first, the story.
Raj Sen is Sailor Bishop’s (brother of Gabriel from Rock Hard) best friend. (Sailor and Isa Rain get their HEA in Cherish Hard.) Isa’s best friend is Nayna Sharma. As their names suggest, both Raj and Nayna are of Indian descent. Rebel Hard is their story.
Raj was adopted by his parents when he was about six years old after he was abandoned in an orphanage by his biological mother around age four. He remembers being left at the orphanage and has a deep vulnerability about abandonment. He is very close to his family, stoic and solid, loyal and protective. He operates the family construction business and is very hands on, so he is also muscular. And gorgeous.
Nayna is the younger Sharma daughter. When she was 14, her elder sister Madhuri eloped and caused great stress to her family. As a result, Nayna has gone to great pains to be the “good” daughter. She has stifled herself and now, at 28, she is starting to feel the bite of it. Her parents are pushing to arrange a marriage for her. She reluctantly agrees to meet some candidates but decides to have a wild fling before she settles into boring domesticity and goes to a party with Isa.
I haven’t yet read Cherish Hard but it is apparent that the two books cover much of the same timeline. Isa and Sailor meet up again at the party and Raj and Nayna meet for the first time. There is no POV from Raj at the party but by the moves he made on Nayna and the speed of them, he gave me the impression of having had a lot of experience with women. However, that turns out to be not the case. At all. I admit I found this difficult to square with his smooth moves at the party.
Nayna is completely turned on by Raj and is willing to go all the way with her but he keeps talking. In the end, desperate for him to stop showing himself to be a guy she could have a relationship with, a guy she might pine over because he can only be a fling, Nayna tells him to stop talking; she only wants his body! Unsurprisingly, things go downhill from there.
Of course, not very long after the party, Nayna is introduced to another prospective groom and who should it be but Raj.
I had been worried that Nayna’s words at the party would lead to a Big Misunderstanding so I was very glad the air was cleared quickly. The conflict really turned out to be Nayna’s desire for more freedom and adventure, versus Raj’s desire for a more traditional family life. Before he meets Nayna, he thinks he wants his wife to be a stay-at-home mother. But Nayna shakes things up for him in more ways than one. All things considered I thought he let go of that really quickly, maybe a little too quickly.
Raj wants Nayna to want him for himself. He wants her whole heart. It is a powerful need within him to be loved and to feel safe. Both of their families interfere mercilessly and this makes Raj worry that Nayna is being pushed into something she might not be ready for. He knows she will be loyal and devoted but what if, deep down, she isn’t ready? And for Nayna, what happens to her dreams if she focuses on Raj’s? How can their two dreams become one? Is love and chemistry enough?
Many times when I’ve read stories where the needs and wants of the protagonists seem widely disparate, one ends up making a significant sacrifice and to buy the HEA I have to accept that the character changes their mind. But here, the author showed me how both could have exactly what they needed and wanted, with a little compromise and adaptation but without sacrificing their dreams. It was lovely.
I also loved the rich Indian culture which was on display throughout the book, from the food, to the fashion, to the family, to the traditions; all were woven into the story seamlessly. In fact, they were a significant part of the story – especially family and tradition. The author drew from her own Fijian-Indian heritage, even including some recipes from her mother, I understand.
Justine O. Keef is a very good narrator. She has a great depth to her voice for male characters and is skilled with delivering steamy intimate scenes – and there were some very hot scenes in this book. I still question the choice to use a North American narrator for a book set in New Zealand with New Zealand and Indian characters. While I’m glad Ms. Keef didn’t attempt a New Zealand accent if she didn’t have the confidence she could do it well, it jarred nevertheless because the accent she did use (that is, her own) just didn’t fit the setting. However, I expect that for many listeners, it won’t be a big deal, particularly if they’re unfamiliar with the New Zealand accent anyway.
Ms. Keef does use an Indian accent with the older members of the Sen and Sharma families – which fit what I understood about them. I was a little uncertain about them at times though – sometimes they bordered on the edge of cartoonish. Some pronunciation of the Hindi words didn’t seem quite right to me either. For example, Raj’s sister-in-law’s name is “Komal” but Ms. Keef pronounced it “Kor-mul” with a very strong “r” instead of “Koh- mul”. Overall however, the performance had far more to recommend it than not.
I always expect to like the books I choose and I hope to love them. Even so, Rebel Hard surprised me by just how much I was captured by the story. I found myself looking for excuses to listen because I was so wrapped up in Raj and Nayna and what would happen next. More stories against the background of an arranged marriage please. And yay for more Nalini Singh contemporaries as well.
Kaetrin
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