Cherish Hard

Hard Play Series, Book 1

By: Nalini Singh

Narrated by: Justine O. Keef

Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's Summary

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.

Contains mature themes.

©2017 Nalini Singh (P)2018 Tantor

Critic Reviews

“It is always a delight to pick up a Singh book, and she once again proves why with her latest contemporary romance…. There is such a sexy sweetness and tenderness to this story that it is sure to melt readers' hearts! If you need an emotional lift, then snap up this book ASAP!” ( RT Book Reviews [Top Pick])

Sweet story with great narration

I adored this book. The main female character, Ísa, is kind and gentle-hearted which is a great amount of love to give, despite never being shown love and attention by her two estranged parents. Instead, she grew up to be the rock for her younger siblings but at the cost of never feeling like the priority to anyone. The main male character, Sailor, is a charming and determined man who saw Ísa when they were younger and it was love at first sight. Both characters are romantics who fall deeply for each other. Add in some quirky supporting characters, such as a best friend who is trying to please her Indian parents by entering into an arranged marriage, or a little sister full of fire who does not let the loss of her legs the defining moment in your life; you have a sweet story full of characters that you care about and want all of them to succeed, be happy, and find their own Happily Ever After.

Listen to a sample of this book before purchasing to see if you like the narrator's voice. It took some getting used to; being that the heroine of the book has an Icelandic accent and the remainder of the characters are New Zealand accents. The narrator flawlessly could move from one accent to the other and deliver both the dialogue and inner thoughts of the character without any confusion. I will certainly listen to more books narrated by Justine O. Keef.

“not a normal Singh book, try the sample first”

Let me start by saying what a huge fan I am of Nalini Singh. However, this one is nothing like her others. I’ve read & listened twice to each of her Psy/Changeling & Guild Hunter series, loved them. This one was honestly a little boring, no intrigue or excitement. No description of the country except the camping trip. I enjoyed the international characters & I even somewhat enjoyed the narration. The chapter titles threw me each time, I’m sure it would have been funny if I was reading it. I almost stopped twice but didn’t have another book downloaded so I continued. Can’t recommend except that you must try the sample first to get a little idea of where she went here.

SADLY I JUST COULDN’T FINISH IT

I was so looking forward to this new series as I’m a huge fan of all things Nalini Singh but sadly this wasn’t for me and I only made it to chapter 16 because I just couldn’t take the choppy chapters, the internal monologues and the strange accents any longer. I lost interest in the characters and their storyline. I didn’t know if the characters were British, Australian or what.. it was actually set in New Zealand but the higher inflection at the end of sentences was annoying.

Worth a credit? Now I totally lack the skills necessary to write a Novella let alone a nine and a half hour book.. and maybe the storyline could be redeemed by a different style of narration.. but it is what it is.. and that sadly is a NO not, IMO, a creditworthy book. Maybe you’ll love it, maybe you’ll persevere where I wimped out or maybe you’ll think it’s worth a credit.. but I recommend you listen to the sample first.

Is this really a book by Nalini?

First off a narrator can make or break even a good plot...You can have a awesome book (Amy Sumida: Godhunter) and the narration will just ruin the book...This book the plot was not great...it really does not feel like a book written by nalini with strong female characters...and great narrators...I can honestly say this is the fist nalini book that I skipped through just to see if it got better...when you want to know more about the villans vs the heroine just to keep interest in the plot...the story pretty much is down hill from there.. its definitely a harlequin contemporary type story...if that's your thing you'll enjoy this book...But for me after (Laurell k Hamilton's) Anita Blake, (Nalini's) Elana Devereoux, (Ilona Andrews) Kate Daniels, (Alanea Alder 's) Maryn McKenzie, (Robyn Peterman's) Astrid and that's just to name a few...I could never go back to these kind of books...Also the narrator wasn't terrible...she just was definitely not right for this book...also her voice for the female character was grating...It literally made me wince...but she does good accents...this was just not her best work...

worst Nalini Singh book

Big fan of the author, but this is terrible. Reminds me of an old school harlequin with characters I don't like. I have forced myself to listen to 19 chapters, waiting for the good stuff but I now believe there is no good stuff coming. The narrator tries to affect a British accent but it doesn't work and the cadence is weird.

and easy slightly slow listen

I'd say this book was okay. Not much angst. Great hero okay heroin. I wasn't thoroughly caught up in the book. I wouldn't say it was not bad it was just a little slow and different.

LOVE THIS BOOK!!!

I don't write anything for books but I needed to on this book. I loved this book, it was so cute and totally worth the credit.

I'm still a fan

I had my doubts about the switch in Nalini books. I was not disappointed. It was a very sweet story.

terrible narration

I enjoy this author so I struggled through the terrible narration. I won't listen to the next in series.

very sweet and smart

this is a great intro to the Bishop Essera clan! love Isa and Sailer's story!

Terrible accents

I have everything Nalini Singh, including the 4 Rock Kiss books that this book is a spin off/prequel from, so I'm familiar with Justine O. Keefs narration and I'm happy to say I've enjoyed listening to her narrating those other books. That ended abruptly with this book, so much so that I nearly didn't make it through the "Dick Van Dyke does Cockney accent" prologue, & it only got worse from there. I'm from the UK & I'm fairly familiar with Aussie & New Zealand accents but unfortunately it appears Ms Keef is not. Both those accents were interchangeable and both sounded like they were done for some horrible comedy/parody skit. I can't even begin to describe the Icelandic accent, other then to say I wasn't aware that Iceland & South Africa shared an accent!! I can only assume that someone in the production team decided it would be a good idea to narrate this book with accents, whoever that person was, please please please DO NOT do that again, leave Ms Keefs prefectly fine narration alone. This is perhaps the only time I totally preferred reading a book compared to listening to one, & I certainly will not be listening to this one again.

CHERISH HARD IS SO CHERISHING 💞

Nalini Singh has gone & done it again, she's started another great series starting off with a beautiful love story.

I felt like it was quite a peaceful & genteel kinda love story, as the characters themselves, Professional landscaper Sailor Bishop & Teacher/Corporate VP Ìsa Rain whose 1st encounter was at a college party when her boyfriend at the time embarrasses her in front of everyone & which makes Sailor wants to help her.

We then jump 7yrs ahead, Sailor is this landscaper who's working in the gardens of the school where Ìsa's a teacher & they both know that, they know they have seen each other before, but not registering from where.
Then they bump into each other again, when he goes in to the corporate to sell himself to twithin o After she had done something many a woman/man would love to have the guts to do & that is go up to him & snog him (can't do that now'a'days 😂😋)

And it's here after the next encounter that the start of this beautiful & pretty amazing relationship, though either didn't see it coming & when they did decide to start something they both sort of fell into it, not realising it will become this strong amazing beautiful love story where BOTH will strive & achieve.
They JUST gel together. & their siblings are pretty humorous, whom I'm looking forward to getting to know them more in the up & coming books. Though I guess the next book will be Sailor's professional rugby player older brother Gabe Though the 2 I'm looking forward to are Ìsa's fiesty younger sister Katie & Sailor's easy going younger brother Jake, as I can see them together 😘😘

Both narrators were ok though I wasn't too sure what their accents were, as they sounded different, as if either trying to bring in an accent or if that's their normal accents of which they're picking up a new one due to a move to a new area...

Good but unintentionally funny

I love just about anything Ms Singh produces and this was no exception. However the performance had me in stitches. Ms O’Keefe’s attempt to do a Kiwi accent often came out sounding South African instead! Still loved it overall and the accent wasn’t too distracting a