A lovely warm hug of a romance best enjoyed if you've read the other books in this series. The pacing is slow, spending a lot of time at the wedding of two previous characters and in the internal thoughts of both Jake and Juliet, but ultimately pays off on heat build up with our love interests finally give in to their desire for each other.

Love Hard handles delicately and compassionately complications of grief, single-parenting, and the fear of having to live part of your life in the media because of your job and who you love(ed). Jake and Juliet's love is inevitable and very low-conflict, the slight drama of the story is all from external factors. Both Juliet and Jake act far wiser than their 24 years and I'm glad they found each other again. I also appreciated while they were "friends" in high school, they were not secretly pining for each other behind the back of the girl who brought them together.

Alas for me personally the inclusion of Jake's six-year-old daughter, while sweet and endearing, had a more of a shrivel my insides effect. Reading about them trying to sneak in sex while they could see her through a crack in their hotel room door was, while a reality a lot of people face, took me right out of the fun times. Perhaps when my children are grown I'll appreciate kids in romance more, but now is not that time.

All said, Singh fans will love this story, Jake is a stern, tall, grumpy tree who's rare smile lights up the room and Juliet is a badass.

CW character death (off page, in the past), grief, gaslighting/lying from an ex, slut shaming, kids, hospital scare.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.