Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
I absolutely adore a hero who has a cold or grumpy exterior with a soft interior. It usually takes the skillful hand of the heroine to unleash that teddy bear, which leads to romance gold. Sara Ney’s Jock Royal is all of this and more. Before you enter Ney’s newest story, you should know the following:
*This story continues her Jock Hard series. It finds us in the rugby house with hard-bodied aggressive males. Like her other jocks, there is razzing and jock idiocy. However, her hero, Ashley aka Ash, is THE best guy in this group.
*I would constitute it as an HFN (happy for now). There is a promise of a HEA, but it really ends in the present.
*As I mentioned earlier, Ashley is my dream hero: all gruff and British on the outside, but thoughtful and protective on the inside. He is polished in a way that Ney’s other heroes don’t tend to be, but, interestingly, Ney hides it behind this masculine, “beat-up” exterior. That dichotomy in Ashley makes for a compelling characterization.
*I liked her heroine, Georgia, but I’ll be honest. She was a bit milquetoast. Georgia comes alive next to Ashley. It’s their chemistry and friendship and partnership which leads to the interesting storyline. But on her own, Georgia won’t bowl you over.
*Overall, I liked this story, but it didn’t make me feel deeply. This story is an opposites attract, friends to lovers, surprise wedding burrito of romance. Since there are multiple tropes, it never feels as though it goes deep enough into a particular trope. This creates a fairly innocuous romance.
I adore Sara Ney and her brand of douchey heroes and their “shake-up-the-world” heroines. And Jock Royal fits nicely into this world. If you love a gruff, British hero who tries to ignore his feelings for the heroine, then you’ll enjoy Sara Ney’s newest book.
In love and romance,
Professor A
