Ratings:
Star Rating: ★★★★★
If This Book Was a Movie Rating: PG
Review:
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
when the book starts out with the short bodyguard main girl casually flipping the giant celebrity main guy on his rear end just to prove that she can, you know it’s gonna be good.
But it wasn’t just good. Please allow me to elaborate.
*breathes in*
IT WAS ADORABLY PERFECTLY AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL.
this book has all the best tropes: bodyguard romance, found family, one bed, fake dating, celeb and commoner, grumpy girl and sunshine boy.
you can bet your bottom dollar I was there for EVERY SINGLE ONE.
before I dive too far into this, let us proceed matters with the plot. I don’t have time to fix this lowkey mediocre plot summary rn, but i promise i’ll step up my game when it’s not finals season 😭
Hannah Brooks looks more like a kindergarten teacher than somebody who could kill you with a wine bottle opener. Or a ballpoint pen. Or a dinner napkin. But the truth is, she’s an Executive Protection Agent (aka "bodyguard"), and she just got hired to protect superstar actor Jack Stapleton from his middle-aged, corgi-breeding stalker.
Jack Stapleton’s a household name—captured by paparazzi on beaches the world over, famous for, among other things, rising out of the waves in all manner of clingy board shorts and glistening like a Roman deity. But a few years back, in the wake of a family tragedy, he dropped from the public eye and went off the grid.
When Jack’s mom gets sick, he comes home to the family’s Texas ranch to help out. Only one catch: He doesn’t want his family to know about his stalker. Or the bodyguard thing. And so Hannah—against her will and her better judgment—finds herself pretending to be Jack’s girlfriend as a cover. Even though her ex, like a jerk, says no one will believe it.
Hannah hardly believes it, herself. But the more time she spends with Jack, the more real it all starts to seem. And there lies the heartbreak. Because it’s easy for Hannah to protect Jack. But protecting her own, long-neglected heart? That’s the hardest thing she’s ever done.
PLEASE THIS PLOT SUMMARY DOES NOT DO THIS BOOK JUSTICE.
the writing style was effortless, the banter was witty, the descriptions flowed, and everything combined made me decide to not study calculus for an entire hour during finals season in order to finish it.
i know. this book was worth a death-defying level of sacrifice 😌
LE CHARACTERSSSS
Hannah Brooks. Normally heroines in the first person wildly annoy me, and heroines in the first person of contemporary romance are some of the worst. They're all bumbling and tongue-tied and unattractive and yet SOMEHOW get the hot guy to fall for them because “she’s not like other girls”
*rolls eyes overaggressively*
like darlings, it’s okay. we all know that relationship won’t last a year 😒😒
but i digress.
the point is that Hannah Brooks did not wildly annoy me. She broke the romance heroine stereotype. She flipped the main guy on his tailbone (literally) and shot twenty beer bottles perfectly after being mansplained how to shoot a gun (also literally). She didn’t fall all over herself when she was assigned to Jack even though he was her celebrity crush. She analyzed scenes and situations, picking up on subtle body language and danger JUST LIKE AN ACTUAL BODYGUARD. I loved how when she said she was going to beat something up, she actually did it. Hannah is a superb model for a heroine, let alone a contemporary romance one.
But all her skills pale in comparison to the internal demons she faced. Her mom died and boyfriend abandoned her within the same week, but she had the strength to fight her way back to normalcy. Yet she struggled with wondering if she was lovable, what it even meant to be lovable, and what it meant to be too hard to love. She struggled with the sadness you feel when there isn’t that one person in your life who'd always pick you over everybody else. Fear of being alone has definitely been something I’ve had for a long time, and I just felt so seen in this character. It’s kinda hard to define exactly why she felt so amazingly real, but I love her for it <3
Next, Jack Stapleton.
JACKKKK
omigosh i cannot with this man. He’s the exact definition of guy falls first with all that subtle yearning that is just *chef’s kiss*
He makes sure she’s comfortable with fake dating boundaries. He sprints to her across the ranch when she comes back because he missed her so much. He admires her so much for flipping him over her head (i can’t get over that lol) and shooting down those twenty beer bottles. He offers her the bed about twenty times (she refuses all of them) because he feels horrible about her sleeping on the floor (but it does lead to a one bed trope sooooo 😏).
Oh and THE THING HE WAS DOING FOR HER WHEN HE SAID HE WAS GOLFING??? AHHHH OMIGOSH I CANNOT I LOVE HIM SM ⇐ read that part and tell me that’s not the most adorable thing EVER
*sniffs with heart eyes*
so if you like found families and celebrity life and sunshine boys and grumpy girls, please read this book.
I promise you won’t regret it ;)
Friend me on Goodreads (yes, you, I wanna be your friend): https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/136268749-isabelle
Buy this book: https://www.amazon.com/Bodyguard-Novel-Katherine-Center-ebook/dp/B09CNFRZDC/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1651580602&sr=8-1
Recommendations If You Liked This Book:
Maid of Dishonor by Grace Ruth Mitchell
Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter
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