I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Netgalley but all opinions provided are my own.

3.5 stars

Lindsay Emory’s immensely readable The Royal Bodyguard is a dishy mix of entertainment and danger, with a scandalous formerly royal heroine and an honor-bound bodyguard determined to do all he can to resist her.

Part of Emory’s Royal Runaway world, this book focuses on Drieden Princess Thea’s sister, the former Princess Caroline. After eloping with a race car driver, Caroline was disinherited by her grandmother, the Drieden monarch, and cut adrift from the rest of her family. Now, her husband’s dead and Caroline finds herself once again in a liminal space: a princess but not, a widow, and also a secret journalist.

When her sister’s former betrothed Christian approaches her with a can’t-miss-it story, her journalistic fervor is activated. That is, until Hugh Konnor, royal bodyguard and her first-love-who-didn’t-share-her-feelings, convinces her that Christian’s actually dangerous to her & to the Drieden monarchy she once belonged to…

Told in a conversational style by a fascinating heroine who’s adept at taking on her Princess persona, The Royal Bodyguard kept me flipping pages, eager to see what would happen next between Caroline & Hugh. There’s strong chemistry between them, and the will-he-or-he-won’t-he is captivating.

But as much as I enjoyed the tension between the leads, I was bothered by what felt like a few inconsistencies (specifically regarding Caroline’s active participation in hunting down Christian) and an ending that feels hurried.

Overall, while I really enjoyed the read, I didn’t connect with the heroine or the plot as much as I did with The Royal Runaway, and that was a bit of a disappointment.