The Bodyguard
by Katherine Center
Pub Date: 19 Jul 2022
5/5 Stars

This book slayed me! So funny, so sad, so romantic. I loved it from beginning to end. Pardon me while I just sit around waiting until the next Katherine Center book comes out.

Thank you to St. Martins Publishing Group for the Advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This might be my new favorite Katherine Center book. I laughed out loud, I smiled so many times and I highlighted a ton of quotes. I kept wanting to stop everything else I was doing just so I could read. I love that Katherine wrote about a female bodyguard. She has her flaws, but she is a bad ass through and through. The side characters of Jack’s parents, Glenn, and the other executive protection agents were all fantastic. I would love to see them show up in future books! This could absolutely be a movie and it should be!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced reader copy to review.

Perfect blend of cheesy and cuteness. I think I’m a Katherine Center fan now!

Thanks to NetGalley, Katherine Center, and St Martins Press for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. The Bodyguard will publish July 19, 2022.

Perfect for established and new fans of Katherine Center. I laughed out loud numerous times and Jake goes down in history as one of my favorite romance heroes now!

Addictive.
That is the best word I can use to describe this gem of a book. I could not put this down once I started it. I craved it, wanted to savor it, and yet I couldn’t gobble it up fast enough.

What’s to like?

💛The Bodyguard is a rom-com in the truest sense of the word. It has the *perfect* blend of romance and comedy.
💛The main characters, Hannah and Jack, are so easy to love. They’re the definition of “opposites attract.” They truly brought out the best in each other.
💛This is a love story, but there are no scenes you have to skip over. A truly beautiful and *clean* love story, without being too cheesy or hokey.
💛Fake dating trope!
💛The setting was incredible. I want to go live on a ranch now!
💛While it’s light-hearted, there were some beautiful takeaways. My favorite quote from the book came from chapter 31. “You can’t control the world—or other people. You can’t make them love you, either. They will or they won’t, and that’s the truth. But what you can do is decide who you want to be in the face of it all. Do you want to be a person who helps—or hurts? Do you want to be a person who burns with anger—or shines with compassion? Do you want to be hopeful or hopeless? Give up or keep going? … You need to learn how to be kind to yourself. And then you need to share that kindness with the world.”

Everything in the story made sense and worked perfectly. I have zero complaints. I’d *love* to see this made into a show on Netflix.

"To what we've held onto. And what we've lost."
"The people we love help teach us who we are."

Hannah Brooks has just buried her mother and now her boyfriend breaks up with her. She is a bodyguard and only 5'5" inches tall, but don't let that fool you.
She gets assigned to hunky actor Jack Stapleton when he returns home to Texas to be with his sick mother.
A fun read with some laugh out loud moments. Romance, comedy, life lessons along the way, hope.
I totally enjoyed being emerged into the world of Hannah and Jack.

Thank you NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this book.

This book was SO CUTE. Hannah is a bodyguard, but not what you think of when you think bodyguard. Basically she's a protective agent for rich people. In The Bodyguard Hannah is tasked with protecting Jack Stapleton (think Chris Evans, Liam Hemsworth vibes) and she's definitely not going to get attached, or at least that's the plan. I loved this book, it was laugh out loud funny and an easy read.

What a fun book! This unique book of a female bodyguard and her handsome charge is a perfect beach read! This book could definitely be adapted to film and the story line is easy to follow!

I absolutely adored this book! The banter between the characters was irresistible and laugh out loud funny. I love a good romcom and as person whose younger self was a huge fan of Janet Evanovich’s book, this was the perfect combination. Highly recommend! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the early access to this book. It was an absolutely delightful read. The Bodyguard featured a fresh plot line that sucked me in right away. I laughed out loud and shed a few tears! I would definitely recommend this read!

This book was so funny I could not put it down!

this is the first book I have read by this author and I cannot wait to read more. This is the book that helped me get out of the reading slump I was in.

I really hope this book is turned into a movie because it was that good!


thank you NeGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review,

This was so stinking funny. I haven’t laughed out loud like this in a long time. I have only read two other books of hers. This one is by far the best. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you NetGalley and the Publisher for a digital copy for my honest review.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a fun read! I loved that the idea of a bodyguard was flipped. It was empowering for women though I don't think I'd make a good bodyguard. I liked the maturity and communication of the two leads. I am looking forward to reading more from this author!

My ONLY complaint is how long the epilogue was 😩😩 but oh my gosh this was amazing! I was worried when I started reading that this was gonna be a dumb contemporary romance but it was NOT. The tension was so good, the setting was amazing, and the characters were amazing. I LOVED that the third act drama MADE sense and wasn’t just through immaturity of the characters. SO GOOD.

I love a good fake dating/ celebrity-ordinary person romance, which was why this book immediately had my attention. Plus, protagonist Hannah is such a strong, fierce and kickass woman which you really love to see it. Gave similar vibes to Ally Carter's YA series, Gallagher Girls. (IYKYK.) Hannah and Jack are total opposites with loads of banter between them. It's just getting cute by each chapter, and when I tell you I got so sucked in that I couldn't stand to put it down? Yep. Then, omg that twist! That's how you make a romance novel completely unpredictable.

Name of Book: The Bodyguard
Author: Katherine Center
Genre: Chick Lit
Publisher: Saint Martin’s Press
Pub Date: July 19, 2022
My Rating: 3.5 ~ Rounded up!

This is my third Katherine Center novel. My first read was " Things you Save in a Fire", the other was " What You Wish For".

Hannah Brooks is an Executive Protection Agent (aka: ‘bodyguard’) and just got a job to protect actor, Jack Stapleton from his corgi-breeding stalker.
Okay I always thought a bodyguard was that guy who threw people fight out of a bar. This story tells as why someone like Hannah is importance.
This is a fun story and I love love the epilogue.

Also enjoy the author’s Acknowledgements. I know that Authors’ typical say that the Acknowledgement is the hardest part of writing the book.
So I thank you for taking the time to give us the ‘inside scoop’ on the motivation in writing the story and
yes the research!

Want to thank NetGalley and Saint Martin’s Press for this eGalley. This file has been made available to me before publication in an early form for an honest professional review.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for July 19, 2022

4.5

Like every Katherine Center book I’ve read, this book was truly delightful! She is such a talented writer, I was engaged from beginning to end. I loved the romcom element of the story and also how beautifully it addresses love and grief. I found myself laughing out loud, tearing up, happy, and sad throughout. The ultimate message, how loving others is truly a form of loving oneself, was sent and received!

The Bodyguard publishes on 7/19/22, add it to your tbr list now!
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Bodyguard by Katherine Center was a cute book. It features Hannah who was an executive protection agent or bodyguard to movie star Jack Stapleton. Jack has a corgi breeding stalker and Hannah is tasked with protecting him. I had a hard time getting into this book in the beginning but by 50% I was hooked and had to see how it ended. This was a cutesy book and I will be reading more Katherine Center Books. 3.75 stars rounded to 4 stars.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 rounded to 5 stars

Boy, I really enjoyed this one! It came to me at a great time when I was in the mood for a little Rom-Com action. It didn’t hurt that Katherine Center is one of my go-to authors.

Plain ordinary Hannah lives through her job. She is a hotshot Executive Protection Agent (aka bodyguard). She has just suffered a triplet of losses in her life, and she MUST get back from mandated time off to cope with her misfortune. Preferably to somewhere out of the country. Instead, her boss hands her a job, a minor job no less, in Texas, right in her hometown to boot. The gig is to protect a mega movie hunk who is in town to be with his ailing mom. Why does he need protection? Because he has been harassed over the years by The Corgi Lady. Who knits sweaters for him. Hannah is not happy.

This book is much better than my little synopsis above. I just loved the main characters and the underlying humor, which is satisfyingly pervasive. I couldn’t wait to find little chunks of time to read this book--my happy place for the last three days. I also loved many of the side characters like Connie and Doc. And it was great fun hating Robby/Bobby and Kennedy Monroe. I smiled and chuckled throughout much of this story.

Katherine Center has a way of sneaking in life lessons for us all. She did so beautifully with The Bodyguard—almost made me teary. That’s what pushed this up to 4.5 stars for me. Another bonus was the gift of a learning op regarding some of the ins and outs of the bodyguard business. Ms. Center did her research well. In the end, it was that plus ALL THE FEELS that had me rounding up to 5 stars.

If you are need of a light, yet warm and “substantial-in-its-way” novel to help you recover from something heavy, join me in my happy place and pick up a Katherine Center novel.

I would like to thank Net Galley, St. Martin’s Press, and Katherine Center for an ARC. My opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.

This book was simply delightful! The story was very far-fetched, but I think that made me love it even more! I loved the banter, I laughed out loud so much, and the slow burn was perfect. This one made me nostalgic for the 90s rom-coms...it had that vibe and I hope that Hollywood makes this into a movie because it would be wonderful!

I also really appreciated the over-arching theme of grief and how we get past it. It was interwoven throughout and, although this book was very much a rom-com, the serious parts were written well.

Also, is it bad that I loved Glenn so much? 😆 He might have been my favorite side character (definitely him or Connie!).

If you love Katherine Center and you love good rom-coms, definitely give this one a read!

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!