The Bodyguard-book review
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨/5

“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 g𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 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? 𝙻𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚘𝚛 𝚍𝚒𝚎?”

This book was such a fun read. This is a book I could easily see being made into a romcom movie! It is a feel-good warm you heart kind of romcom.

Hannah Brooks is a Executive Protection Agent aka bodyguard. They stay close and protect their clients without ever being noticed. Hannah has had a terrible week/months. Her mother passed away, he boyfriend dumped her the night of the funeral, and to top it off her boss is forcing her to take a break from work. Unable to escape into her work, Hannah is left it sit around and just…think.

In walks JACK STAPLETON, a Hollywood heart-throb who is in need for protection against a corgi loving, sweater knitting stalker. Jack is back in Texas to help take care of his mom, and I won’t give anything else away except the troupes you will see in this book:

☀️one-bed troupe
☀️fake dating
☀️you touch him you die
☀️finding yourself
☀️learning self love
☀️overcoming grief

This book is all about believing in yourself, learning to love yourself and letting others love you as well. I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs a fun feel good read.

Thank you to NetGallery for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review.

✨The Bodyguard is set to release July 19th

While I generally prefer edgier material Katherine Center's latest book checks all the boxes for a lighthearted, wholesome, and quick romance read. This is the perfect book to buddy read with your mom, your book club, your elderly neighbor, etc.
It has two of my favorite rom-com tropes: celebrity/normal girl romance + a rural/country setting. There's also fake dating and a tiny hint of enemies-to-lovers at the beginning, if either of those are your thing.
The whole conceit of an incognito female bodyguard drew me in, but I did find myself struggling to buy into it the entire time. Eventually I just set that whole thing aside in my mind and focused on Hannah and Jack's relationship, but it was definitely tough to suspend my disbelief.

Katherine Center is just pure sunshine.

And so is this novel.

Thank you St. Martin's Press for the gifted eARC through Netgalley.

The Bodyguard is Miss Congeniality meets Walker Texas Ranger. Hannah Brooks is a workaholic protective agent who doesn't know how to open up. When she loses her mother, she is told to take a step back professionally...until a famous and very sexy actor named Jack Stapleton needs some help from potential risks as he moves back home to Texas to take care of his ailing mother.

Bring on the fake dating and celebrity-romances-a-regular-woman. Center writes an easy-breezy story that contains just enough emotional pull. Her writing is a breath of fresh air and incredibly easy to fall into. I loved going on the adventure of being on a Texas ranch with an actor who can do tricks on horses and make me swoon. This story was a bit-over-the-top, but it worked. This is the perfect escape for the summer.

**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review**

Tropes/Themes:
- Actor (H) x Bodyguard (h) romance
- Sunshine (H) x Grump (h)
-Fake dating
-Forced proximity
-Slow burn
-Fade to black

TWs for loss of a loved one, grief, cancer

I’m rarely in the mood for romantic comedies lately so I initially wasn’t sure what I was going to make of this ARC going into it. I ended up picking this up randomly the other day…just to surprise myself by how much I loved it and ended up devouring it in under 24 hours. I quickly became obsessed with Jack and Hannah’s slow burn romance and couldn’t get enough. I think this particular rom com really worked for me because it had a lovely balance of both comedy and heavier life themes. Hannah had an incredibly complicated relationship with her mother, which really played out in the way she grieved her mother’s death at the start of the book. Jack is still reeling from the traumatic loss of his younger brother 2 years prior and the subsequent riff that his brother’s death caused amongst their family. Despite this being a relatively short romance (<300 pages), I thoroughly believed and enjoyed the chemistry between Jack and Hannah. I genuinely laughed out loud at some many of their interactions (especially during their initial meet cute/introduction). I do feel like this wrapped up a little too perfectly and sugary sweet for my taste (hence my usual dislike of rom coms), but it ended up not really bothering me since the ride was so much fun. It also gets bonus points for not having a ridiculous 3rd act conflict/breakup!! Any challenges/issues that Hannah and Jack did end up having near the end of the book were completely understandable and logical given the progression of the plot. All in all, I had a great time reading this and couldn’t recommend it enough.

Judging by appearances, Hannah Brooks is not what you’d typically picture as a bodyguard, but she’s very good at her job. Enter Jack Stapleton, one of the most famous movie stars in the world, who’s studio hired Hannah’s company to protect him from his corgi-breeding stalker who is intent on being impregnated by him. However, Jack does not want his family to know he has a stalker, so to do her job and keep watch over him, Hannah must pose as his girlfriend. As the job continues, Hannah begins to grow unsure about where the act ends and reality begins.

I’ve never read a book by Katherine Center before, although I’ve had several of hers on my TBR list for a while. When I got the chance to read this one, I was really excited to check it out! It includes some of the best rom-com tropes, such as fake dating and one bed, without feeling overdone or repetitive of other books portraying the same tropes. It was undeniably funny, and just unbelievable enough to be fantastic entertainment and just the right amount of corniness. I loved Hannah’s character development and personal growth, but found that Jack’s character was a little one dimensional, with most of his “personality” coming from a past trauma and the character descriptions of his family. I also found it a little irksome that Hannah had to also have some sort of past family trauma, it felt kind of like it was a lazy effort to make her character complex and nuanced, while playing into the whole “something must have happened to her when she was young for her to be so cool and unattached” cliché. While overall, the dialogue was well done, when a character told a story via dialogue, it didn’t read how people actually tell a story, it read how they’d write it, and that was off putting. The first person narration itself was a little odd in the sense that it felt very conversational, which, while making the book easily readable and binge-able, begged the question of “where is the narrator now?” due to some slightly lazy foreshadowing elements (i.e. moments like “I didn’t know it then, but this would be a mistake”) which, as a personal preference, I don’t like. Having never read other books by the same author, I’m not sure if that’s unique to this book or just her writing style. Still, I enjoyed this quick, light, funny read and will be recommending it to others who enjoy rom-com books!

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the eARC for review!!

Though she may not look it from the outside, Hannah Brooks is an experienced Executive Protection Agent (bodyguard) who gets hired to protect notorious actor Jack Stapleton while he travels to his hometown for the first time in years to help take care of his ill mother. Jack hasn't been home in years due to a family tragedy that has never truly been discussed and has caused the estrangement. As Jack doesn't want his family to know that he is being stalked, Hannah finds herself pretending to be his girlfriend as a cover. What could possibly go wrong??

I've only read one of Katherine Center's other books but this one was definitely a bit lighter and I really loved it! I loved the relationship between Jack and his mom. The chemistry between Jack and Hannah was a bit harder sell for me at first but I came around to them in the end. I laughed out loud multiple times at the corgi-breeding stalker - though the stalking storyline may sound a bit heavy, it was mostly funny and I really loved that!

Overall, I would highly recommend this! While I would put other Katherine Center books in the more "women's fic" category, I would say this is definitely primarily a romance!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was sooo excited for this book when I first heard about it. Like over the moon excited about fake dating, the celebrity trope, the mc being a bodyguard. But as I read it, I was really conflicted. On one hand it plays out like your typical romcom, and builds the romance nicely. On the other though, it was kind of a mess. The writing of other characters felt sloppy and excessive, the twists and turns of the plot were frustrating at times and random, and at some points I just wanted to not finish it because it missed the mark on my own expectations.

I give this one 3 stars because it’s worth a read for some of the elements.

I love this story. It takes the bodyguard/celebrity trope and adds a fun little twist to it. I loved reading the relationship grow between Hannah and jack. Their chemistry was everything I wanted! This book was so funny. I laughed out loud plenty of times! My favorite thing was Hannah’s character growth into acceptance and self love. So relatable.

This was truly such a joy to read!! It had me genuinely smiling and laughing from beginning to end. Hannah Brooks, our main character and Executive Protection Agent extraordinaire, has one of the most unique inner monologues I've ever read. We get the entire book from her perspective, and her unfiltered stream-of-consciousness thoughts are truly unmatched. She's sarcastic, cynical, self-deprecating, and so endearingly relatable. I've never read a book where the heroine is the bodyguard instead of the hero, so I thought this concept was super intriguing and it was even better than I imagined! I really couldn't have cared less what happened in the book because her candid voice alone made everything so funny. And Jack, Hannah's client and super famous actor, was such a sweetheart and I ADORED their dynamic. I would've been very okay with a super fluffy romance, but the climax of the book was surprisingly dramatic and entertaining. I flew through this book and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fun summer read.

Oh boy! I don’t remember the last time I had so much fun reading a romance novel. I loved the female bodyguard protecting the sexy superstar. I was rooting for them the whole way through.

This book was sooooo funny!!! I read it in one whole day! Once I started I could not put it down!! Hanna is such a badass female character. Some her internal struggles were so relatable that it had me tearing up. I loved loved loved this book!

4.5 star rounded up to a 5! Another amazing read from Katherine Center! This one is much more RomCom than her other books but I loved every second of it! All of the characters were great even the ones we're meant to hate! I laughed out loud and got teary at times too. I thought it all wrapped up beautifully.

Hannah gets assigned to be the famous actor, Jack Stapleton’s bodyguard, but there’s a twist. She has to pretend to be his girlfriend in order to keep Jack’s need for security a secret from his mom who is sick. As the two start to open up to each other, Hannah gets a little too attached to Jack and his family. This one is filled with drama, family, ass kicking, and love. It will leave you smiling! Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the egalley in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fun rom com. It was a good fluff book if you need a palate cleanser or an escape read while you have COVID (maybe that was just me?!).
I will say I miss the depth of emotion we got in some of her older books, How to Walk Away especially. These last few books just don’t feel the same.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Such a cute read that has some plot twists along the way! It was awesome to see a female in the role of a bodyguard. The protagonist was very relatable!

This was so unexpectedly fun! I loved that the girl was the bodyguard and that she was the grump. It really made for a fun POV. I also thoroughly enjoyed the narration style and sense of humour. This book felt like a long conversation with a friend after not seeing them for a while. It was a comfortable and soft read and the slow burn kept me on the edge of my seat. Love it!!

I loved this book! This was not my first Katherine Center book, but it is now my favorite. It was just a joy to read. I enjoyed spending time with these characters as their stories unfolded. I really like that the author manages to make me laugh, cry, learn and just feel, all within a few pages. If you're looking for a feel-good book that is also fun to read, this is it! Now I'm just waiting for her next book!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

"The Bodyguard" by Katherine Center is a wonderful escape! It was a funny, sweet story about Hannah, the bodyguard and Jack, the celebrity. When they met, they were both dealing with grief and sadness. Their playful banter and laughable moments created a perfect summer read!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the enjoyment from the advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Well this book was absolutely delightful. I have enjoyed Katherine Center's previous books and this one is now in my top three favorites of her books!
This is a classic fake-dating romance with a tough female protection agent (Hannah) who is assigned to look after a sweet movie star (Jack). If you liked the movies The Proposal or While You Were Sleeping, I think you would love this! For a variety of reasons, Hannah has to protect Jack at his family's ranch in Texas under the guise of being his new girlfriend. His family draws her in and fills a hole in her life after her own mom passed away earlier in the year. There is adventure, sweet romance, humor, and a fun cast of supporting characters. Plus, the fact that Jack's stalker is a middle aged woman who knits and loves corgis was icing on the cake.
One thing I love about Center's books is that she develops romance and tension in her books without any steamy scenes that would make you blush in public. This was a breezy, adorable romance that felt like going to see an old school romcom. Toss it in your beach bag and thank me later.

This was SO cute! I absolutely loved the relationship between Hannah and Jack, and loved their banter! The story felt relatable, especially Hannah feelings with everything going on in her life. This was a sweet, charming, and easy read that I definitely recommend! I look forward to reading more from Katherine Center!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for this arc!