The Bodyguard tells the unlikely story of a professional bodyguard and a movie star, thrown together in a fake girlfriend rom-com scenario where she must protect him from a stalker/potential murderer on his family's ranch. She poses as his fake girlfriend and moves in, telling no one but her boss and coworkers that she's really his bodyguard. As Hannah and Jack "pose", they of course fall in love and find that they have a lot in common, including a history of loss.

While this novel has a lot of rom-com cliches that I don't like (fake gf/bf & movie star romance), I do love Katherine Center despite this exception from her normal writing style. This novel has a great mix of the more serious and the funny for the rom-com lovers, but it is so preposterous that I wasn't seriously engaged enough to deeply enjoy it.

I could not have loved this book any more! When Hannah first met movie star Jack Stapleton he mistook her for the cleaning lady. In reality she is his bodyguard, even though she is tiny and looks like a librarian.
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Jack’s mother has cancer and he doesn’t want her to worry about his stalker, a middle aged corgi breeder/knitter. The only solution is for Hannah to pose as his girlfriend instead of his Bodyguard. There are some truly zany moments but this book had so much heart that took me by surprise. I fell in love with this book and was emotionally invested.
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Huge thank you to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for an advanced arc in exchange for an honest review

I have a new favorite book, and Katherine Center has done it again! I loved that she chose a female to be a bodyguard for a male movie star. Hannah and Jack were the perfect characters. I find myself wishing that this book would get made into a movie, and in an ideal world, it would star Scott Eastwood as Jack Stapleton. I loved the way that Hannah made Jack laugh, especially when she was angry or trying to be serious about something. Even though there were a lot of funny parts, there were also a lot of parts that were emotional and had a lot of heart- from the diagnosis of Jack's mother and the death of Hannah's mother, to the emotion trauma of the death of Jack's brother, Drew. When I started reading this, I only expected to read a few chapters, but I found myself engrossed in the story, and read half in one sitting. I probably would have read the whole book in one sitting, but I have kids lol. I loved the way Jack's family completely took Hannah in, and his parents' relationship and marriage. The situation with the stalker was also pretty funny, and I loved the Jack's mom kept the sweaters with his face on them. I hated Robby and felt completely vindicated by the ending of the story. Even the situation with Wilbur was the perfect conflict/end to the story. I've loved all of Katherine's books, and dare I say that this might just be one of my favorite reads of 2022?! Thank you to the publisher for not only my digital copy but also for sending me a physical ARC of this book!

The Bodyguard is my second Katherine Center book & by far my favorite of the two. Syrupy sweet and predictable, but super cute none the less. I love the dynamic between the two main characters & the Texas setting.

Hannah Brooks is an Executive Protective Agent based in Houston, Tx. When Hannah loses her mom, boyfriend, best friend, and apartment within a short period of time she is ready to escape and accept her next assignment and adventure. Hannah has her sights set on an exotic, overseas location. When her assignment comes she finds out she will be working in...Houston. & she will be working in close proximity to none other than America's favorite action adventure movie star: Jack Stapleton. In town to look after his ailing mom, and avoid his stalker, he and Hannah will be spending lots of time in close proximity...and romcom cuteness ensues. Family dynamic, mending strained relationships, and finding love while finding yourself. The Bodyguard is a feel good read with tons of heart. 4 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is my first Katherine Center book, and it won’t be my last. It’s a light-hearted, clean rom-com which combines the fake-dating trope with going undercover. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the gifted e-copy. Look out for this one on July 19th.

Here’s the premise: Hannah Brooks is an Executive Protection Agent (pretty much a bodyguard), but she looks more like a sweet elementary school teacher than a burly club bouncer. When she gets hired to follow famous movie-star Jack Stapleton home to his family’s Texas ranch, protecting him from his middle-aged stalker, she thinks it’ll be just another job. But with Jack’s mother battling a cancer diagnosis, Jack doesn’t want to worry his mom with the whole bodyguard thing, so Hannah agrees, against her better judgement, to pretend to be Jack’s girlfriend.

At first she wonders if they can pull it off. After all, who would ever believe that Hannah—a pantsuit-loving, makeup-avoiding, no-nonsense agent—would be dating someone like Jack Stapleton? But the more she gets to know Jack and his family, the more real the whole thing seems to be. She can’t help but wonder: is Jack really that good an actor? And although Hannah’s great at protecting Jack, can she protect herself from heartbreak?

My thoughts: I’ve always liked the movie Miss Congeniality, and this book definitely gave off those kinds of vibes with the undercover thing. It was funny and swoon-y without being shallow or fluffy—it covers themes with substance, like when you don’t believe you’re worthy of love, not settling for sub-par relationships just so you won’t be alone, and not trying to escape your life but embracing it to the full. A great summer read.

Thank you NetGalley & St. Martin Press for the ARC.

I love all Katherine Center books. To me, her books are like reading a hug. This one was no exception. It had some of my favorite rom com tropes - famous person, non-famous person, pretend relationship, sharing a room with only one bed! Even though, you know how it's all going to work out it feels satisfying throughout.

I highly recommend this novel to anyone who wants to smile and feel warm fuzzies.

This week has been rough for me and reading this book was a bright spot.

Hannah is a bodyguard and has been assigned to protect Jack, America’s Sexiest Man and secretly one of her favorite actors. What she did not count on was having to pretend to be his girlfriend while staying with his family (and possibly dying mother) while she protects him.

This was a great grumpy-sunshine/close proximity romance. Jack was so down to earth and he seemed to genuinely like Hannah from the start. Hannah reminded me of Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality at the beginning of the book. She seemed to finally grow into her self towards the end. I would have liked a little more danger in the book, just to make the security seem more necessary, but what was there was believable

Great read! Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC!

The Bodyguard by Katherine Center is a clever and fresh story about an actor who requires protection. I found the characters relatable and well-developed. So as not to spoil the story, I won’t say more except to encourage you to read this delightful book. For myself, I plan to lookout for more books by Katherine Center. Thank you to NetGalley, Ms. Center and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to review this advance copy.

Katherine Center never disappoints. Entertaining story with a strong female character and a really likable celebrity love-interest.

Thank you NetGalley for the early copy!

Loved this! The writing style grabbed me from the beginning, it felt like Hannah was a friend and we were having a chat about her life. Loved Hannah, smart, capable, vulnerable, a little insecure and messed up but also completely relatable. Her journey in this and her learning to stop running and be open to loving herself and letting love in was perfect. Jack was a wonderful character, funny, charming, a little broken but also open and full of hope. Thought the author dealt with his trauma and how he processed it really well. The chemistry between Jack and Hannah was everything!! I loved that she made him laugh and that despite her best efforts he got all the way under her skin. The author did a great job of building a genuine, believable connection between them. So many great supporting characters as well with Jack’s family and Hannah’s work family *except for “Bobby” he was the absolute worst*. The book was engaging, heartbreaking, romantic and genuinely funny in parts *the cow thing made me properly lol* (5 ⭐️)

Katherine Center books are like a cup of hot cocoa and a warm blanket for me. They are predictable, but they are comforting, sweet, and make me smile. It's sappy and not spicy, and it's the perfect rom-com story that makes a nice palette cleanser to some heavier reads.

Positive reviews by Christina Lauren, Emily Henry, Helen Hoang, and Jodi Picoult-- this book has got to be doing something right then, right? :)

Quick summary: Hannah is a bodyguard- not what people imagine for a bodyguard though. She isn't tall or muscular, but she is trained to protect her clients and she is good at her job. Hannah's life is her job. She doesn't let people get too close to her, but she prefers it that way.... until she is forced to play girlfriend with her latest client, a famous actor in hiding. I think "fake relationship" is one of my favorite tropes, so maybe I was a sucker for this book before I even started reading it. This is a fast read- I read it in one and a half sittings (my children insisted that they needed food at some point). 

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced e-copy of this book. Publication is set for August 2, 2022... so far away! I recommend my other favorite Katherine Center books to read while waiting: Things you Save in a Fire and What You Wish For <3

📚Book Review📚 This book was charming from the start. It’s a fun rom-com that has more depth than I was expecting, and even some suspense. I’ve read several Katherine Center books, and like the others, this doesn’t disappoint!

🎧I also listened to the audiobook and it was really well done. 🎧

Reading a new Katherine Center book is always such a delight, her books are like a ray of sunshine that always leave me feeling warm and cozy. This was just so good y’all, it had everything I needed and more. It was heartfelt and full of emotion but it was also light and super funny too. The characters were so so lovable, I adored both Hannah and Jack and thought their pairing was perfection. Fake dating is my fave so I was happy to see the trope here and the author nailed it. This is begging to be made into a rom com movie, the writing was so vivid it already played out like a movie in my head, clearly I just adored it and can highly recommend it as an addition to your summer TBR! The audio version was fantastic and narrator Patti Murin was great.

A fun, quick read that was exactly what I needed!

Hannah, the quirky bodyguard who you would think couldn't guard a fly, but can absolutely put a grown man on his backside. I adored her! Jack, a famous actor, coming out of hiding for personal reasons...needs a bodyguard, or his bosses think he does.

This is such a mix up of a book; we definitely are grieving with our characters, as they lost people close to them they love, but we also get a healthy dose of ROMCOM and I'm here for their witty banter and charmingly awkward exchanges at times.

We follow Hannah and Jack as they navigate a professional relationship that falls into non-typical scenario when Hannah is forced to pretend to be Jack's girlfriend. LISTEN, I will say this a million times over; fake dating and forced proximity are my favorites in a book like this.

The narrator for this audio book did such a fantastic job, there were times I was reading from my earc and turned on the audio book to read with me because it enhanced my reading so much!

Thank you so much to @macmillanaudio, @stmartinspress, @katherinecenter and @netgalley for the advanced review copies!

At first I wasn’t a fan of The Bodyguard, by Katherine Center, which was a shock, because I’m a huge fan of her stories. I really did not care for the main character at first, I found her rather ridiculous and obstinate. Nor did I like the boyfriend or the brother, at all, as was intended. The bodyguard company was also exceptionally unprofessional, thus hard to take seriously.

The further I got into the story, the more I realized that that was the point. The Bodyguard is meant to be a quirky, lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek rom-com. Despite my earlier misgivings, I laughed and was touched by the sweetness of the story, as well as the meaningful message. It was delightful and a joy to read.

After a rough romantic breakup with a colleague the day after her mother’s funeral, and being dropped from a desired assignment, Hannah Brooks is reluctantly sent to be the bodyguard for the famous Jack Stapleton, a Hollywood hunk, who is known for having movie starlets on his arm. When he goes to his family ranch to visit his sick mother, and Hannah is forced to portray his girlfriend, her usual protocol of staying detached from her subject is slowly and unwillingly altered, despite her best efforts.

I am so grateful I was able to read this book. As with Katherine’s previous stories, it was charming and left my heart-warmed and my spirit sated.

I have to say that I love Katherine Center. She's up there with some of the greats as far as authors who consistently write thoughtful, engaging stories with well-crafted characters.
I truly didn't want "The Bodyguard" to end. I LOVE a strong female character, and that's Katherine Center's forte - women who defy conventional norms, but who are still well-rounded and dynamic characters. I've already recommended The Bodyguard to friends, and it's not even out yet! It's such a fun, funny, sweet story and absolute perfection as a beach read!

The Bodyguard was my fourth book by Katherine Center and far and away the lightest themed of them. Hannah is a personal security agent who works for a private contracting company. At the start of the novel, she is being placed on leave to deal with the recent death of her mother. Her boyfriend, fellow agent, Robbie, chooses the day after the funeral to break up with Hannah for many hurtful reasons, including that she "is not a good kisser". While Hannah is on leave, her boss gives Robbie and Hannah's best friend the next post that Hannah was supposed to have been assigned to. After finishing her leave and then hitting a new personal low, Hannah is put on assignment with movie star, Jack Stapleton, who is in town to help out his family while his mom is being treated for cancer.

The bodyguard is not a deep or dark story. In fact, it was so funny and feel-good, I was tempted to give it 5 stars. The only reason I didn't is that regardless of how much I enjoyed myself while reading The Bodyguard, it isn't the kind of book I am going to be pondering the details of outside this review.

Anyone wanting a good beach read, or a book that will help you recover from a traumatic read, The Bodyguard will be perfect.

The adorable cover sucked me in and the story kept me hooked. Hannah is a workaholic, she takes her job as an Executive Protection Agent (aka bodyguard) seriously and she loves what she does. So after the passing of her mother and the abrupt and brutal ending of her longest relationship finding herself sidelined at work is the cherry on top of her misery. Thus when she is finally put back on the roster for an assignment and finds that instead of jetting off to Europe or Asia as per usual she is stuck in Houston she feels like she's found her own personal brand of hell. All she wants is escape, but not in the form of the beautiful out of her league movie star that is her new charge Jack Stapleton.

The epitome of professionalism Hannah is determined to keep things strictly business. However the lines quickly get blurred as the assignment becomes more and more complicated and doing her job now means acting as though she's dating Hollywood's sexist man alive. Jack's acting is so good it starts to level her carefully built walls and she soon finds herself unable to detect reality from fiction.

This story was adorable, I loved the characters, the setting, the plot. All around a fun and quick read.

“Executive Protection Agent” (bodyguard) Hannah Brooks means business about pretty much everything in life. So when she’s assigned to heartthrob celeb Jack Stapleton, she initially refuses to be swayed by his charm, fame, or washboard abs. Throw in a little forced proximity, fake dating, and soul-baring, and it might be a bit more difficult for Hannah to maintain her professional distance than she thought.

The Bodyguard is a fun story that offers a lot of laughs and moves quickly. Definitely recommended for anyone looking for an entertaining vacation read and for those who enjoy their romcoms a bit lower on the spice scale.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the complimentary advance copy of this work! Opinions expressed here are my own.

Center takes a take of a celebrity and their bodyguard and flips it on its face-female bodyguard, male client, in this fun story. While not unpredictable, the characters were different enough from those in other rom coms to really make this one feel fresh. Recommend!