Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Bodyguard by Katherine Center

45 reviews

maeverose's review against another edition

2.5

Sadly, this did not end up working for me. It started out alright, The writing style didn’t put me off (It was a tolerable amount of cheesy) I actually enjoyed the first half for the most part. Fake dating is one of my favorite romance tropes, I liked the idea of a bodyguard trope, especially with the bodyguard being a woman. But then towards the end I started to lose interest. There were also several things that bothered me throughout the book.

Which are:
-Hannah is a very bad bodyguard. She kept protesting doing things that can’t possibly be as bad as things she’s had to do for other jobs, she’s trained to handle tense life threatening situations - yet freaks out and shuts down over a shirtless man in front of her… She’s a grown ass adult, has had sex with men before, and she just shuts down over a man’s undulating six pack (seriously why that word choice)?

She was completely clueless about Jack’s fears, nightmares and feud with Hank when she was told during the briefing about what happened with Drew. Isn’t she supposed to be good at analyzing people and assessing situations? And she was scared of cows??? That scene was funny to be fair but made zero sense.

Yes this is a cheesy rom com and I’m probably taking it too seriously but still.
-All the back and forth conversations/arguments where Hannah refuses to accept or agree to something but eventually gives in. It always went on way too long, was overdone and got annoying pretty quickly.
-Along those lines, Hannah needing to be told a million times that Jack liked her before she believed it. It started to come across as her just being completely clueless rather than insecure.
-mainly because of those last three things, but also just because of the narration, Hannah seemed very immature.
-a lot of body shaming
-internalized misogyny
-very heteronormative (every single character is cishet)

-Jack getting physically aggressive with his brother and smashing that plate
-I felt like there should’ve been a content warning for suicide attempt for the end of the book. Even though we’re told many times that things could get messy given Hannah’s job, the whole book was very low stakes up until then, and that kind of came out of no where. For a rom com especially, it seemed a bit much. It felt like she almost tried to keep that scene a bit lighthearted as well with the writing style, but that’s not a scene you can make light of imo. It felt a bit insensitive.

-

the fact that the villain was disabled and ‘ugly’, plus the villainizing of mental illness in general (no that ridiculous epilogue did not make up for it)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Fatphobia and Vomit

Graphic: death of a sibling

cady_sass's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Cute, lighthearted, wholesome. A little less than believable but a fun time, disappointed that there is zero spice but so much sexual tension. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

on_bries_shelf's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book really worked for me. I loved it. I wish somethings outside of the main romance had been concluded a bit better. But overall a really great book. 💜

Things I Loved:
both mcs- just everything them, how they were with each other. 
Sending Bobby far, far away. How the author navigated and didn’t often fall into the common pitfalls of this genre. The absolute clear way that the internal thoughts were expressed. Just enough explanations of their jobs. They way this ending felt silly, but still worked. The goddamn birdhouses.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

jen_sometimes's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Stalking, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol and Injury/Injury detail

hayleyelaine's review against another edition

lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

this was a really good book! I l usually don't enjoy slow burn/ non-smutty romances as much as I enjoyed this one. The main characters were very likable and quite relatable. They were also well fleshed out. I would have like some of Jack's POV though. It was a hilarious and fun book perfect for a binge read situation!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Car accident

Moderate: Death, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, and Toxic relationship

cozyduck's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

A very charming, very pleasant read except for

The description of the brothers accident, and chapters 30-31, but those are intentional.

Not really any

sexually explicit scenes. Normally I like some lol

but with this book I was content without it. :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Toxic relationship, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Alcohol

This seems like a TON of content warnings. However unless there's one you're specifically triggered by I want to say that the book does not feel super depressing or upsetting. Yes, the main character is working through things, but the author wrote the story in such a way that there is support, humor, and a lightness to it. The hardest part for me personally was when

Jack was talking about his nightmares about his brother dying, the family's perspective of his brother dying. Chapters 30-31 we're tense but not as hard emotionally.

Other than that there was her annoying

gaslighting ex, and also the talk about her mother being abused.

However in spite of all of that this book brought hope and inspiration.

maya_reads_books's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol

micaelamariem's review against another edition

funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a fun lighthearted romcom, all the fluff I needed in my life! I’m a sucker for all things fake dating and this was no different. I really loved the action at the end, where I finally believed she was actually a real bodyguard. I hated the epilogue though—took away the fun of imagining what happens next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, and Gaslighting

kdailyreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol