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ka_schulze's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
It started out cute and hopeful but someone explain to me why the fake dating really bothered Hannah more when there was a possibility Jack could actually have some feelings for her? I felt it started well and then lost its luster about 70% of the way through and by then I was too far in to DNF it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Terminal illness and Stalking
Minor: Gun violence and Violence
blewballoon's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I'm so glad I picked this up on a whim, it wasn't on my TBR and I just grabbed it on Libby because I recognized the author from Hello Stranger. I hoped it would be a decent gender flip of typical bodyguard romance tropes, but it really impressed and surprised me.
The romance aspect is gradual and natural. It just kind of floats along developing in the background while all the other plot movement and character dynamics unfold in the forefront. The writing is profound in its emotional moments and really funny in its lighthearted moments. There's a level of detail with certain characters and in-story anecdotes that make the world and people feel real. There are a couple of characters that get a more shallow take, but it works along with everything else.
I wasn't sure about the audiobook narrator at first, but she won me over as well and imbued a lot of personality into the narration.
The romance aspect is gradual and natural. It just kind of floats along developing in the background while all the other plot movement and character dynamics unfold in the forefront. The writing is profound in its emotional moments and really funny in its lighthearted moments. There's a level of detail with certain characters and in-story anecdotes that make the world and people feel real. There are a couple of characters that get a more shallow take, but it works along with everything else.
I wasn't sure about the audiobook narrator at first, but she won me over as well and imbued a lot of personality into the narration.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Medical content, and Car accident
Minor: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
izzyw13's review against another edition
adventurous
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? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Terminal illness, Stalking, and Car accident
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
laurenford's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cancer, Mental illness, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent
Minor: Alcoholism, Terminal illness, Grief, and Toxic friendship
molls's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
This is a fun-level 4 but an actual 3. I read it in like 4 hours. I laughed and kicked my feet. I also had to suspend some disbelief.
Unfortunately this book makes one of my least favorite mistakes in media: telling me a woman is badass at her career and then only showing her being a neurotic screwup. MacKenzie in The Newsroom: allegedly a big deal reporter who has interviewed Osama bin Laden, but has a meltdown in episode 1 over a reply-all email. Kate in The Diplomat, whining constantly about trivial stuff like having to wear diplomat-appropriate outfits to diplomacy-adjacent social functions. Hannah has good reason to be a little weepy in this book so I tried to forgive it, but we barely got to see her do cool bodyguard stuff at all, and that was a real bummer for me. No one on the team demonstrated much skill for executive protection, honestly, so it was a little hard to take them seriously.
Also, I admit I am biased as a corgi owner, but Corgi Lady wouldn't have had time for all that nonsense.
Unfortunately this book makes one of my least favorite mistakes in media: telling me a woman is badass at her career and then only showing her being a neurotic screwup. MacKenzie in The Newsroom: allegedly a big deal reporter who has interviewed Osama bin Laden, but has a meltdown in episode 1 over a reply-all email. Kate in The Diplomat, whining constantly about trivial stuff like having to wear diplomat-appropriate outfits to diplomacy-adjacent social functions. Hannah has good reason to be a little weepy in this book so I tried to forgive it, but we barely got to see her do cool bodyguard stuff at all, and that was a real bummer for me. No one on the team demonstrated much skill for executive protection, honestly, so it was a little hard to take them seriously.
Also, I admit I am biased as a corgi owner, but Corgi Lady wouldn't have had time for all that nonsense.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Car accident
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Terminal illness
Minor: Addiction, Blood, and Vomit
embelle's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This was my first Katherine Center book, and I enjoyed it! It’s a really fun, sometimes cheesy, and other times deep and reflective, rom-com that flips the traditional bodyguard/celebrity romance. I found myself reading this book really quickly and wanting to know what would happen to the characters, and I appreciated how the lighthearted romance was complimented by discussions about deeper thoughts, insecurities and reflections. Overall, I had a great time with this book and am looking forward to discussing it at my next book club meeting!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Infidelity
thaliareads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Such a fun concept. Overall a delightful and unique romantic comedy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Death of parent
Minor: Toxic friendship
There are a lot of content warnings for this book. I'll try and break them down into certain spoilers. To begin, some general non-spoiler comments. At the very start of the book, MC's mom died. I don't know if I'd call it an illness or a condition, but it was terminal. Second, as a bodyguard, the MC deals with issues of kidnapping, stalking, attempted violence, etc. They have to protect their charges sometimes which can also require violence. Spoilers related to MC: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)
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)?
-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.
-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)
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 siblingkimveach's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
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? Yes
4.0
Cute and funny
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, and Abandonment
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!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Car accident
Moderate: Death, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, and Toxic relationship