Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - A Guarda-Costas

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!

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lomesia's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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jenneroni's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.75

This was the perfect fluffy feel good book for me. The characters were relatable while still being romcom and the tropes were done well and still fresh enough to be unique. Overall, I loved it. It made me laugh aloud which is one of my favorite things in a story.

I did find myself wishing we got more descriptive tidbits of the characters. Even the leads seemed to only get one mention of hair color and eye color and that was it. I usually appreciate a couple drops of “tucked a blonde curl behind her ear” or “his blue eyes glinted” type of detail to make them feel like real people in my mind.

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alexreadshere's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted relaxing 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? No

3.0

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jillwedemeier's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted fast-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? Yes

5.0

Another 5-star read from my queen, Katherine Center!

Read this book if you like:

🌼Fake dating

🌼Forced proximity

🌼One bed

🌼Celebrity romance

🌼Forbidden romance

The Bodyguard is the story of Hannah Brooks, an Executive Protection Agent (A.K.A. a bodyguard) who has been assigned to protect famous movie star Jack Stapleton from a crazy, corgi-breeding stalker. Because Jack’s mother is sick, he insists on keeping his stalker—and bodyguard—a secret. Hannah agrees to pretend to be Jack’s girlfriend while visiting the Stapleton family ranch in Texas. But when the stalker leaves a threatening letter, hand-knit sweater, and nudes on his doorstep, the danger becomes all too real.

This book was so incredibly heartwarming and just downright funny. The humor and banter had me laughing out loud. Once again, Katherine Center has written a masterpiece. It is just a perfect romantic comedy!

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madanxiety's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious

3.25

Overall a sweet novel. There were a couple things I didn't like.

Firstly, Kennedy Monroe's character was so flat in such a cliché way, it was disappointing. It's just so uninteresting when women are pitted against each other in this way. She was just ridiculously vapid, and the closest we get to seeing any depth in her is a brief comment form Jack about how she's super insecure. The stalker/attempted murderer had more depth than her! I suppose he's a more significant character, but I still don't think there's much justification for such lazy writing. It's the bimbo vs. the pick me; have we not, by the 2020s, evolved beyond that? Have we not determined that actually, the real women that exist who like attention and are conventionally attractive, are still multifaceted people with histories and interests like anyone else? I can tolerate tropes like fake dating that simply move the plot forward, but I cannot tolerate tropes that work solely to demonize women.

The second thing I didn't like all that much was the twist at the end. This isn't a major gripe tho. I was just so caught off guard because it seemed to so clearly be a nightmare that would never end, which seemed logical because Jack struggled with nightmares, and I was like oh he'll be able to return the favor and comfort her. Like when she was walking back to the car and it took a million years, that seemed to obviously signal to how slow you are in your dreams. I think I wouldn't have minded the twist too much if it had been revealed a little sooner. Because by the time she was watching the footage (which is when I finally became convinced it wasn't a dream - probably later than most, I'll admit lol), I had to replay the whole last like 30m I feel like lol bc I'd spent most of it impatiently grumbling, waiting for the supposed dream sequence to end already. Am I an idiot for this lol? Maybe, but it was a little too Twlight Breaking Dawn for me.

I also wished there'd been a little more romance between Hannah and Jack. We only really got two scenes of them together communicating/acting in their feelings. Obviously the whole book was them like developing the feelings, and that in itself isrl romance, but I'd have liked if they got more time actually together. Which is funny bc I saw a similar comment under a different book I recently read and thought they were crazy. So it's probably a to each their own kind of situation.

I know this has been a mostly critical review, but I really didn't hate the book. The style of narration was interesting; it reminded me of voice-over narrators in film and TV, both humorous and personal. I think it's just one of those books you can breeze through quickly, needing to know the resolution, but that won't really stick with you all that much.

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tinkeringcheck's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful 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

4.25

First person romance is far from my usual, but I was completely taken in by the warmth and freshness of this story. Yes, it's a trope for the ages, but the healthiness of the relationship between the leads was such an unexpected delight. A male love interest with emotional maturity and an overabundance of green flags? Clear discussions of boundaries and feelings? It was a breath of fresh, Texas air and the best kind of romcom you can root for all wrapped into one wise, silly, hopeful package. I adored it. I adored all of these characters. And I especially adored Jack's family.

The one thing that stretched my suspension of belief was the bodyguard team's antics. There's a lot of telling us about how great they are, meanwhile what's shown is a lot of... high school level drama. I just wish we'd seen more of what made this team - and our lead by association - capable enough to be hired by a beleaguered celebrity.

All that being said: Do not - do not! - go into this book expecting realistic drama or steamy romance. It's a bantery, feel-good, reverse bodyguard trope that runs on rom-com logic, but (mostly) in the best way.

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit and Abandonment

Overall: It's a very light-hearted, hopeful book but it deals with some background heavy topics. In order or prevalence:

Death of parent, death, grief: Very beginning of book skims over the main character's mother dying, and the grief from that is a catalyst for the rest of the book. Grief (and hope) is a major theme.

Domestic/Physical abuse: Past, as a memory. A very violent incidence of it and the injuries/aftermath is described by character who was a child at the time.

Stalking: With one lead being a famous actor, there's lots of discussions about stalking in general. Stalking incidents are discussed in detail, though light-heartedly, until

one gets violent -> see gun violence.

Gun violence, suicide attempt, blood, injury: Someone is shot at and mildy injured.

In a hostage situation characters are held at gunpoint and one suffers a graze on the head that bleeds a lot but isn't too serious. The shooter plans to kill himself, not the hostages, but is talked down.

Toxic Relationship: Heroine has a generally very shitty ex-boyfriend.

Cancer: The male lead's mother is going through cancer treatment. There's mention of having and recovering from surgery, and the characters often briefly visit a hospital. The prognosis

ends up being very good and she completely recovers.

Alcoholism: More than one background character suffers from it.

One was killed before the story from driving recklessly under the influence.

Car accident, death: Past incident. The accident is described in detail more than once and led to a death by drowning.

The driver was under the influence, drove too fast, went off a bridge and drowned.

Drowning: One almost-incident during the story and one in the past - both described in some detail.

Vomit: One character has a phobia that he often vomits after being exposed to. It's not described in detail.

Abandonment: A character briefly describes a parent leaving them and their other parent abruptly when they were very young.

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