Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

A Guarda-Costas by Katherine Center

26 reviews

brittanylee0302's review against another edition

emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.5

This is my first book by this author. I know Center's books get a ton of hype so I had real high hopes for this book. I was really disappointed by this one. I found the characters so childish. Is Robby a 30 year old man with the mentality of a 15 year old? He was annoying, pathetic, and a real scum bag. Glen was equally as bad. I enjoyed Hannah as a character but felt like her & Jack could have built a stronger relationship throughout the story. I found the storyline kind of funny at first but overall, I just didn't enjoy this book that much. I listened to the audio & really enjoyed the narrator. I also felt like the grief was portrayed was really well, but everything else felt very lacking & childish.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Stalking, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, and Vomit

theonlybaillie's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.5

This book was so fun! It had me literally laughing out loud, gasping at outrageous parts, and swooning. Very cute!

I docked it half of a star, because I did find the writing a bit juvenile at times. It reads a bit young even though the characters are all adults. Also, some of the conflict points were just a bit underwhelming. However, the sheer charm of the book made up for it in my opinion!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Car accident

Moderate: Infidelity, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body shaming, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Vomit, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol

thisbookisbananas's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Wow. I’m so glad I chose this as my first Katherine Center book. Everything in this just worked for me. It’s like Miss Congeniality with a dash of found family. (This is the third found family book I’ve read this month and the hits just keep coming!) I will say this has way more emotional experiences than normal rom-coms, but it absolutely worked. Dare I say it’s almost like Abbey Jimenez? Check CW if you are worried. I can’t wait to pick up another book by this author!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Infidelity and Vomit

bidoofenergy's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-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

4.0

A classic fun 00s romcom of a book. Hannah is driven, Jack is ridiculous and I love them both so much. It's devastating and delightful in one

"Love is something you generate. 
"And loving other people really does turn out, in the end, to be a genuine way of loving yourself."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Vomit

Minor: Gun violence, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

jg34's review against another edition

funny lighthearted

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

Love Katherine center. Her books always have uplifting endings which I appreciate so much. Then the body of the book is always a mix of sad and happy but not to worry, this one is not very sad. Thank u bc my seasonal depression cannot take that at the moment. 
The couple was really cute and the plot was interesting. Jack is perfect. My only complaint is some of the side characters. Robbie is so mean and dumb to the point I don’t understand how Hannah could have dated him in the first place (or Taylor!!). Also didn’t love Glen he straight up treats his employees like shit. Lastly Kennedy or whoever was so over the top it was unbelievable. But other than the obnoxious side characters this story was just what I needed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Car accident

Moderate: Cancer, Gun violence, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Addiction, Blood, and Vomit

humblej's review against another edition

hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

1.5

Pros: some cute moments, handsome hero, lovable family members

Cons: everything else. Heroine is insecure and comes across as clumsy even though she’s a bodyguard. The hero calls her the epitome of ordinary, never once calls her beautiful to him, and this is supposed to be alluring. The author chooses to pit women against each other — best friend vs heroine, Hollywood women vs heroine. There’s not a single redeeming relationship between women apart from, of course, the hero’s mum and heroine.

It probably would have been better set in high school since that’s the level of maturity of everyone involved. No one is a girl’s girl and that’s honestly pathetic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Cancer

Minor: Vomit

liciaaaaa's review against another edition

funny hopeful relaxing 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking and Car accident

Moderate: Cancer, Death, and Medical content

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Car accident

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Terminal illness

Minor: Addiction, Blood, and Vomit

tinkeringcheck's review against another edition

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.

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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.

alishalaurit's review against another edition

funny hopeful lighthearted 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Stalking

Minor: Vomit