ARC Review: The Bodyguard by Katherine Center

Title: The Bodyguard
Author: Katherine Center
Series: Standalone
Genre: Contemporary Romance/Women's Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: July 19th, 2022
Edition: Kindle Edition, 320 pages
Source: NetGalley
Pre-Order: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | BAM | Book Depository | Bookshop | Powell's | Thriftbooks

 

  

Synopsis:

   She’s got his back.
Hannah Brooks looks more like a kindgerten teacher than somebody who could kill you with a wine bottle opener. Or a ballpoint pen. Or a dinner napkin. But the truth is, she’s an Executive Protection Agent (aka "bodyguard"), and she just got hired to protect superstar actor Jack Stapleton from his middle-aged, corgi-breeding stalker.
   He’s got her heart.
Jack Stapleton’s a household name—captured by paparazzi on beaches the world over, famous for, among other things, rising out of the waves in all manner of clingy board shorts and glistening like a Roman deity. But a few years back, in the wake of a family tragedy, he dropped from the public eye and went off the grid.
   They’ve got a secret.
When Jack’s mom gets sick, he comes home to the family’s Texas ranch to help out. Only one catch: He doesn’t want his family to know about his stalker. Or the bodyguard thing. And so Hannah—against her will and her better judgment—finds herself pretending to be Jack’s girlfriend as a cover. Even though her ex, like a jerk, says no one will believe it.
   What could possibly go wrong???
Hannah hardly believes it, herself. But the more time she spends with Jack, the more real it all starts to seem. And there lies the heartbreak. Because it’s easy for Hannah to protect Jack. But protecting her own, long-neglected heart? That’s the hardest thing she’s ever done.  

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This was a cute book. I liked the characters, and there was a fair amount of attempt at humor, but most of it wasn't that funny to me. Just not my brand of humor. I love the idea of an average-sized woman being a deadly bodyguard. It's unexpected and I liked that. The issue is, that we don't really get to see her do much of what she says she can do. All the "bodyguarding" was them hanging out on a farm doing nothing.
 
   This is the first time I've read a book by this author, I also hadn't heard of her before either. The prose was very different for me, not just for romance, but in general. It was, almost second person, and a lot of the events were told in past-tense. Example: "Later I would find out..." and so forth. It kind of made a bit of a disconnect with what was going on. The dialog passages, at times, were needlessly long. And things that could have used more explanation were glossed over. For how much time was spent on the MC talking about her trauma involving her mother, there wasn't any time spent on showing her overcome or move past what happened. She just seems to choose to let it go, and that's not how that works. There's also a bit of "not like other girls" coming from the MC, which feels out of place with characters who aren't teenagers. Not that it's okay to perpetuate that narrative but I would expect to not see that trope with adult characters.
 
   The romance felt very surface level for me. I could buy that they were attracted to each other. But I don't buy the deep connection they say they had by the end of the book. I didn't feel the romantic chemistry. I don't know what they connected over, what they had in common, any shared interests. Nothing. They just seemingly fall in love.

I do appreciate that she told her garbage ex-boyfriend to take a hike when he tried to get back together with her after what he did. But I don't like that she risked her job for Jack. I think that climax at the end felt unnecessary. There had already been a climax for the story, and a second one felt unneeded.

I think this book would have been better had it taken place not in modern-time, but in the 70s. By the cover, I thought that was when it was taking place anyway. Especially with only three of the employees of this agency being women, I know women still aren't a large part of that industry, but not by that small of a ratio. This is also a personal preference, but I don't like when books use real celebrities and other forms of media in books. I think it dates them.

All-in-all, this book was just mostly okay for me. There were parts that I liked, but more that I'm just lukewarm on at best. I can see how this genre of romance is popular, it's just not for me.