The Bodyguard

The Bodyguard is about Hannah, a workaholic bodyguard, excuse me, an Executive Protection Agent, and she's hired to protect an a-lister celeb. Soon circumstances will push them closer and closer as they'll have to pretend to be dating.

I enjoyed reading this book so much, I finished it in one sitting! It's cute, romantic, emotional and even thrilling at times.

I've only read one other Katherine Center but I can already recognize her brand of romance and I love it! She writes great three-dimensional characters, and their emotional journey becomes just as important as the romance itself. And by the end you will find that you feel healed, wrapped in a warm blanket. Even though I generally like steamy romances, I never miss that in her clean romances.

Hannah, the main character was a great one to read. She's brilliant and strong. She knows what she wants and won't take shit from people. She's also struggling with losing people close to her and doesn't fully know how to deal with it other than grasping to her work harder and getting too busy to have time to feel anything. I loved that she was a bodyguard, not at all a job you usually read about in romances, and I loved that she loved her job so much. It was all quite nuanced.

The love interest Jack was fantastic too. He's a selfless, loving and funny guy who also doesn't quite know how to deal with his loss. He's the ideal fictional man, without being too unrealistically perfect.
I liked that the two characters had loss in common, but they were going through it in different ways. I thought that both of their emotional journeys were incredibly realistic, and I loved that they helped pulled each other out of their unhealthy habits. By the end, they were both changed for the better.

Some of the other characters were great as well. Jack's parents especially so. They were so in love, so supportive, so full of love for their family, and so strong too, while they're dealing with some scary possibilities. It also warmed my heart that Hannah felt so close to them and that they could act as good examples of a loving family for her.

At some point in the book Katherine Center fancast The Unhoneymooners (by Christina Lauren) with Jack the LI as the main character and that just tickled me so.

The only part that I didn't fully connect with was how/when Hannah falls in love with Jack. For me it went from he's an annoying actor dude I have to work for to I actually love him so fast that I had to flip back some pages to see if I missed something.

Thank you to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for the eARC!