Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

The Bodyguard by Katherine Center

13 reviews

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Car accident, Death of parent, Mental illness, and Cancer

Minor: Grief, Toxic friendship, Terminal illness, and Alcoholism

molls's review

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: Car accident and Grief

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Terminal illness

Minor: Addiction, Blood, and Vomit

embelle's review

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!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death of parent, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Mental illness, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident, Terminal illness, and Alcoholism

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, Violence, Death, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Stalking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Death

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:

MC's boyfriend dumps her right after her mom's funeral and ends up dating her best friend.

. Spoiler related to MC's love interest:

Their mom is diagnosed with cancer in the beginning of the book which is why they return home. This requires time in the hospital. Later in the book they do get kidnapped and threatened at gunpoint. They also struggle with recurring nightmares because they feel responsible for the death of their brother after he drowned when their car went off a bridge into the water

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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)

-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.

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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)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Death, Gun violence, and Stalking

Moderate: Cancer, Ableism, Alcohol, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Blood, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Medical content, and Terminal illness

Minor: Fatphobia and Vomit

Graphic: death of a sibling

kimveach'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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Car accident, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Cancer, Infidelity, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Abandonment, Addiction, Blood, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Death, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts

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!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Car accident

Moderate: Terminal illness, Alcohol, Death of parent, Death, and Gaslighting

Minor: Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, and Cancer

jls12's review

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted sad 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

5.0

Loved loved loved this book. There were many times I chuckled…especially “the cow licked me scene”. It was a romcom that tackled some serious elements such as grief, illness, and traumas without being heavy. It was enough to make you think and appreciate life without crushing your soul. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Car accident, Stalking, Death, Terminal illness, and Grief

Minor: Gun violence, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, and Alcoholism

_alyssar_'s review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Kidnapping and Terminal illness

pinkfloydian's review

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Grief, Terminal illness, Violence, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Cancer, and Death of parent