Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

The Bodyguard by Katherine Center

20 reviews

ginkgogirl's review

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funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Great junk food read. Completely unrealistic but very fun and easy to read

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meenakshisathish's review

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funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

It would have been such a good read because the main characters do have enough chemistry and the conflict is believable. But there’s just too many tropes trying to out-do each other: dead mom, cancer-ailing mom, dead brother, toxic ex boyfriend, betraying best friend, funny side characters to give it a Brooklyn 99 feel. It feels more like a book written to do well in TikTok’s algorithm. 

Perhaps I’m being a little hard because the heart of the story is really sweet. But the writing and the composition of the story is the real downfall of this book. But I think the nail on the coffin was the unmissable pick-me vibes saturated throughout the whole narrative. There are only three female characters that are redeemable: the main character Hannah, the ailing mother of Jack Stapleton, and the quirky side character Kelly who is really there only to be a comic relief from time to time. The rest of the women in the story are shallow, selfish, and often just outright dumb. The last time I read a romance novel that invested in the patriarchal bargain was in middle school when I read fan fiction stories on Wattpad. 

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kiala's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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sebradley29's review

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funny inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-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

4.0


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atamano's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted 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

3.5


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kaitzeecee's review

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fast-paced
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


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bethrb's review

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funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was silly fun, but Bratz/fashion dolls did not deserve the stray criticism they got here! 

Everything about those dolls and
Kennedy
felt so... 2010's feminism.

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spill_the_tea's review against another edition

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing tense fast-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

4.0

Wow this book took at turn about 75 percent in… in a good nail biting, screaming my heart out kind of way. (Not joking almost threw my phone across the room) I love the fake dating trope and this one was quite clean actually.

Playlist: 
All of the girls you loved before Taylor Swift 
I Know places Taylor Swift 
Bleeding Love Leona Lewis 
Thank You Sasha Alex Sloan 

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joanpack's review

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hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25


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maeverose's review against another edition

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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.
-
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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