Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Bodyguard by Katherine Center

59 reviews

bethrb's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Body shaming, Cancer, Medical content, Self harm, Classism, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Suicide attempt

okiecozyreader's review against another edition

funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

I love an author’s note at the end of a book, and in this one, she mentions this is her pandemic book (it doesn’t mention the pandemic). Instead, it was her escape and a book that did “soul-nourishing things” for herself. I love that and I can see how writing this could make a pandemic better.

I also finished Things You Save in a Fire, and I felt like I could see similarities. To me, both heroines are strong women in careers people don’t assume women would be powerful in (a firefighter and a bodyguard). She gives them strength and courage (and both don’t like slinky clothes and prefer pants). It’s interesting how neither of the women grew up with great families (and I think both have parents who left). Both stories involve a parent with cancer also. 

This one, involves fake dating. Hannah loves going oversees and especially wants a job - but her boss decides that it is between her and a guy (she was in a relationship with) - and she has to prove herself in a high profile job with a movie star. His mother has been sick and wants them to come to their ranch, and the fake dating heats up. (Although I do love that her books are never uncomfortably spicy).

I love Katherine Center’s humor at often just the right time. 

“Because it’s so much harder to love someone who’s difficult than to love someone who’s easy.” P17

“Cool pin necklace…”
Like a reflex I touched my beaded safety pin…
And the pin must have been more of a talisman than I’d realized, because only then did I magically remember how to talk.” P46

“I’d just have to wear girlfriend clothes and do girlfriend things and be … trapped behind that facade.” P103

Brazos River is named from “los brazos de Dios, which means ‘the arms of God” … because it drowned so many people that it’s where God collects their souls.” P124

“Every chance you take is a choice. A choice to decide who you are.” P259

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Cancer, and Blood

Minor: Suicide attempt

eaeaster's review against another edition

funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

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

4.5

Delightfully fun. Not too sweet but lovable characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Car accident, and Blood

Moderate: Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, and Suicide attempt

amandamarieger's review against another edition

funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.5

This was so fun!! I’ve been reading a lot of heavy stuff the last few months, and this book was such a breath of fresh air. The writing was super funny and I felt like I was flying through it. If you’re a romantic comedy fan, this is a great one! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident and Stalking

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Cancer, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Medical content, Gaslighting, Death, Grief, and Bullying

Minor: Blood, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, and Child death

juliette_95's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Stalking, and Death

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Murder

Minor: Blood

emaire22's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcoholism, Car accident, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Death of parent

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

cheye13's review against another edition

funny 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

3.0

This was lovely, cute, and charming, if a little unremarkable. The relationship was sweet with the right level of push and pull, the characters had substance, and the plot was engaging. The writing was both skillful and easy to read. And even the heat level (or lack of one) was perfect for my tastes.

What I mainly felt was missing was more of a deep-dive into the leads' careers. I'm not one to say one's career fully defines one's personality, but both of these characters seemed so defined by their unique careers that it would've been fun to push a little further into that. Particularly Hannah – we never leave her POV, she has such a unique career, and she definitively, on-page, defines herself by her excellence in that career. Instead we get a lot of moping about her ex and best friend. And while that's completely warranted and doesn't detract from her as a character, it would be nice if she'd been a little more fleshed out, especially as our first-person narrator.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Stalking, and Alcoholism

Minor: Gun violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Panic attacks/disorders

also note: detailed descriptions and phobia of drowning

ellaticonstellation's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I loved that Hannah loves her job while Jack isn't an asshole. Excuse my language. I liked that he has no filter with his expressions and emotions, like an actual human being. Haha! I devoured this✨ Thank you, Katherine; this was my first book from you, you and you did not disappoint.💕

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Gun violence, Deadnaming, Death, Cancer, Blood, Car accident, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts