Reviews - Guardian Angel | The StoryGraph

51 reviews for:

Guardian Angel

Julie Garwood

3.9 AVERAGE

chelseaj91's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

So this wasn't a bad story at all, but I just couldn't quite get hooked. I ended up skimming a lot of the last 35-40% because I was trying to return this to the library and I'm honestly not worried about having missed something.

Caine was okay. A little more macho/caveman-y than I normally like, but it fit the characterization that Julie Garwood set up with Lyon. Since this is only my second Garwood, I don't know if that's typical of all her MMCs or just this series. I did feel like he roared and bellowed a lot and I'm surprised there weren't more comments about people being deaf/ringing in their ears. I did like the way he cared for his staff and even his parents and Colin. And Jade once she showed up; I'll admit that I felt like there was too much "She's going to run and I'll just go after her" followed by that actually happening (but that was mostly because Jade was frustrating, but I'll get to that in a minute). And I don't mind a good "If you run, I'll follow" comment/scene, but it only needs to happen once or twice, it shouldn't happen every time a new conversation starts.

Jade frustrated me. It felt like the author was trying for a tough/strong FMC but Jade came across as arrogant and honestly naïve. Her comments/thoughts about "Oh, I'm such a great actress! I just had to pretend to be weak and Caine did my bidding" were kind of weird, especially since all her crying was ridiculous. Even when he was still trying to figure her out, the crying didn't do any good. There were also a lot of hints that she was clearly not doing this for all the aboveboard reasons, but I figured out her secret from the freaking summary. Although the way that her fear of sharks was used to get her to kind of walk away was a little o.O to me. Especially since she basically resisted up until the very last second because "that's who she was". I did like how protective she was of Nathan and Colin, even if her methods left a little to be desired.

vyadkins's review against another edition

definitely old school but very much a fun little romp

justpurelovelybooks's review against another edition

3.0

slow-paced

tarheeltegan's review against another edition

3.0

This was definitely my favorite Garwood book so far. I liked that Caine and Jade seemed to be more equals, and that he wasn't as brooding/annoying as some of the other protagonists of her historical books. I liked how smart and self-sufficient Jade was, and I liked the pirates and other side characters, and of course Sterns! He was the best.

saettab's review against another edition

3.0

I was looking for something light and mindless to read while travelling, and I found it here. I'm noticing a trend when reading Julie Garwood books where the heroine is "sensible" and borderline nagging while the hero is macho alpha nonsense and basically bullies the heroine to the altar and gets everything he wants.

I just had a hard time believing

Spoiler

Jade was Pagan

. Given all the ridiculous things that the heroine completely overlooks or fails to do, I just can't fathom that anything she did was an act.

Rant:

Spoiler

If the heroine PHYSICALLY RUNS AWAY FROM YOU, BEGS YOU TO STOP TOUCHING HER, OR GIVES BASICALLY CONSTANT SIGNS THAT SHE'S NOT INTERESTED, you should probably believe her. But no, it's a romance novel so sometimes saying no means yes and that's okay. If all novels were like this, I'd probably get over it, but there are some real quality ones out there!

This book has some funny moments that made me chuckle, especially the last couple of pages. Despite my rant and concerns about the heroine/hero, I think the book was exactly what I needed to stay entertained and turn my brain off for a couple of days. So if you're looking for something like that, this could be perfect.