A review by bribreez
Guarded Love by Emery Paige

lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0

*Thank you Emery Paige for providing me with an ARC of this book, much appreciated. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

4⭐️/ 3🌶️

This series has shown me a variety in unique couples, characters, and storylines. With this story following, Knox’s sister, Willow, and Knox’s best friend/ teammate, Blaise, it was a story I was really curious to see how it would all unfold. With found family, brother’s best friend, and he falls first, forced proximity, this was a good story. 

Admittedly, when I started reading, it took me a bit to really get into the book and to see why Willow and Blaise were the way they were. Although, with the flashback to two years ago, that scene really cleared things up as to why Willow was always so distant and argumentative with Blaise following that time. In some ways, I could agree with Willow that whatever she and Blaise did was of no one else’s concern as to why they shouldn’t have tried being together (*at first two years ago), I could also see why Blaise put a pause on him potentially having a relationship or something with Willow when they had that certain moments years ago. 

I feel like before this book, we had gotten some hints about Blaise and Willow especially in the previous book in this series, and I was so excited to see how their story played out. Now, having read the story I feel like I got to really understand what led Willow and Blaise to initially not being together, but also how they unexpectedly got the opportunity to further develop their connection that really truly went away. Blaise really was in deep for Willow and I can never get enough of seeing that in romance books. Blaise was understanding, thoughtful, and considerate when it came to Willow. Despite Willow initially keeping her distance from Blaise, even she couldn’t help the way she found herself looking at him, or knowing details she knew about him. Willow and Blaise’s story was one that took a bit of time to develop, but by the end of the book, it really ended on a happy note. 

Another thing I appreciated about this book was the way Emery wrote about Blaise’s anxiety and Willow’s ADHD. While I don’t personally know what’s it like to have ADHD, I felt like I was able to better understand Blaise since I too sometimes struggle with anxiety. The way Blaise always had to have everything organized, prepared, and ready to go was accurate in some ways since having that mindset can help in dealing with the looming thoughts of not having everything go according to plan. To some, this may not seem like a big deal, but it was something that I really did like being part of the story as it also revealed a lot of how both Blaise and Willow dealt with things.

Overall, I liked this book and aspects of it, but I wouldn’t say it was my favorite out of the series. There were some parts that really caught my attention and others that kind of fell flat for me. The things that I state in this review aren’t meant to be mean, just my honest thoughts, how I felt when I read this book, and some very small constructive criticism. I liked both Blaise and Willow, but they unfortunately weren’t my favorite out of the series. Maybe for other readers, they’ll enjoy this book a lot more than I did which would be great. If anything with the way this book ended, I’m still excited to continue with this series and read Wilder’s story. 
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