The Bodyguard By Katherine Center Review

Foremost, I would like to think NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader’s copy of the audiobook.

On a side note, I don’t do book reviews any very much anymore because I just don’t have the time to read and the only way I get any “reading” done is to listen to audiobooks.

Let’s address the narration. The narration was most excellent. In fact, I think if I had been reading the book the protagonist would not have been as likable if I had not been listening to the audiobook because the narrator Patti Murin made the book for me.

Let’s move onto the book itself. I have written a blog posted with viral about How To Walk Away. I read Things You Save In A Fire and What You Wish For, and I loved these books.

Why did I love them? Because they were rich in details about the characters. Their past was relatable. You had enough information about the protagonist that it made you cry when you read their painful memories. It helped with the character development.

The problem with The Bodyguard is it’s lacking that. I’m not saying that the book isn’t good. It’s lacking the rich details that were in Katherine Center’s previous books that made you feel something. You don’t know enough about Hannah and Jack. You’ve got some details here and there, but it was just wasn’t enough. The reveal for Jack’s most painful memory that we needed to know was too late in the book.

I teared up at maybe two points, and that was it. Katherine Center books usually have me sobbing and weeping to where I’m going through tissues like crazy and this did not happen with The Bodyguard. I just didn’t feel for the character. It entertained me for sure, but I was not feeling for the character.

Despite lacking rich details, the story was fun, and it flowed quickly. It was too much of a romance book for my liking. It’s almost as if they envisioned this being adapted into a movie already and wanted it to be like the perfect romantic comedy.

Long story short, this flows like a Hallmark movie. There’s honestly nothing funny in this book. I think that’s the problem with it. If there was some comic relief, it would’ve balanced things out a bit more. Instead, you get this character that’s been through all this trauma and instead of feeling sorry for her and feeling like you could empathize with her, you can’t. Because you don’t know enough about Hannah to feel invested in Hannah.

And Jack you do not really know enough about him until it’s too late in the book and by then you’re not that invested in his character.

It pains me to leave this review because honestly Katherine Center’s previous books made me cry. I could totally relate to those characters. Honestly, I found the previous books to be entertaining, and I couldn’t put them down and when I did I went to pick them back up again as soon as possible. I actually went two or three days at one point where I didn’t listen to The Bodyguard audiobook, and that just says a lot.

I give this book four out of five stars solely because it is entertaining in the narration was very good. Once again, if I was reading an actual hard copy of the book, I might not have nicer things to say. The narrator made the book. She made Hannah better.

I have noticed that with some books that the audiobook version is leaps and bounds better than the actual book because the narrator makes an ok book great, and I think this is one of those cases.