The Bodyguard

She’s got his back.
Hannah Brooks looks more like a kindergarten teacher than somebody who could kill you with a wine bottle opener. Or a ballpoint pen. Or a dinner napkin. But the truth is, she’s an Executive Protection Agent (aka "bodyguard"), and she just got hired to protect superstar actor Jack Stapleton from his middle-aged, corgi-breeding stalker.

He’s got her heart.
Jack Stapleton’s a household name—captured by paparazzi on beaches the world over, famous for, among other things, rising out of the waves in all manner of clingy board shorts and glistening like a Roman deity. But a few years back, in the wake of a family tragedy, he dropped from the public eye and went off the grid.

They’ve got a secret.
When Jack’s mom gets sick, he comes home to the family’s Texas ranch to help out. Only one catch: He doesn’t want his family to know about his stalker. Or the bodyguard thing. And so Hannah—against her will and her better judgment—finds herself pretending to be Jack’s girlfriend as a cover. Even though her ex, like a jerk, says no one will believe it.

What could possibly go wrong???
Hannah hardly believes it, herself. But the more time she spends with Jack, the more real it all starts to seem. And there lies the heartbreak. Because it’s easy for Hannah to protect Jack. But protecting her own, long-neglected heart? That’s the hardest thing she’s ever done.

I’m hit or miss with romances but I generally like the tropes of fake dating and regular people dating rich or famous people, so The Bodyguard‘s premise seemed like my kind of story. In execution though, it really didn’t work for me.

I was kind of bored much of the time, and it was really hard for me to buy into it. No one really felt like a real character to me: they were mostly flat caricatures, e.g. View Spoiler »the ex-boyfriend who hooks up with Hannah’s best friend after dumping her after her mother’s funeral but then inexplicably wants to get her back; the stuck up Hollywood bombshell who wants Jack and who literally asks a barbecue full of people who they would rather date between herself and Hannah and makes everyone answer. « Hide Spoiler It all came across as so cheesy and over the top and I simply didn’t enjoy it.

I did like Hannah’s job as an Executive Protection Agent, and the banter between Hannah and Jack was cute at times. But overall this one wasn’t for me.