Hannah Brooks is an executive protection agent. A bodyguard. Hannah may look like a kindergarten teacher on the outside, but she’s highly trained and highly alert. And her life is mostly put together. Until it falls apart. Hannah is assigned to guard movie star Jack Stapleton, an on-screen hero she’s gawked at and maybe even fantasized about from afar. But the actor will be nothing like the characters he portrays, right? Much to Hannah’s dismay, Jack seems even nicer in real life than he does on screen. Surely he’s just acting, but she finds herself falling for him.

Jack has his own troubles. Nightmares, a shady past situation that ended in tragedy, and threats to his safety. He’s estranged from his brother, and his mom’s days may be numbered. He doesn’t want a bodyguard, but he grudgingly accepts. To keep his family from worrying, Jack pretends Hannah is his new girlfriend. Hannah may be guarding him, but is she also guarding her heart?

I expected this book to be cozy and witty, and it was. What I didn’t expect was to find any depth. I thought it would be a quick, warm-fuzzies read, and it was, but the main characters were vibrant and realistic. The prose was clever. The plot was deeper than it first appeared to be. I loved this book as a fun escapist read, but I also grew to love the main characters. I was surprised by plot twists. I adored Jack’s mom as a secondary character. The only thing I could’ve done without was some strong language. In a book that’s meant to be cozy, I think a few words starting with d and sh would have been better than words starting with f and J. The language makes the book lose a star for me. All in all, this was a fun, witty read, and I enjoyed the story and the writing style. This is the first book I’ve read by Katherine Center, but it probably won’t be the last. The Bodyguard gets a solid 4 stars from me.

A complimentary copy of this book was provided by St. Martin's Press through NetGalley. The opinions I have expressed are my own.