Story for the Week
I don’t know many women who don’t like a good romantic comedy. I’m sure they exist. Heck, I’m sure I have some friends who wouldn’t sit through one. But I love a good rom-com. Do they idealize relationships? Yup. Do they create unrealistic expectations? Sure. Do they make me smile and feel good anyway? Absolutely!
Corinne enjoys them too, although it used to take some convincing to get her to watch one. But I realized how invested she gets in movie romances when we were watching The Greatest Showman (not a rom-com, I know). The first time we watched it, Corinne spent a lot of time on her phone…or so I thought. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll recognize the scene. (If you haven’t, what are you waiting for?) Zac Efron and Zendaya had just finished performing “Rewrite the Stars.” They were standing inches apart. Then I heard it. “Kiss her” in a half-whisper. Was this my 12-year-old daughter rooting for the romance? Indeed it was. 😍
Since then, I’ve introduced her to quite a few of my favorites: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Clueless, Blast from the Past, Legally Blonde, Notting Hill. She’s also seen New Year’s Eve, which she enjoyed but it gave her a fear of getting stuck in elevators. And there are so many more out there. Almost anything with Meg Ryan, Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant. Heck, I would even classify Tangled as a romantic comedy if you really think about it.
I think what I like about them is that they’re fun and sweet, and you know there’s going to be a happy ending. You know the main characters are going to get together. Sure, they’re going to fight and break up in the middle of it. That’s the formula. But they always find their way back…because that’s also the formula.
So now I have to start making a list of all of the rom-coms I want to introduce to Corinne: When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail, Prelude to a Kiss, The Proposal, Pretty Woman, Sleepless in Seattle, Runaway Bride…. We could be here a long time.
In the meantime, if they make a movie of the book I reviewed below, I think Chris Hemsworth and Emma Watson might make good leads. And I could totally see Kate Winslet as a middle-aged, corgi-breeding stalker. 🤔 But you should read the book first because…well, you can, and the book is always better anyway.
Enjoy! This one is a lot of fun.
Book Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5 Stars for The Bodyguard by Katherine Center
320 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication Date: July 19, 2022
I received an advance copy of this title from NetGalley and Delacorte Press in exchange for an honest review.
Publisher’s Description
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.
************
The publisher’s description lays out the story here pretty well, including the two main characters. Hannah Brooks, executive protection agent (aka “bodyguard”), is assigned to Jack Stapleton, super-hot megastar. Of course they’re going to fall in love, but the joy is in the journey. 🥰
The story is narrated by Hannah, confident in her work, independent, knows what she wants in her career…also just lost her mother and got dumped by her boyfriend (another bodyguard) the day after the funeral. So things are already a little chaotic when she’s tasked with protecting Jack. To top it off, her ex keeps insisting that she’s not right for the assignment because she doesn’t look the part of a celebrity girlfriend. Talk about hitting a girl when she’s down and trying to crush what’s left of her self-esteem!
Everything kicks into high gear when Jack’s mother insists that Jack and Hannah stay with them until Thanksgiving, which is four weeks away. Hannah begins to see the real Jack, and he’s the happiest and most relaxed he’s ever been. She learns what it’s like to be part of a family, something she never really had.
We all know a happily ever after is coming.
What I loved about this book was Hannah’s voice. It’s Hannah who describes herself as looking like a kindergarten teacher. (At a later point in the book, Jack actually calls her “Stumpy.”) She says, “I could kill you with a wine bottle opener, by the way. Or a ballpoint pen. Or a dinner napkin. But I’m not going to. Because if things ever get to the point where I have to kill you, I haven’t done my job.”
She also narrates about Jack as if he’s a real person…like we’re not reading a novel. Hannah is telling us, the readers, the story of her and Jack and assuming we’ve seen all his movies.
“Do you remember how he cried in The Destroyers?”
“Add to that: Jack Stapleton knew how to dance. You saw American Rhythm, right? Where he played a ballroom dancer?”
And Hannah is a great storyteller.
Hannah learned a lot about herself through her experience with Jack, and she offers up those lessons, sometimes at her own expense. Because she also learned a lot about the people she gave her time and effort to who didn’t deserve it. Hannah is the type of person I would sit with telling stories over a bottle of wine…or two (maybe three).
A fantastic summer read!
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