Book Review: "The Bodyguard" by Katherine Center

She’s been hired to protect him, but she’s been protecting herself as well.

This was great!! Katherine Center’s newest book has nothing to do with the movie of the same name but I couldn’t resist singing the soundtrack. (It is what it is.)

She may not look it, but Hannah is an Executive Protection Agent (bodyguard) at the top of her game. After dealing with some personal issues, she gets an unusual assignment—protecting famous actor Jack Stapleton while he’s in Houston visiting his family.

Jack is one of the most recognizable (and handsome) actors, but after a family tragedy a few years ago, he dropped out of the public eye. He certainly doesn’t think he needs a bodyguard at first but his studio gives him no choice. The thing is, however, he doesn’t want his family to know he has stalkers, so he insists Hannah pretend to be his girlfriend. She doesn’t think anyone would believe Jack would date her—she’s a far cry from his other girlfriends—but he’s a good actor.

When she and Jack move into his family’s ranch, she must negotiate the tension between him and his brother. But more than that, the more time she spends with Jack, the more she starts to feel like she could be his real girlfriend—which is bad for the job, and bad for her heart. Is he falling for her, too, or is he acting?

I love the way Center tells a story, and even though this was fairly predictable, I was there for it all. These characters—Hannah, Jack, even the supporting characters—were terrific, and I was completely hooked. This would be a great movie!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance copy in exchange for an unbiased review!

Book Review: "What You Wish For" by Katherine Center

Life can bring you down, but you have the power to bring yourself up.

In Katherine Center's new book, What You Wish For, Samantha is a librarian at an experimental school. She loves her job—the students, her colleagues, all of it. But it took her a long time to find that place in her life.

“Dude, I’m not happy because it comes easily to me. I bite and scratch and claw my way toward happiness every day.”

When the board of the school hires a new principal, Sam is shocked to find out it’s Duncan Carpenter. She had an enormous crush on him while teaching at a different school years ago, but he never noticed her, which caused her to leave.

While no one wants a new principal, Sam feels confident because Duncan was always full of life, spontaneity, and joy when she worked with him. But that is not the Duncan that arrives at their school. This Duncan is buttoned-up, humorless, strict, and threatens to destroy everything that makes their school special.⁣

As the morale of the school and the teachers—and the future of the school itself—slips away, it’s up to Sam and her colleagues to take their school back. And at the same time, Sam must try to understand this new Duncan, and help him find his way back—without sacrificing herself or her own life in the process.

Katherine Center is such a terrific writer. Her ability to wring emotion and heart out of her characters is so amazing, and she does so again in this book. While at first I thought Sam was a little too goofy and naive, the more I read the more I understood what made her tick and how hard she fought for that goofiness.

When you read romances, you know what will happen, and ultimately, that’s one of the things I enjoy so much. Thanks to Center for bringing us another book to warm our hearts and perhaps, shed a tear or two.

Book Review: "Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating" by Christina Lauren

I've always enjoyed romantic comedies at the movies, but I've never really been a fan of them in book form. But sometime over the last year I found the writing duo that calls themselves Christina Lauren. I was absolutely wowed by Autoboyography (see my review) last year, and then earlier this year I fell for Love and Other Words (see my review), and that will be one of my favorite books of 2018.

Who is this man that I've become?

I don't know, but after reading their newest book, Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating, one thing is clear: I'm all in on the Christina Lauren fan train. Their books may be predictable at times, they may be a little sappy, but I don't care. They are I-wish-I-could-stay-in-this-chair-until-I-finish-this-book readable, and they're utterly heartwarming to boot.

Josh and Hazel have had more than a few meet-not-so-cutes. There was the time in college when Hazel threw up all over his shoes. Or the time when she was dating one of his roommates, and Josh walked in while the two were using the couch, although not for relaxation. And then there was the time when he was her TA, and she wasn't able to turn in a paper because she had to have her wisdom teeth removed, so she wrote him an email while on painkillers, an email he printed and framed.

Hazel is a third-grade teacher, and she may have more in common with her students than she cares to admit. She's a free spirit, eccentric, completely without filter, fun-loving, and not ashamed of anything. She is loyal, loving, and generous to a fault. She'd give you the shirt off her back—literally—but she knows that makes her a difficult romantic prospect. Josh, on the other hand, is a physical therapist, who craves order and calm.

"'I realize that finding the perfect person isn't going to be easy for me because I'm a lot to take,' she says, 'but I'm not going to change just so that I'm more datable.'"

When she and Josh meet again 10 years later, they know they aren't a suitable match romantically, but each grows enamored of the other as a friend. They happily settle into their role as best friends, and begin setting each other up on blind dates, with each one turning out a bit more disastrous than the last.

"The world seems full of men who are initially infatuated by our eccentricities, but who ultimately expect them to be temporary. These men eventually grow bewildered that we don't settle down into calm, potential-wifey girlfriends."

Of course, the more they try to find the perfect person for the other, the more they start to realize how intense their feelings are for each other. But how can they jeopardize the easy rapport, the casual, laid-back friendship they share? What happens if taking the next step is absolutely the worst thing they can do? Is life without Hazel (or Josh) the life they want?

"'But if you changed your mind about something like that,' Emily says, 'I think that's the one thing that could dim her light. We both know Hazel is a butterfly. I think you have the power to take the dust from her wings.'"

You probably know what will happen, and you'd be partly, or perhaps mostly, right. But the appeal of Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating doesn't lie in surprises, it lies in the utter charm of its characters, the utter warmth of its heart, the beauty of its message of being yourself no matter what, and, if I'm being honest, some pretty steamy sex scenes. I didn't want to tear myself away from this book because I couldn't get enough of it.

Some label Christina Lauren's books as "chick lit," and while perhaps as a whole they may appeal more to women than men, the term "chick lit" shouldn't be seen as an insult or somehow connoting they're not well-written. These books are sweet, warm, sexy, sensitive, emotional, and fun, and if that's a bad thing, I'll still line up for more. (Their next book comes out in December, so at least I won't have to wait long.)

Movie Review: "Closed Circuit"

Remember that line from Rockwell's 1980s hit with Michael Jackson, "I always feel like somebody's watching me"? At the start of Closed Circuit, you see camera after camera focused on what appears to be a regular day at London's Borough Market. Couples fight, friends gossip, parents reprimand their children, people walk through the crowds talking on their cell phones. A random panel truck pulls into an alley where it shouldn't be parked, but no one really suspects a problem. And then the truck explodes, killing 120 people.

A Turkish suspect, Farroukh Erdogan (Denis Moschitto), is arrested for masterminding the bombing, and awaits trial. Attorney Martin Rose (Eric Bana) is appointed to lead Erdogan's defense team after the first attorney's death. But because the government's case against Erdogan includes information so sensitive it could impact national security, Rose will not be able to hear this evidence; instead, a special advocate for the defense, Claudia Simmons-Howe (The Town's Rebecca Hall), will be the only one to hear the evidence and argue whether it should be used in the trial. There's one small problem: Martin and Claudia once had an affair, from which they both still bear emotional scars. And as you might imagine, the two attorneys swore there was no impediment to them working together.

The more Martin digs into the evidence surrounding his client the more he realizes the case against him is not what it seems, yet Erdogan has no plausible defense. Both he and Claudia grow ever more paranoid that they are being watched and manipulated, especially once they uncover a major aspect of the case. But where do you turn when it seems like everyone is watching you, everyone is trying to steer you away from doing what is right? How far will you take your principles, even if doing so may put you and those you care about in danger?

Closed Circuit is a highly intelligent thriller that seems scarily plausible given what we've learned about our governments over the years. While I always question thrillers in which the "bad guys" are always one step ahead, always know exactly what it is that is happening, the movie definitely kept me intrigued (if not completely buying all of it) from start to finish. With movies like these, you wonder just how the plot will tie itself up, and I wasn't disappointed here, even if I wasn't entirely surprised.

This movie works in large part because of the performances and the chemistry of Bana and Hall. Bana, while sexy as hell, has always struck me as a cerebral hero, which may be one reason his performance in Hulk didn't work as well, but that thoughtful passion and simmering rage works here. And I don't know why Rebecca Hall isn't a bigger star; she's proved her mettle using both her native British accent and gone American in movies such as Vicky Cristina Barcelona, plus she's gorgeous to boot. I loved the way these two played off of each other, and you could feel the emotional history between them.

I've been fairly vague in my plot synopsis because I don't want to give anything away. But suffice it to say Closed Circuit (which I keep referring to as Short Circuit, which is a wholly different film) is a complex, compelling, and well-acted movie that may stretch your plausibility meter a bit, but it's still worth a watch.