The Bodyguard Affair, Amy Lea (Review by Caitlin Winkler)

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Romance books have become a real favorite genre of mine. While I prefer a HEA and am very disappointed when a book deviates from that, I also really enjoy the books I read to feel fresh and new in some aspect. The Bodyguard Affair by Amy Lea felt like something different from anything I had read previously, and I really appreciated that aspect. I loved the topics that the characters struggled with (hello people pleasing my old friend J ). I loved that the characters felt more mature and established.

Andi and Nolan first meet at a bar during what can only be consider a failed one-night stand. Fast forward years later and Andi, secret romance author by night and assistant to the prime minister’s wife by day, runs into Nolan-the new PM’s bodyguard, at work. When Andi’s newest self-published story takes off and everyone believes her to be having an affair with the Prime Minister, she does the only sensible thing and pretends to be in a relationship with his bodyguard. Nolan agrees to date for the summer as it will help him too with his mom, who is slowing losing her memories to dementia. This should be the perfect, no strings attached, win/win for them both! But what happens when a fictional relationship starts to feel real?

I really wanted to rate this book higher, as there were aspects that I really enjoyed. However, overall, there was just something missing for me in this book. I found the first half of this story to feel quite slow at times. While I am all for a slow-burn romance, I just found that the two main characters did not really seem that interested in each other, and it lacked depth into caring about them as a unit. So, when the moment finally happened, I was left somewhat underwhelmed and found the last 100 pages to feel rushed. There were aspects of this story that I loved, but I just couldn’t get passed how rushed the actual romance part of this book felt near the end.