Genre: Chick Lit

Am I going soft or slowly becoming a romcom fan? We’ll revisit this another day but here today I loved the The Bodyguard. Right out of the gate Hannah Brooks is a stellar protag that’s hilarious to read. I tend to be critical of romance novels as I often have problems with tone and the internal character voice being gratingly overdramatic, but The Bodyguard had me constantly chuckling and smiling. Hannah is still overdramatic but her self-awareness of how dumb she’s acting coupled with snappy humor keeps things fresh and engaging. The first half reminded me of a hypothetical modern cross between Miss Congeniality and the Proposal (the fish out of water tale of competent and professional woman and the fake dating for family tropes). And that alone would make it a fun yet cliched read. What really sold me on this book is the perfect balance between the focal romance between Hannah and Jack and the overarching plot of the personal protection service and threats made against Jack’s life. I often find romance novels have an uneven emphasis between the two parts or ping pong back and forth abruptly, however this one effortlessly incorporates both. The personal protection bodyguard…

Not sure if it’s because I’ve watched endless true crime documentaries, procedural dramas like Criminal Minds and Mindhunter, or I just have high standards for the murder mystery genre, but A Flicker in the Dark did not catch or hold my attention. I felt like I was coasting while reading the first 1/3 of the book and the overall reading experience went downhill the farther I progressed through the story. Most of my negative impression can be chalked up to Chloe Davis’s personality and trauma attributed to her upbringing and exposure to the media/local community associated with her Dad’s arrest. I liked the concept of her backstory and how it affected her mindset, career choices, and paranoia, however the execution felt clunky and off-putting. I hate to stereotype novels into specific demographics, but the Chloe’s monologue skewed so heavily toward a female audience I felt like I was being beaten over the head repeatedly for 100 pages about how dangerous and unfair life can be for an independent woman. Her character’s personality and background as a psychologist with a phd also constantly conflicted with the choices she makes and thoughts she has. The book makes an attempt to highlight anxiety…

I am obviously far from the target reader demographics this book is intended for but I still found it to be an pleasant, if not predictable read. It’s a comforting feel-good romance novel ironically focusing on a protag who believes love is dead after being betrayed and taken advantage of by a insensitive ex/aspiring author. I’m not a typical fan of the romance novel genre so take my opinions with a grain of salt, but I picked this up based on intriguing synopsis and the extended pun on “romance is dead.” Also the concept of a ghostwriter having to write a novel while in the presence of a ghost of her editor, genius. Despite my initial excitement for the book’s concept and plot, majority of the time I wished the novel dug a little deeper (get it-) into the themes of coping with loss, healing from betrayal (both romantically and socially) and returning to one’s roots. I acknowledge the primary purpose of this book is the romance, but during some of the quieter moments it often showed signs of being something more profound and touching making it all the more frustrating when it settles for skimming the surface of these…