Title: Guarded
Author: Kayla White
Release Date and Publisher: April 2017, Self-Published
Date Finished: April 16, 2017
Star Rating: ★★★.5
Synopsis:
Watching over some crazy rich chick seems like a good stop gap from the army. She has no desire to do anything other than get wasted enough to forget.
Parker
Is she for real?
I cannot deal with her bullshit.
This woman has no idea what real life is, it is time for a reality check. Not all of us can have everything paid for. Some of us have to work.
I would much rather be back in the army. She’s impossible to deal with.
But not when she steps closer to me, right into my personal space. I can feel her breath tickling my cheek as she speaks.
My heart is thundering, my body shuddering and trembling, there is a stirring inside my underwear that I really need to ignore if I have any hope of getting through this with any intact dignity.
Hannah
I hate this guy. Why can’t he go? Why does my dad think I need a guard?
Hot blood boils around by body, my temper is burning from the top of my head to my little toes.
How dare my dad do this to me?
If I am going to win this, I would have to throw all images of his body right out of my brain. I will focus on his horrible personality instead.
This wouldn’t be too difficult, would it?
Guards don’t hook up with rich chicks.
But not Parker – he finds himself tumbling into an abyss.
Once he’s in, there might not be a way out again.
My Review:
[I received an ARC ebook copy from the author in exchange for an honest review]
[Review of this is also posted on my Goodreads
Guarded is about a grief-stricken female lead named Hannah and the bodyguard that her father assigned to look after her, Parker. Because of her mother’s death and her father’s hectic schedule, Parker was hired to look after Hannah since she’s the girl who partied hard and gets in serious trouble after every night. The two basically had a hate-first-love-last relatioship throughout the book.
I’m giving this book a 3.5 star rating instead of a 4 star rating. Here are the reasons why.
CONS
1. Hannah irritated me to death! I usually don’t hate a character, especially the lead ones at the beginning of the book, but I’m making an exception for Hannah. Sure, she had her reasons for acting out like that throughout the whole book, but some scenes were just pretty pathetic and stupid of her. The major of the time I really wanted to strangle her and shake her out of her funk. She had a few redeeming qualities, like how she finally pulled her head out of a very bad relationship, but mostly the bad qualities outweighted my opinion of her.
2. The flow of the plot was a bit too fast and not fluid enough. I didn’t notice it at first until I reached around the middle. I was reading one whole chapter where they were really hating each other, and then suddenly they tease each other, and then another chapter was when they were being friends. I really got confused and had to skip back a few pages to make sure I read everything right.
3. The love story between Hannah and Parker was just too fast and too shallow for me. One moment they hated each other, and then a few chapters later, they are already admitting that they are in love with each other. I don’t know if it’s their sexual chemistry or the time that passed between them that made them fall in love, but I just did not get it at all, and I’m not a huge fan (so sorry!)
but those are the only reasons why I didn’t like or hated the book!
PROS
1. I love love love Parker. He’s not the typical alpha-male I was used to, especially since he’s in the military, and I’ve read a lot of NA novels that have an ex-military alpha male in them. He was both hardcore but soft, persistent but constant. I definitely enjoyed Parker’s POVs more than Hannah’s. He was the sole sounding voice in the whole book, which made me enjoy it.
2. The sexy scenes are really sexy. I don’t need to elaborate on this further.
3. The writing is great! The plot may not be the greatest thing about it, but I loved the way the author described everything in detail, leaving nothing out, and words just turned into pictures in my head. I also love how the characters’ personalities were written to the T. It’s a short novel, but a greatly written one. Just needs some improvements on the plot.
Over-all, I may not be loving or hating it, but it was an enjoyable read.
I’m excited to read what else Kayla White has in store!
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