Book Review, Favorites, Romance Review

Review: A Brooding Bodyguard by Angela Casella

It’s not easy being famous. Okay, you already hate me…can we start over?

Sinclair
I’m Sinclair Jones, best known for playing a woman ten years younger than me on TV. Or at least I was until I quit my job and moved to Asheville.

I came here to find myself. Instead, I tried—and failed—at a bunch of hobbies before landing a gig I don’t suck at: being the fake girlfriend of a reality TV outdoorsman. Our arrangement is great for my image—and his—but there’s been an unwanted side-effect.

I have a stalker, and he’s escalating.

Luckily, the Fairy Godmother Agency, a husband and wife P.I. team, have signed on to help me find my stalker. Unluckily, everyone has insisted I hire a bodyguard.

Rafe is obnoxious and opinionated, and he calls me Clay because I once threw a clay phallus at him. (Yes, literally.) I don’t want his help, and I especially don’t want this compulsion to keep checking out his arms.

Rafe
The last thing I want to do is follow around a TV starlet, but I’m in between jobs, and I have my reasons for taking this one. Still, I’m in hell, sitting in on manicures and book club meetings, and watching romcoms with a spoiled screen princess who’s surprisingly naïve for a millionaire.

But the more time I spend with Clay, the more desperate I am to protect her, because I’m falling for her charm—just like millions of other people have before me.


I absolutely love this series and this is easily my favorite story of the bunch. Sinclair Jones wasn’t the most likeable character when we met her in Marnie’s book but this book changed that. Here we meet the real Sinclair and she’s so much more than what we’d seen before. Her mother was so controlling that she practically brainwashed poor Sinclair, driving a deep wedge between her and her siblings in the process. While she and Marnie have gotten close again, she still feels a lot of distance between her and Drew, which pains her greatly.

Seeing the world through her eyes and getting inside of Sinclair’s head shows us that she’s not the person we all thought. She’s been groomed since childhood to focus entirely on image so the world perceives her as flawless because she’s not good enough as herself. Nothing could be further from the truth and her mother’s a monster but poor Sinclair had no idea until discovering what their mom did to poor Marnie. She’s struggling to find herself and simultaneously unlearn all the bad habits her momager drummed into her for decades, which isn’t easy.

A stalker is complicating her life even more and preventing her from truly living. It’s bad enough she has someone following her but things get so bad, she has to hire a bodyguard and ends up with none other than Rafe, the exhausting guy she hit with the clay banana. They’re not very fond of one another but he needs work and she needs protection, so they grudgingly accept the situation. But when her stalker ramps up the threats, Rafe moves in and things heat up.

He’s got his own problems, including a nightmare mother who’s left lasting scars so his self-esteem has taken some big hits. Falling in lust with a gorgeous celebrity doesn’t do much for his confidence, especially when he finds himself getting attached but she’s in a fake relationship with Edgar James. I loved watching these two helping each other fix the damage of their pasts while finding themselves. Their story is funny, sweet and steamy with plenty of suspense and quite a few suspects before the stalker’s caught. I loved everything about it. I received an ARC from Social Butterfly PR in exchange for an honest review.

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