Amy J. Fetzer

The Unlikely Bodyguard is a slightly older, stand-alone, contemporary, category romance that’s been on my TBR list for quite some time now. I can’t recall where I first learned about it, but I’m kind of a sucker for bodyguard romances, so that might be how it landed on my list. Calli is the head chef for a designer pastry company who’s spent most of her life being pegged as a goody-two-shoes. Her boss and fellow male chefs are too overprotective toward her, so when she’s sent on vacation, instead of going to the corporate villa in Mexico, she heads to New Mexico, looking for a little danger and adventure. Calli gets a bit more than she bargained for when she goes to a couple of seedy bars, attracting the wrong kind of attention. Twice she’s rescued by bad boy rancher, Gabe Griffin, who is known to the patrons of those establishments by his old street name, Angel. When her hotel room gets ransacked and she loses most of her cash and credit cards, Gabe suggests that she spend her vacation cooking at his ranch, an offer she accepts. The two grow closer, but little does Calli know that Gabe has actually been hired in his other capacity as a private investigator by her boss to look out for her welfare, protect her recipes from corporate sabotage, and recover an office memo she accidentally took which contains information that might upset her. When she learns the truth, it may put their budding romance in jeopardy.

As a small child, Calli was abandoned on the steps of an orphanage where she was raised by nuns. As a result of her upbringing, everyone around her, particularly the men in her life, think she’s an untouchable good girl who needs protecting. Tired of her overbearing boss and male co-workers hovering, she decides to kick up her heels on vacation. However, she’s nearly attacked on two different occasions and later almost kidnapped by a guy who’s trying to get his hands on her recipe journal, but each time Gabe seems to be there to rescue her. She’s very attracted to the dashing bad boy, so when her hotel room is tossed, she accepts his offer to stay at his ranch for the remainder of her vacation. Despite the rather primitive living conditions there, she takes joy in cooking for Gabe and his ranch hands, and gradually she starts to fall for Gabe who is good at projecting a bad boy veneer but underneath has a heart of gold. But when Calli discovers that Gabe has been working for her boss all along, she can’t help being upset by his deception, and when he doesn’t seem willing to fight for their relationship or love her in return, she leaves even though it breaks her heart. Initially I wasn’t too sure about Calli, because in the opening chapters, she seemed to border on TSTL in the way that she goes into bars, flirting with dangerous-looking men just for a thrill. A part of me understood where she was coming from, but it just didn’t seem like the best way to go about shedding her good-girl image. Later we learn that she can take care of herself rather handily, which might have been nice to know earlier so that I’d have perhaps had a better impression of her actions. Once she’s with Gabe on his ranch, I liked her a lot more for her sunny personality in spite of her background, for her forgiving nature, and for the way that she loves and cares for Gabe.

Gabe’s backstory is even more heartbreaking than Calli’s, and because of it, he’s a classic damaged hero. He spent a number of years on the streets, and when his life as a cat-burglar caught up to him, his victim, who happens to be Calli’s boss, generously offered him a second chance. He wisely took it and has since turned his life around, buying a small ranch that’s slowly starting to turn a profit, but to supplement his ranching activities, he works on the side as a private investigator. When Calli’s boss asks him to look out for her and to get back the company memo that he worries will really upset Calli, Gabe feels he owes the guy and can’t reveal his true purpose to her even when he worries it may ruin the good thing they’ve been building. Gabe has never truly known love in his life and doesn’t think he’s anywhere near good enough for a woman like Calli, so he never expected to genuinely fall for her or want more for the first time in his life. He doesn’t even know if he’s capable of loving someone in return, so when things go south between them when she learns the truth, he thinks he’s getting what he deserves. I love a good tortured hero and Gabe is definitely one of those. He almost lets the best thing that ever happened to him slip through his fingers because he doesn’t feel worthy of her love. Given how heartbreaking his past is, though, it totally made sense. I think he senses a kindred spirit in Calli, so I’m glad that he finally came around and was able to accept her love and let himself be vulnerable with her.

Overall, The Unlikely Bodyguard was a pretty good story, but I felt like the setup for the plot was maybe a little thin. Perhaps the designer pastry business is more cutthroat than I would have imagined, but the lengths to which the villain goes to get Calli’s recipes seemed a little extreme. Also he ultimately didn’t have a lot of teeth, so while there’s some mild danger, the stakes aren’t super high. This being the case, what saved the story for me and earned it four stars are the characterizations and the romance. I thought that Calli and Gabe’s backstories, how those things still affect them in the present, and their actions/reactions were very well done, making perfect sense to me. Because of the similarities in their respective pasts, they relate to one another and fit together like two peas in a pod. At the same time, they’re opposites in personalities with Calli being the sunny, optimistic one, while Gabe is the tortured loner, so this, too, make them a perfect fit. Their romance develops naturally with Calli showing support toward Gabe even when he’s being rather grumpy and Gabe desperately wanting more but not feeling worthy. There’s also plenty of sexual tension from the moment they meet, leading all the way up to some deliciously steamy encounters. So in spite of a few plot weaknesses, I did find this to be an enjoyable read. The Unlikely Bodyguard was originally published in the Silhouette Desire romance line, but was later reprinted in the special Silhouette Marry Me, Cowboy series of reissued favorites.… (lisätietoja)

Terrific book. I loved the inclusion of the Old Ways of Ireland, bits of its magical past, and the respect that the author shows it all. Fionna is the daughter of the previous holder of GleannTaise Castle. Ten years earlier, she was banished from her home after falling in love and using her magick in ways that were against the rules. At the same time, a curse fell over the land, causing the earth to wither and a perpetual cloud to cover it.

I ached for Fionna, who loves her people and her home. Because of the banishment, she is an outcast among them, even when she uses her healing abilities to help them. She has a five-year-old daughter, Sinead, who is being raised by friends because Fionna fears what would happen if people knew Sinead was hers. To further complicate matters, the English king gave her home to one of his knights, the very one whose life she saved years earlier. She never forgot him or the feelings he stirred in her.

Raymond is appreciative of his reward from the king, but the headaches it causes are countless. He was ordered to restore the castle and prepare for its defense. He was also commanded to take an Irish bride to cement his position. Marriage is the last thing on his mind while the castle is in disarray, and it is about to move even further down the list.

I loved the first meeting here of Raymond and Fionna. To protect some children from being run down by galloping horses, she used her magick to stop them, causing one rider to fall off. That rider was Raymond, who was furious at what she did. She is equally angry at what she sees as his recklessness and doesn't hold back as she tells him so. It doesn't take long for him to recognize her as the one who saved his life, and also remember her claim of being a witch. Raymond doesn't believe in magick and holds a "witch" responsible for his mother's death. But neither can deny the sparks that fly between them.

I enjoyed the development of the relationship between Fionna and Raymond. It is a stormy one, as Raymond refuses to admit to the reality of what she is, and Fiona will not give herself to someone who will not accept her as she is. Raymond's refusal to believe in magick and the old ways puts him at odds with the people as he rides roughshod over their traditions. Fionna tries to show him the error of his ways, but he refuses to see what is in front of him. I enjoyed their confrontations, even though I frequently wanted to shake him for being so stubborn. I had to laugh when one of his knights arranged for the arrival of a bunch of potential brides, and Raymond found himself hunted from morning until night.

Then the sentence of Fionna's banishment came to an end, and she was able to enter the castle once again. I loved the effect she had on everyone around her, as her natural leadership made a significant difference. It was fun to watch Raymond fight against his feelings for Fionna, while she tried to break through his stubborn refusal to admit the truth. I loved seeing them finally come together and confess to their feelings. I especially loved the side effects of their passion for each other and the reactions of those around them.

However, fate does not make things easy for them. There is someone out there who is wreaking havoc on Raymond's lands, destroying and killing indiscriminately. The tension mounted throughout the book as the attacks increased in frequency and viciousness. Matters come to a head when both Sinead and Fionna are taken by an unforeseen enemy. I was on the edge of my seat as Raymond raced to save them. An exciting twist provided help from an unexpected source. The final confrontation was intense and emotional. The epilogue provided a nice wrap-up for the book.

The secondary characters were as interesting as the main ones. Fionna's daughter, Sinead, tops the list. Even though she is only five, it is evident that she has inherited her mother's abilities. She is sweet and loving, but also mischievous and impulsive, which gets her into frequent trouble. She also wiggled her way into Raymond's heart, and there were some adorable scenes between the two of them. Fionna's cousin Connal is also the son of Raymond's best friend. He comes to Raymond for fostering, anxious to become a squire, then a knight. Connal is big for his age but still young and frustrated by Raymond's refusal to start his training immediately. Connal also finds himself the subject of Sinead's adoration. The last thing a twelve-year-old boy wants is a little girl tagging after him, and their confrontations are highly amusing. Raymond's knights all have their unique places. Alec ended up in hot water because of the whole bride thing, but he was always there to back Raymond up when necessary. Nikolai was an interesting character. A prince of Kiev, but with no homeland any longer, he has a fair amount of pride. I loved his interactions with one of the potential brides and how that worked out for him later.

It wasn't until I was well into this book that I discovered it was the second book in a trilogy. I have already ordered the other two books and can't wait to read them. The first is the story of Fionna's friend Siobhan and the knight that Raymond worked for. There are things referred to in this book that occurred in the first book, so I am anxious to read the backstory. I am especially looking forward to the third book, which is the story of Connal and Sinead and seems to be as wild a story as this one was.… (lisätietoja)