HER BODYGUARD

Author: Geralyn Dawson ISBN: 037377043X 6/2005 HISTORICAL Publisher: HQN
Time Period: 1888

Dear Friends, I thought it was nonsense when the palm reader told me and my sisters that we'd been born with a bad luck love line. I paid no mind to her claim that only the truest love could overcome the family curse. After all, I was a reformed McBride Menace—it wouldn't do for me to believe in such foolishness! Better I had listened. Now our family faces its biggest crisis ever, and I've had to turn for help to the most notorious man in town. Luke Garrett was born to be a hero—it's such a puzzle that he ended up an outlaw. Maybe I'm foolish to trust a mysterious, alluring gunslinger to protect me as I pursue this vital quest. I don't care that Luke has secrets—I'm willing to take the risk. As I travel the badlands of Texas, I'll trust him to guard my person. It's up to me to protect my heart. If only Luke didn't appeal to the Menace in me... Wish me good luck...I think I'll need it!

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

In HER BODYGUARD, Geralyn Dawson gives us a lead couple with enough sparks and chemistry to set a building on fire, a believable fast-paced plot and great secondary characters. What more could anyone ask for in a book?

Mari McBride is known around town as the "McBride Menace" along with her two sisters Emma and Kat. However, once becoming an adult, that is just not acceptable anymore. She is determined to make herself respectable in the eyes of her community, so she sets out to open her own business of making and selling sweets. Everything is going just fine until Luke Garrett walks back into town—an outlaw with a shady past.

When one of Mari’s sisters is presumed dead in a fire, Mari sets off on an impromptu tour of Texas with one sexy Luke Garrett in tow. She is determined to find out the truth of what happened the night of the fire. It is so incredibly humorous to watch Mari trick Luke into going along on her journey with her—the best part of it all is how he never realizes that he has been had until after the fact!

While they embark on a wild journey full of bandits, wild animals, and crazy people, they also embark on a journey of discovery—discovery about Luke’s past, Mari’s sister and their love for one another. It is not hard at all to picture this strong, handsome, bossy man falling madly in love with this courageous, selfless, loving woman. Their relationship took on a life of its own as the book progressed, and I couldn’t have been happier about watching as it all unfolded.

A lot of HER BODYGUARD is centered on the truly fine things that love has to offer—a night of warmth wrapped in another’s arms, a family that can’t function with one of its links missing, a woman or man willing to give their lives for the love of the other—all the things that we at times can forget along the way. There is also plenty of humor in this book, and Mari finds herself in some very sticky situations due to her stubborn nature, but with Luke on her side she seems to always come out on top.

HER BODYGUARD is a great treasure of a book that will stay with me for a long time. I look forward to picking up the other Bad Luck Brides books and digging into them in the near future.

Kristal Gorman