This RITA® Reader Challenge 2016 review was written by K N O'Rear. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Romantic Suspense category.
The summary:
About to take the bar exam after ending a five-year marriage that derailed her career plans and her life, Kate Kingston craves independence and a vacation. Somewhere warm with sea breezes, sunshine, sand…and no scary threats against her that have been showing up in her dad’s office. Barefoot Bay is the perfect place for some serenity while she studies and puts her life back together. But when she meets the brooding wall of muscle her father hired to protect her, Kate feels her hard won independence slipping away as fast as her resolve to avoid men who wield power over her.
Mixed martial arts trainer Alec Petrov has been on the run for a long time. Guarding a young attorney-to-be while pretending to be her husband is not a bad way to live off the grid, hidden from the Russian mobster who is hunting Alec with deadly intent. But Kate brings out a tender side Alec doesn’t understand, or believe he deserves, and he soon realizes that keeping them both safe is only half the challenge. Keeping his hands off her and his attraction under control will be every bit as difficult in the closed quarters of an exclusive resort.
When their make-believe honeymoon in paradise turns sensual, complicated, and dangerous, Alec and Kate realize it’s not just their lives that are in jeopardy, it’s their hearts. And they’ll have to fight to the end to save each other…and their love.
Here is K N O'Rear's review:
Barefoot with a Bodyguard by Roxanne St. Claire is made of my own personal catnip all over the place. Bodyguard crush? Check. Sweet hero with a dark and troubled past he’s trying to escape? Check. Damsel who refuses to stay distressed? Check. Two people who aren’t romantically involved going undercover as a couple? Check. The list goes on and every trope was extremely well written.
The basic set-up is that Kate Kingston is fresh out of emotionally abusive marriage, not to mention her dad, a judge, is getting several notes threatening Kate with death among other horrible things. For her safety and much to her annoyance, she’s being sent to Barefoot Bay, a resort for people to hide who can’t get into Witness Protection due to lack of evidence. She hopes to use the alone time to study for her upcoming bar exam. Unfortunately, her dad hired a bodyguard without telling her. The importance of agency and the struggle to obtain it after a traumatic past is a huge theme in the novel for both Kate and the hero, Alec. This struggle manifests in two different, but equally telling ways for each character. Kate refuses to be kept down, despite everyone telling her to just accept her fate, to the point of being dangerously reckless. Alec on the other hand feels unworthy of getting his agency back because of what he’s done under the control of others.
These two ways of coping appear immediately when they’re given the cover story they had no say in and told to not ask any question about each other’s real lives. Kate immediately rejects the unwanted control by telling Alec everything about her past, including her real name. He, on the other hand decides the safest thing to do is accept the fate he’s given, whether he likes it or not. As the story continues the reader learns that in a situation like theirs, it isn’t good to be too reckless or too complacent, and places them on opposite ends of the same plain. As a result, I believed 100% in their relationship and rooted for them the whole time because they balanced each other out so well. I believed they could fall in love, not to mention that they are just enjoyable characters to read about.
Kate is clever and even figures out half of Alec’s past and his real name simply by asking him questions and using deductive reasoning to make believable conclusions. She also knows what she wants and takes it to the best of her ability, while still having enough flaws to make her a well-rounded character. Alec on the other hand is all kinds of huggable and while he is an alpha hero, he’s definitely not a jerk. He also agonizes about his past and the bad choices he made. This got kind of annoying, but I think it is justified considering:
The love scenes in this book were also really good and contributed to the development of the two protagonists. There is only one full sex scene in the book and it’s towards the end. I thought it was a good narrative decision because jumping into bed too quickly would not fit the characters or make much sense considering their situation. That isn’t to say there weren’t any steamy scenes beforehand; there were, all sizzling with sexual tension that was just as important and well-written as the main sex scene. Not to mention before, after and throughout those scenes Alec and Kate communicated like adults, even if Alec takes forever to finally tell Kate everything he did while he worked for the Mafiya.
Besides the leads, the cast of supporting characters was great as well. My favorites were Nino, the owner of the resort’s dad and head chef. He’s a stereotypical Italian, which might bother some people, but I found him both hilarious and likable. He has a bit of a cooking rivalry with the Jamaican maid, Poppy, who also cooks while serving as Kate and Alec’s maid because she is one of the few people who can be trusted with knowing their actual history without knowing too much about their real life. I adored her and Nino’s rivalry subplot; it was definitely needed since the book is quite intense and serious. The rest of the supporting characters are just as layered, besides the villain, who is your typical gang leader who is evil for the sake of being evil. He was also fat for some reason, which I found a little unnecessary. The other villain of the story is just as flat, and a walking spoiler, so I won’t talk about him here.
The supporting cast is finished off with a couple minor antagonists who are bit rounder than the actual villains. They include: Kate’s dad, a pregnant and desperate teenager named Robyn, and Gabe Rossi, the owner of the resort. Gabe provides a subplot that unites all three books of the Barefoot Undercover series. While they exist mostly to cause conflict, their reasons for doing so, while a little extreme, make sense based on their situations. Both Robyn and Kate’s dad want what’s best for their kids and see no other choice but to go in an extreme direction. Both also realize they were in the wrong at the end. Gabe didn’t change as much, mainly because his story isn’t told completely yet. Despite this, I still sympathized with his plight, which I won’t spoil here.
Lastly, Barefoot with a Bodyguard is more of a thriller than a mystery and the two big reveals weren’t all that surprising, but they caught me off-guard enough that I don’t want to spoil them. Kate convinces Alec to teach her self-defense, and this would be essential to her development as she uses it to save herself from one of the villains at the end. I appreciated this, especially since most heroines in romantic suspense novels are usually damseled in the end or worst yet, too stupid to live.
All in all, I’m gonna give Barefoot with a Bodyguard an A. The villains were a little flat, but other than that I absolutely loved this book!
This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well.
Thanks!
