Series: Shifters Unbound #2.5
Author: Jennifer Ashley
Genre: Paranormal/Romance/Adult
Maturity Rating: 17+
Initial Rating: 4/5
Technical Rating: 4/5
My Quickie Synopsis: After Ursine-shifter Ronan comes to her rescue, Elizabeth Chapman's life is turned upside down. Not only is the would-be robber gunning for her life, but her past threatens to catch up with her. Will Elizabeth trust Ronan enough to protect her, or will she have to go on the run again?
My Initial Response: I don't usually read novellas in a series, and I definitely don't start series out of order. That being said, I recently purchased a boxed set of paranormal bad boy stories by various authors and Bodyguard was in the lineup. I was pleasantly surprised! The story was short and sweet, but even more than that, it was extremely well written. There were a couple of plot elements that I was slightly uncomfortable with, namely the state of affairs of a world aware of shape-shifters. And the cover doesn't line up with the description of Elizabeth. But, overall, this book was great. It was a nice light read to enjoy on a rainy Sunday.
Character Building: 0.5/1
I know that this story was short which means there isn't as much opportunity to ground all characters, but I felt slightly underwhelmed at how some of the characters were written. Ronan and Elizabeth were the best in terms of the strength of their build, and maybe that's all that was necessary. But call me greedy; I wanted more out of them as well as some of the other supporting characters. Bear in mind (ha! no pun intended), this is a book within a lengthy series, so a lot of these characters have an entire book devoted to them. So, perhaps I would've been a little better satisfied if I had read the first books in the series before I tackled this novella.
Plot Strength: 0.5/1
Again, this all comes back to the length of the story. It isn't long enough to go into too many details. I would have loved to know a little more about the back story of Elizabeth, but I think Ms. Ashley did a pretty good job at delivering the most important information about the character's history. Beyond that, Bodyguard had a great story that surprisingly had some depth to it. There's a reason why Ms. Ashley is a bestselling author!
Sincerity: 1/1
Although I can't say I was a complete fan of the world that Ms. Ashley has built in Bodyguard, it was compelling and honest. Bodyguard was superb in terms of its sincerity. Never once did I question the events that happened because they flowed so intrinsically within the story.
Editing: 1/1
I think that I may have noticed one error, but I can't discredit the entire novella. Ms. Ashley has been publishing stories for a while, and she clearly knows what she's doing.
Pacing: 1/1
For such a short story, it sure felt like a lot happened. In hindsight, it wasn't necessarily that a lot happened; Bodyguard simply had really good pacing. It was beneficial in this instance because it made the book feel fuller overall.
My Icing on Top:
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| Bodyguard gets my stamp of approval |
I'm always pleased to find another good author; it makes my hunt for the next book all the easier. As I said before, I generally don't read novellas within a series, or the ".5s." They usually end up forcefully dropping a reader into an already established world (if they haven't read the rest of the series), or they end up being simple extensions of a numbered book in the series. The latter has always been a peeve of mine; it always makes me feel like either the author was lazy (why not write these extra concepts into the original books?) or that the author was just looking for extra money. Either way, this clearly was not the case with Bodyguard. If you're looking for a light, paranormal/romance, give this book a try!
Happy reading!
-K
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