From beloved, bestselling author Katherine Center comes a warm, witty novel about the chances we take in life and love.
THE BODYGUARD
by Katherine Center
St. Martin’s Press, July 2022
Hannah Green is the last person you would envision as an Executive Protection Agent (aka “bodyguard”). Petite and non-descript, she is nevertheless an expert in her field who loves her job and the motley crew that make up her team. But when she is hired to protect Jack Stapleton, a Hollywood star with a tragic past who is coming home to Houston, she expects another spoiled, capricious player. Jack wants to keep her at arm’s length, which complicates her assignment. Hannah wants to keep him within arm’s length, which complicates her growing attraction to him. But each of them has secrets and heartbreak in their past that might prevent them from ever finding true love—even more than the different worlds they come from. With stalkers closing in, Jack and Hannah must each find a way to take chances…because every chance you take might bring you into harm’s way, but also might make you a little bit braver.
Katherine Center is the author of several novels about love and family: The Bright Side of Disaster, Everyone Is Beautiful, Get Lucky, and The Lost Husband. Her books and essays have appeared in Redbook, People, USA Today, Vanity Fair, and Real Simple–as well as the anthologies Because I Love Her, CRUSH, and My Parents Were Awesome. Katherine is a graduate of Vassar College and the University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program. She lives in Houston with her husband and two sweet children.
What if her mother was right about her all along? Rhett Smith fled the woman who taught her to protect her heart, hide her feelings and trust no one except herself for two decades of adventurous work, travel and reinvention, relying on her tougher alter ego, The Modern Pioneer Girl, for support and guidance, then wrote a popular book about it.
Le roman : Publié aux États-Unis en juin 2017 par St. Martin’s Griffin, THE IDEA OF YOU est centré sur Solène, une mère divorcée franco-américaine de trente-neuf ans. Après que son mari l’a quittée pour une femme plus jeune et annulé le voyage qu’il avait prévu pour emmener leur fille de 12 ans à un concert à Las Vegas, Solène ramasse les morceaux et brave la foule et la chaleur du désert pour l’accompagner à sa place. C’est là-bas qu’elle rencontre Hayes Campbell, 20 ans, chanteur du boys band britannique le plus en vogue de la planète, August Moon. La couverture médiatique de la relation qu’ils nouent devient vite envahissante, et bouleverse sa vie et celle de sa fille…
Germany, 1947. Nora’s friend invites her to a German-American New Year’s Eve party, where she’s swept off her feet by the handsome US officer William. Nora tries long and hard to hide her passionate affair from her father, but when she becomes pregnant and William is ordered back to the US she has no choice but to confess. Her father is beside himself, but has a solution: a banker friend of his offers to marry Nora and cover the family’s debts. Nora has no intention of agreeing to the plan. She leaves town with her son under cover of night and takes the train to Munich, where she meets a feverish and confused young woman in the street. Nora walks Celia home – to the villa of the wealthy Wagners, who mistake Nora’’s baby for Celia’s son. It’s a fatal misunderstanding, but one that Nora does nothing to dispel…
Hamburg, 1887. The young flower girl Tine Tiedkens is destitute. To escape her misery, she decides to try her luck on the island of Heligoland. But the crossing to the fashionable island turns into a nightmare, and when she arrives everything seems set against her. But then she unexpectedly runs into the young hotelier Henry Heesters, who once bought flowers from her in Hamburg, and lands a position in his elegant hotel. With diligence and enthusiasm, Tine works her way up from waitress to housekeeper – and falls in love with Henry. He, too, loves her – but just as happiness seems to be within reach, fate intervenes once again…