ISBN 0373760035 - As always, a romance novel at the top of the To-Be-Read pile makes me less than excited. Few romance novels step outside the romance novel formula enough to make them interesting, but The Accidental Bodyguard makes an effort, at least.

Lucas Broderick is a tough lawyer who does not have a heart of gold. If he did, he'd be certain to sell it. This makes him the ideal man for the Moran clan to hire when the family fortune is left to do-gooder Bethany Ann, granddaughter of the recently deceased.

Bethany Ann is a bit strange. For one thing, she calls herself Chandra. The reason she calls herself Chandra is what's strange - she believes she is the reincarnated soul of a young girl who has buried alive by her sister. She also believes that she is still looking for the young man that she had loved as Chandra. It's hardly going to shock you to know that his soul now resides in the body of Lucas Broderick.

It might shock Chandra, though - once she gets her memory back. If she gets her memory back. Found injured at the hospital, she is taken home and cared for, sort of like a stray puppy, by Lucas's sons Peppin and Montague (so named because, apparently, Lucas and their mother didn't like them and wanted them to be tortured and beat up all through grammar school). All Chandra has to do is recover her memories and avoid being murdered. And not get caught hiding in the closet in the bedroom of two young boys.

A little silly and light-hearted, especially with the threat of murder and violence, but I enjoyed the silliness more than the love story. The boys were funny and the care they gave Chandra was cute, if a tad unlikely. There were, though, some odd things that bugged me as I read. Chandra is referred to as "a vegetarian who refused to eat beef", as if there are vegetarians who DO eat beef; the phrase "STAT, medical jargon for fast" seems to indicate that the author thinks the readers are nitwits - really, who doesn't know what "STAT" means? And, last, "Had she done murder?" DONE murder? Committed murder, I've heard before, but "done" murder? It sounds stilted and strange and out of place in this particular book.

All in all, a small step above the usual romance stuff, even though Lucas and Chandra meet when she's naked in the shower and are groping each other moments later, while his sons wait in the next room. Standard romance time for groping is at least a couple hours after meeting, and not within earshot of children, but the very existence of Peppin and Montague, despite their horrible names, makes up for that and more, since they are easily the most enjoyable characters in the book.

- AnnaLovesBooks ( )