ARC Review: HARD TO FORGET by Bella Jewel

HARD TO FORGET
An Alpha’s Heart Novel, #3
By Bella Jewel
St. Martin’s Paperbacks
On Sale: December 15, 2015
eBook only, $3.99 USD

About The Book

Delaney, a professional bodyguard, has spent years trying to prove herself in a male dominated industry.  Now she's facing her greatest challenge yet.  

Bad boy billionaire Jax Shields has made plenty of enemies on his climb to the top, but being in the wrong place at the wrong time has put his life at risk. Now he's putting his life in the hands of Delaney and her team. He demands the best in everything, and he doesn't think she has what it takes to protect him. He's also made it clear he'd rather have her on her back then covering his. Will Delaney be able to prove herself to the most arrogant-and devastatingly handsome-man she's ever met?

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Of the three books in this series, this is my least favorite.  I am not dismissing it, but I'm not sure if it is my cup of tea. My favorite reads are the ones in which the author unearths a keen insight or can name a certain emotion or feeling I’ve never read before.  Bella Jewel gives us some very nice little nuggets, especially around the heroine’s experience in becoming a bodyguard. Delaney has to overcome bias and prejudice from both her co-workers and her client to get the job.  She has trained hard and has been biding her time to be given a chance. I was keen to see how she was going to assert herself and show her work.  So it is really disappointing that with all that investment, why is she risking it all on her first big gig by sleeping with the client?  It seems to be a really immature decision. I understand this is in the New Adult genre, but the heroine feels very young to me.  From the kind of decisions she makes to the very awkward dialogue, I could not relate at all to the character.  I don’t remember this being an issue with the other two books.  

In contrast, I had criticized the previous stories for the first person perspective that I felt limited us getting to know the male character.  I thought the Ms. Jewel did a much better job of giving us insight into Jax this time around. He is much more sympathetic and likeable.  Ironically, although the story is mostly from Delaney’s perspective, her character is more one-note than the others.  

Not a bad read, but not my favorite.  I liked gleaning insight into the masculine world of bodyguarding from a female perspective.  And although I found it difficult to relate to the heroine, perhaps this is just my point of view.  

Bella Jewel is a USA Today bestselling author. She lives in North Queensland where she's working on her next novel.

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Read The Whole Series

Each book in the Alpha’s Heart series is a standalone with a HEA.