What’s not to love about bodyguard romances? Who doesn’t feel reassured and warm in the embrace of a strong, fierce bodyguard?
Bodyguard romance books are a subgenre of workplace romances where one person is obligated to protect another’s body at all costs. In this case, the cost ends up being their hearts (okay, and maybe a few injuries along the way). A hefty but worthwhile price to pay.
The journey from an employee/employer relationship to lovers is often fraught yet fulfilling. The best and most popular bodyguard romances, like Twisted Games by Ana Huang, know exactly how to navigate the tension raised by these gloriously messy and rewarding power dynamics.
The bodyguard romances on this list will make you feel safe and secure and leave you swooning, even as you enter glittering worlds of power and money often overflowing with danger.
1. Twisted Games by Ana Huang
This entry in Huang’s Twisted series plays some of the greatest hits of romance tropes, including forced proximity, age gap, and royalty romance.
Huang pairs Rhys Larsen, a dispassionate bodyguard, with Bridget von Ascheberg, a princess who’s bound by a pre-planned future, in this deliciously decadent romance. Their love scenes are frequent and spicy, and their forbidden love makes their interactions even hotter.
2. Axel by Kat Mizera
The third book in Mizera’s Royal Protectors series pairs a bodyguard with a woman who calls in a favor from the royal family to save her small town from a gang. The eponymous hero Axel is strong, fierce, and very protective — ideally suited to be a bodyguard, of course, but also someone an equally strong heroine might butt heads with.
Mizera’s series takes the reader on a wildly sexy ride, and it is a blast all the way through.
3. Tempt Me by Tara Wyatt
Wyatt’s Kings of Hell’s Kitchen series launches with Tempt Me, a romance between a former mob enforcer who’s escaping his past and his boss’s girlfriend’s best friend, who’s over a decade younger than he is.
Mob enforcer Killian is determined to protect the sunshine of his life, Whitney, even if that means being a constant grump toward her. But when Whitney’s life is at risk and the danger reaches a boiling point, the romantic tension spills over, as well.
4. Protecting the Prince by Dana Volney
Protecting the Prince launches Volney’s fast-paced, high-stakes romantic suspense series Wyn Security.
A former military officer is the head of a security firm, and she’s called upon to protect the CEO of a shipping company when he is threatened. There’s blackmail, attempted assassinations, sabotage — and still time for romance.
5. Rules of Protection by Alison Bliss
Lighter in tone than most bodyguard romances, Bliss’ Rules of Protection pairs Jake Wardan, an FBI agent, with Emily Foster, a woman who’s just witnessed a mob hit and needs to be put in a Witness Protection Program.
Sparks fly between the two, as does some hilarious banter. When Emily’s safety is threatened, Jake takes her to a farm in Texas, where she encounters things a city girl like her never even dreamed of.
6. Devil’s Detail by Vivi Paige
Lorenzo, a Mafioso hoping to get “Made,” is ordered to protect Isabella Lastra, the Don’s daughter — a woman who despises her father’s life and wants nothing to do with the mafia. But her wishes don’t matter when it’s her life in danger.
A rival family has targeted Isabella, and when Lorenzo falls in love with her, he decides he will give up his life to protect her. The story is passionate, tense, and very sexy.
7. Mr. Perfect by Linda Howard
In this old-school romance, Jaine Bright and three of her friends make a list of attributes
“Mr. Perfect” should have. When the List goes viral, someone decides they oppose the attributes and starts stalking — and killing — the four women.
Jaine’s neighbor, a cop named Sam, takes it on himself to protect her from the threat, until inevitably she realizes he’s “Mr. Perfect” — for her.
8. Oracle’s Moon by Thea Harrison
Harrison’s paranormal Elder Races series is one populated by a wide variety of supernatural creatures, and this book’s pairing — Khalil, a djinn and Grace, an oracle — is an unusual treat.
Grace’s sister and brother-in-law have been murdered, so Khalil decides to appoint himself as Grace’s guardian — much to her dismay. This is a more unusual take on the bodyguard romance trope, and it pays off.
9. The Bodyguard by Katherine Center
Center’s The Bodyguard is chock-a-block full of romance tropes (it’s got a hot movie star, an elite bodyguard who looks like a librarian, a fake relationship, a stalker, and family shenanigans) that’s a sparkling, delightful read.
Hannah Brooks takes her job as a personal protection agent seriously, so she’s less than thrilled to be assigned to Jack Stapleton, an actor and heartthrob who has a stalker. Jack wants to keep his stalker a secret, so he convinces Hannah to pose as his girlfriend.
This sweet romance checks all the boxes: a heroine to root for, her dashing love interest, engaging and witty interactions, and just enough action to spice things up.
10. A Duchess a Day by Charis Michaels
In this riff on “Snow White,” Helena Lark, the headstrong fiancée of a duke, is doing everything she can to get out of her engagement, while Declan Shaw, a mercenary falsely accused of a crime, is taken from prison so he can keep her from running away.
Helena decides she needs to find the duke a more suitable bride, and Declan helps her search for candidates (initially reluctantly). A Duchess A Day is intricately and beautifully written, and the romance between Helena and Declan is utterly charming.
About the Author: Megan Frampton
Megan Frampton is the Content Acquisitions Manager for Everand. She also writes historical romance under her own name and romantic women’s fiction as Megan Caldwell. She likes the color black, gin, dark-haired British men, and huge earrings, not in that order. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and kid.
