Close proximity. Close Promises. Close protection. A thrilling romance, full of undercover espionage; family horrors, and reserved hearts, kisses the page, as an undercover spy turned bodyguard and sweet natured heiress are forced to live together, after her family is sabotaged, unearthing a deeper plot, in Eden Victoria’s debut novel, Close Protection.
If there’s one thing I love about reading romance stories, it’s row people coming together. Not expecting to find someone who likes them for them, even when they’re not perfect, struggling with their mental health or believing they’re not worth of or closing themselves off from connection but love finds a way. If you want it (love) to just like Daphne and Milosh. They’re in close proximity and pretend to be a couple in public, attempting to maintain an undercover and professional boundary but feelings have a way of making themselves known. From the cosmic tension during Milosh’s self defence classes, secret kisses, standing up to Daphne’s dad and Daphne helping Milosh to come out of his shell.
Eden Victoria shows the reader the importance of being attached to a persons heart and mind too, not just their looks, and not shying away from vulnerable or sensitive issues. This includes blocking people are bad because their parents are or having a hard time with trauma or mental health, you have to be there for the good and bad.
It’s not only the tantalising romance between Daphne and Milosh that makes for a great love story, it’s also the espionage and crime plot lines too. They add higher stakes, heightened emotions and dramatic revealing confessions and declarations to the drama of Daphnes family, Milosh’s past and their relationship.
However, it’s not just Daphne becoming and embracing her warrior princess alter ego in dealing with the various attacks on her, due to her father’s past with intelligence services, or Milosh learning to let himself understand and feel his emotions for once, taking a chance to find someone he cares about and learn to embrace emotional vulnerabilities as well as physical strength, there’s humour too. One particularly memorable moment is when Daphne and Milosh are at a safe house, and Daphne attacks an intruder with a frying pan attack, just like Rapunzel in Tangled, which even Daphne refers to as a defence tactic. She even later laughs about it and watches the film with Milosh, mirroring the Flynn and Rapnuzel similarities and qualities in both Milosh and Daphne.
Let’s not forget that this is also a dual pov story, meaning we get both HIS and HER perspective on their romance. The dual povs between Daphne and Milosh make for an enticingly blushing romance, as each try to maintain a professional boundary but fall even deeper anyway. They are continually thrown into even deeper closer proximity and lethal secrets, as their dreams, duties and trauma collide.
Victoria shows us both their initial strengths, vulnerabilities and trauma, as Daphne lost her mother young and wants to opt out of the family business whilst Millosh having grown up in care before a militarily and espionage career, is reserved, consumed by shadows and hesitant to let people in again. It’s dangerous, even unprofessional, for them to be together for real and stay safe, but they grow together and start to heal. This makes for more blushing tension and tearful confessions, between them that they can’t deny any longer.
So, if you’re looking for a new romance with bodyguard and heiress/princess romance, a enticing espionage crime plot, the banter, vulnerability, close proximity and fake dating tropes, Close Protection is perfect. It has real characters and emotionally intelligent representation of childhood trauma, support each other’s mental health and falling in love, then come closer and read Daphne and Milosh’s romance for yourselves.
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