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Verdict: The book that launched one of lesbian fiction’s longest-running couples, a Secret Service bodyguard romance with real sexual charge and a hero readers have loved for twenty-five years, held back by a heroine many find insufferable and a love story that moves faster than its conversations.
Best for: Readers who want a competent, stoic protector, a forbidden attraction under constant surveillance and open-door heat, and who are happy to treat book one as the opening of a ten-book relationship rather than a complete love story.
Heat level: ★★★☆☆ (3/5 — open door)
Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.9/5 — a 4.17 Goodreads average across 4,300 ratings, with a steady minority who cannot stand Blair)
Tropes: Bodyguard romance, forbidden love, forced proximity, duty versus desire, stoic protector, rebellious first daughter, secret relationship, dual POV, stalker threat, series opener.
Above All, Honor by Radclyffe is the first book of the Honor series, a lesbian romantic suspense novel first published in 2001 and now in an expanded Bold Strokes Books edition, set around a presidential protection detail and the bars and galleries of downtown New York — where Secret Service agent Cameron Roberts takes command of the team guarding the president’s daughter, and Blair Powell decides the fastest way to get rid of her new keeper is to seduce her.
It holds a 4.17 average across roughly 4,300 Goodreads ratings, a 4.7 on Amazon from 879 more, and the kind of reread loyalty most books never earn — while its own series outscores it at almost every later entry. The low-star reviews are few, but they say the same thing, and it is worth hearing before you start.
What Is Above All, Honor About?
Above All, Honor is a contemporary lesbian romance with a suspense engine, and it is closer to the romance end than its thriller shelving suggests. The protection detail is the premise and the pressure: every move Blair makes is watched, logged and reported, which makes any relationship with the woman in charge of watching her a professional catastrophe waiting to happen. romance.io files it as mystery and suspense as well as romance, and there is a threat running underneath — but readers talk about the couple far more than the case.
Cam Roberts is defined by control and by trauma in her past she has not dealt with; the job is where she puts everything she will not feel. Blair is defined by what she has never had, which is a private life, and she assumes every agent assigned to her is a jailer. The novel moves between their perspectives, so you see Blair’s rebellion as a bid for air rather than pure brattiness — although, as the reviews make clear, not every reader is persuaded.
What Makes This Lesbian Bodyguard Romance Work
- Cam Roberts: The stoic, capable agent is the book’s centre of gravity. Readers describe her as compelling and heroic, and rereaders rank her and Blair among the most legendary couples in lesbian fiction.
- The bodyguard setup: One five-star reviewer calls it probably the best sapphic bodyguard story written, and the trope is the most common reason readers give for picking it up.
- Charge under surveillance: The forbidden-love tension of an agent and her protectee, with a whole detail watching, is the thing fans call addictive.
- Speed: At under 200 pages in its original paperback, it reads fast; “couldn’t put it down” recurs among the five-star reviews.
- A doorway to a long series: Every main sequel rates higher on Goodreads than this one, so fans treat it as the start of something rather than the whole meal.
Book Synopsis
Cameron Roberts has built her career on being unflappable. When she is handed command of the detail protecting Blair Powell, the only child of the President of the United States, she expects a difficult assignment. She does not expect to be treated as the enemy from the first hour.
Blair has spent most of her adult life under guard, and she has become very good at escaping it. She slips her agents, disappears into Greenwich Village nights, and keeps a part of her life that no briefing folder will ever capture. A new commander means a new set of rules, and Blair has a proven way of breaking commanders: make them want her, then watch them compromise themselves. Cam, as it turns out, is not immune.
Both women keep secrets. Cam carries something from her past that she will not examine, and Blair carries the loneliness of a life lived in public. As the attraction between them grows harder to manage, so does the job — there is a threat circling Blair that has nothing to do with her disappearing acts, and it is getting closer. For Cam, protecting Blair may mean protecting her from what they both want. Which comes first, the woman or the oath, is the question that drives everything after.
My Review
Cam Roberts is the reason this book has lasted, and I want to start there. She is a very specific romantic fantasy — competent, restrained, wounded, and absolutely reliable in a crisis — and Radclyffe writes her with total conviction. The scenes of her running the detail, reading a room, making the call nobody else wants to make, are the most assured writing in the book, and they explain why readers name her among the great couples in lesbian fiction a quarter-century on.
The premise does the rest. An agent falling for her protectee is a built-in conflict that never has to be manufactured: every glance is a breach, every private moment is observed, and the stakes of getting caught are a career and possibly a life. The heat is written with the same directness — open door, physical, and unapologetic about wanting — and the pace is quick. This is a short book, and it moves like one.
Where it struggles is Blair, and this is the most consistent criticism in the reviews rather than my own gripe. Of the thirty reviews visible on the Goodreads page, around seven call her bratty, shallow, self-centred or plain insufferable, including readers who rated the book well. Around that sits the second complaint: the romance itself is thin. Five of those thirty say the chemistry is almost entirely sexual, that the two leads barely talk before declaring love, and that much of the book has them sleeping with other people. Two more flag head-hopping point-of-view shifts that make scenes hard to follow, and one finds the butch-femme dynamic tired. None of this is fatal, but it adds up to a book that sells the tension better than the love.
One expectation to reset: this is shelved alongside lesbian mysteries and thrillers, and romance.io tags it suspense, but it reads as a romance with a threat in the background rather than a thriller with a romance in it. The danger to Blair is real, yet reviewers overwhelmingly talk about Cam and Blair, not the plot. If you came for the suspense, calibrate; if you came for the bodyguard, you are in the right place.
My honest note: A great hero and a great premise inside a romance that has not yet learned to talk. If an abrasive heroine and a love built mostly on sex will sour you, you will feel it here. If you can treat it as the overture to a ten-book relationship, it is a very good overture.
| Element | In Above All, Honor |
|---|---|
| Central relationship | Cameron Roberts & Blair Powell — Secret Service commander and the president’s daughter, forbidden bodyguard romance |
| Core tropes | Bodyguard, forbidden love, forced proximity, duty versus desire, secret relationship, stalker threat |
| Setting | A presidential protection detail in downtown New York — Greenwich Village bars and Soho galleries |
| Heat level | 3/5 — open door |
| Series | Honor series book 1 of ten main entries (plus a 7.5); latest, Cost of Honor, published 2019 |
| Content notes | On-page sex, including sex with partners other than the lead couple, a sustained threat to a protectee and violent danger, grief and past trauma, professional boundary crossing between an agent and the person she guards |
How Spicy Is Above All, Honor?
A 3/5. romance.io puts it at steam level three, “open door,” which by its own definition means intimate scenes with the reader present rather than behind a closed door. Readers corroborate that the sex is part of the appeal — a library reviewer summed up what fans expect from Radclyffe as steamy scenes and butch-femme tension — and at least one reviewer found there was simply too much of it.
The thing worth knowing in advance is who the sex is between. For a good stretch of the book, it is not only Cam and Blair: one reviewer counted most of the novel as the two leads sleeping with other people, and several readers say the attraction between them stays physical long before it becomes emotional. At least one reader also found Blair’s first advances on Cam, made in front of other agents, jarring. Beyond that, no reviewer I found flags specific kink content. For the same heat band in a grown-up political setting, Escorting the Senator and No Price Tag both sit at 3/5.
Who Should Read This Book?
You’ll likely love it if: you want a stoic, competent protector as the romantic lead, the forbidden-attraction tension of a bodyguard and her charge is your favourite trope, you like open-door heat, and you are ready to follow a couple across a long series.
You may want to skip it if: an abrasive, reckless heroine will make you stop caring, you need emotional intimacy to build before the sex, head-hopping point of view pulls you out of a scene, or you want a genuine thriller with the romance as seasoning.
In short: a classic of the bodyguard trope with one of the genre’s best-loved heroes, paired with a heroine and a courtship that divide readers.
What Readers Are Actually Saying (September 2026)
There is no current moment around this book — no viral clip, no new edition making headlines, and no Reddit thread surfaced in my searches. What Above All, Honor has instead is longevity. It has quietly gathered around 4,300 Goodreads ratings over twenty-five years, and it serves as the entry point to a ten-book series that runs to Cost of Honor in November 2019. Radclyffe founded Bold Strokes Books in 2004, and the book lives in that press’s backlist, so new readers mostly arrive through author loyalty and series recommendations. Trade coverage is essentially absent: no Kirkus, Publishers Weekly or Library Journal review turned up. The one professional notice I found is an American Library Association Rainbow Round Table review of an earlier audio edition, and it was scathing about the production. The audiobook most readers meet now is the Audible Studios version, narrated by Abby Craden and running about six and a half hours; it sits in Audible’s LGBTQIA+ Essentials collection, and several Goodreads reviewers listened, at least one of them on a reread.
Why readers love it (according to the discourse): Cam, first and most consistently — “compelling,” “heroic” and “stoic” are the recurring words. Then the bodyguard dynamic itself, which fans treat as the definitive version of the trope in sapphic fiction; one five-star reviewer calls it probably the best ever written. The chemistry gets named as addictive, and a smaller group praises the writing as smooth and the physical description as vivid. Most tellingly, four of the thirty visible reviews are rereads, including one reader who compares returning to it with rewatching a favourite show. A 2015 review on Gaysi called Radclyffe “one of the finest lesbian romance writers of America” and admitted Blair grew on the reviewer over the book — which is the minority view on Blair, and worth noting because it is exactly what the series asks of you.
What readers argue about and complain about: Blair, above everything. Around seven of thirty visible reviewers find her bratty, shallow or unlikeable, and at least one reviewer names her contempt for security protocol as the problem. The romance is the second theme: readers say the leads have too few real conversations before “I love you,” that their bond is physical rather than emotional, and that a good deal of the book has them in other beds. Third, a narrower craft note — two reviewers name confusing, head-hopping point-of-view shifts. Beyond that, single voices mention a rushed ending, a dated butch-femme template, too much sex, and a political backdrop they wanted deepened. Opinion genuinely divides on Blair: some readers find her insufferable from start to finish, others see a woman suffocated by protection and forgive her for it.
The series question everyone should ask first: book one stands on its own feet. No reviewer I found describes a cliffhanger, and the relationship reaches a declaration by the end, although one reader found the ending rushed and the couple’s story is plainly unfinished. The good news is that the series is complete as it stands and consistently better rated: Honor Bound sits at 4.31, and every main entry up to Cost of Honor beats book one’s 4.17, peaking with Price of Honor at 4.37. No eleventh book has been announced since 2019. If book one leaves you lukewarm on Blair, the ratings suggest the series improves; if it leaves you cold, stop here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Above All, Honor end on a cliffhanger?
No. No reviewer describes a cliffhanger, and Cam and Blair reach a declaration by the end. Their relationship continues across nine more books, so it reads as a first chapter rather than a finished love story.
How spicy is Above All, Honor?
A 3/5. romance.io rates it “open door,” meaning the sex happens on the page. Readers note that some of it involves partners other than the lead couple.
Is Above All, Honor a mystery or a romance?
Mostly a romance. There is a genuine threat to Blair and romance.io tags it suspense, but reviewers overwhelmingly discuss the relationship rather than the plot.
How many books are in the Honor series?
Ten main books plus a book numbered 7.5, Oath of Honor. The latest, Cost of Honor, came out in November 2019, and no further book has been announced.
Is there an audiobook?
Yes. The Audible Studios edition is narrated by Abby Craden and runs about 6 hours 35 minutes. An older 2009 audio edition with a different narrator drew a harsh library review, so choose the Craden version.
If You Loved Above All, Honor, Read These Next
For the same power-and-politics charge at the same heat, Escorting the Senator puts an icy senator and a woman who will not be her prop in a fake relationship. If Cam’s grief and discipline are the draw, Amateur City gives you a wounded, closeted cop from the generation of lesbian genre fiction that came before it. And for a case with more weight on the investigation, Murder at the Nightwood Bar is the landmark 1987 lesbian police mystery in the same tradition.
For more in this register, browse our lesbian mystery and thriller books guide or the full Book Reviews collection.
The Bottom Line
Above All, Honor is a book whose staying power outruns its polish. Cam Roberts is one of the best-loved heroes in lesbian romance, the bodyguard premise generates tension on every page, and the open-door heat delivers what fans came for. It is also saddled with a heroine a steady share of readers cannot like, a courtship built on sex rather than talk, and point-of-view shifts that blur the scenes. Whether that trade is worth it depends on how much patience you have for Blair — but the reader who has it gets the start of a ten-book series that only rates higher from here. Check Above All, Honor on Amazon →
The Eikna Overall Ranking
On the Eikna scale, Above All, Honor ranks as a foundational sapphic bodyguard romance — charged and fast, held back by a divisive heroine and an underbuilt courtship, and best approached as the opening of the Honor series rather than a complete love story.
The Evidence Scorecard
Overall ★★★★☆ 3.9/5
- ✓ 4.17 average across 4,300 Goodreads ratings
- ✓ 4.7 on Amazon from 879 ratings
- ✓ Four of thirty visible reviews are rereads
- ✓ Lowest-rated main book in its series
Romance ★★★★☆ 3.7/5
- ✓ Agent-protectee tension on every page
- ✓ Fans call the chemistry addictive
- ✓ Surveillance makes every moment a risk
- ✓ Few real conversations before “I love you”
Characters ★★★★☆ 3.8/5
- ✓ Cam is the most-praised element
- ✓ Dual POV explains Blair’s rebellion
- ✓ Supporting cast praised by some
- ✓ Roughly seven of thirty dislike Blair
Writing ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ Fast, under 200 pages in paperback
- ✓ Several call the prose smooth
- ✓ Vivid physical description
- ✓ Head-hopping POV confuses some readers
Emotional Impact ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ Duty versus desire carries real stakes
- ✓ Cam’s buried trauma adds weight
- ✓ Threat to Blair raises the pressure
- ✓ Readers want more emotional intimacy
Heat Level ★★★☆☆ 3/5
- ✓ romance.io steam level three, open door
- ✓ On-page scenes, part of the appeal
- ✓ Library reviewer names the steam as expected
- ✓ Much of it outside the lead couple
Ending ★★★★☆ 3.8/5
- ✓ No reviewer reports a cliffhanger
- ✓ Relationship reaches a declaration
- ✓ Sequel Honor Bound rates 4.31
- ✓ One reader found it rushed
Re-read Value ★★★★☆ 4.3/5
- ✓ Multiple reviewers on second or third reads
- ✓ Six-and-a-half-hour Craden audiobook
- ✓ Nine more books pull readers onward
- ✓ Blair tests patience on a return trip
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