The book The Guardian is based in a small town, Swansboro, North Carolina. The main character, Julie, is a windowed woman to her late husband, Jim. He died about four years ago from a brain tumor after only a few short years of their marriage. After Jim died, she relied on the people she knew around her for support. One of those people happened to be Jim's best friend growing up, Mike. On the Christmas Eve after Mike's death, Julie gets a knock at the door late at night. Much to her surprise, at the door, their is a young boy with a box and as he explains the situation to Julie, her jaw just drops. The boy says his father had a request from Jim before he died to deliver this gift on Christmas Eve to keep Julie company the rest of her life. Any guesses? What Julie received from Jim was this poor little Great Dane dog, which in the beginning Julie that to be a pitiful excuse for a dog. However, she took it in and named it Singer after all the crying and singing he did in his new home that night.
Of course, as it goes, Julie gets a note with Singer. It is hand written from Jim, and at the end it says "Find someone who will make you happy. Be happy again." Then we skip to four years later, Singer a full grown dog and this is where Julie encounters her biggest decision in life. She is brought upon to make the decision between two men- One being down-to-earth Mike who is genuine and kind, who has loved her for more years than she'll ever know; and the other one is the engineer Richard, who is in town working on the construction of a new bridge, and who also treats her like a queen. As it happens, Richard comes into Julie's salon to get his hair cut and that is when he asks her out for the first time. Their first couple dates are wonderful- they have a picnic at the beach, they go see Phantom of The Opera, he takes her to fancy restaurants, and then, after about 4 dates, he buys her something.