Chris Bradford - Bodyguard Book IV: Target

Disclaimer: I do not go into great detail of the mission itself because of spoilers

In Chris Bradford’s ‘Target’ we finally get to understand how Charley - the alpha team ops leader of Buddyguard, and Connor’s girlfriend - lost the use of her legs. Charley, the Quicksilver Surfing Champion is a broken teenage girl. When she was just a child her best friend, Kerry was kidnapped and never saw Charley again. Then just a few years later her parents died in a plane crash. So when Colonel Black - the leader and founder of BuddyGuard - offers her a job at Buddyguard she is determined to not let him down. After a few weeks of training with her team she is sick of it, the boys in her team cannot stop making fun of her and she feels like she doesn’t belong. However, when Jody - one of the teachers in Buddyguard - gives Charley advice, she hardens her resolve and is determined to prove the feast of her team wrong. After months of training she passes the exams with flying colours. But only soon after, Colonel Black has a much harder challenge, her first mission. Charley’s first mission is to protect teenage music superstar, Ash Wild. In the mission she encounters betrayal and even love but the thing that takes the greatest toll is the fall from a three storey building.

In my opinion ‘Target’ is a thrilling read, it is full of suspense, betrayal and anticipation. We also see Charley grow from a rookie to earning a medal of bravery (the highest achievement in ‘Buddyguard’). I love this book because you know that something is going to happen, just you don’t know when. This makes the tension even higher and keeps you reading till the very end. I recommend this book to 9/10 yr olds and over.