Bodyguard: Recruit (Book 1)

This review covers Books 1 and 2 of the Bodyguard series.As other reviewers have pointed out, these 2 books were originally published as a single book in the UK. Quite frankly, I was shocked and throughly dismayed by the so-called ending of the "first" book. It literally just stops right in the middle of a fight scene, practically in the middle of paragraph.That being said, it's a good story as long as you make sure to have the "second" book handy before you even begin the first one (not knowing this before I started, I had to suffer through the wait until I got the second one). And yes, the combined cost of the 2 books is probably a bit higher than one would expect from a single story, but not terribly so.I thought the main character of Connor was well developed and the plot moved along nicely. However I thought some of the supporting characters could have used a bit more depth (I particularly would have liked to get to know Alicia better).My 16 year old son (who has been a big fan of Chris Bradford's Young Samurai series for years) really enjoyed reading this (he didn't have to wait for the second book).I expect my 13 year old daughter (who likes action and has enjoyed other stories about presidential children) will like this as well but she hasn't gotten to it yet.Generally, I'd recommend this for middle readers about age 11 and up.

So, the book is awesome. As many people mention it ends in a truly idiotic spot. Likely this is the publishers doing (Philomel Books is an imprint of Penguin so it's not surprising). I suspect it's not necessarily being greedy as some other reviewers have speculated. Likely it's a marketing thing. Since the book is targeted at young boys I suspect they foolishly decided that the original was too long and split it in half, figuring that middle school boys would never buy a big book. This is both condescending and dumb, and I suspect the author had no say in the matter.The story itself is great, just plan on buying books 1 and 2 for the full story. Otherwise, I really enjoyed it and it's off to read the next one.

This is a good action-packed story for kids 10+, but perfectly good for adults too. I read a lot of fantasy, my favorite genre but as I read the good and iconic fantasy stories i moved on too ones not as good. I've read Harry potter 13 times in re-reads. And this is a lot like Harry Potter. I know! Any fantasy book says 'Harry potter fans...' blah blah blah. But if you mixed James Bond and Harry Potter you'll get this. And it's awesome. If you like Spy School, Alex rider (which i don't really like), James Bond, Harry Potter, H.I.V.E. or Mission: Impossible then you'll like this.

I bought this for my 5th grade son. He has been loving reading this book.

Why is this volume stopping in the middle of the story? Was Amazon or the author too greedy? We like the story, it is engaging and entertaining.

Son enjoyed the book

My son loves these books. Shipping was fast packaged well!

if you don't think of him as a young teen it is good

I ought to have done more research before purchasing three of the books for my son. In reality this is only half a book and priced as normal. Nowhere on Amazon UK that I can find does it explain that they are selling two different editions of the same of book. By mixing UK and USA editions, Amazon effectively recommended 1/2 the first book, and the second and third books.The UK edition of Chris Bradford's Bodyguard series currently has six books dating from 2013 to 2018: Hostage (2013), Ransom (2014), Ambush (2015), Target (2016), Assassin (2017), and Fugitive (2018). For the US market, the publishers, Philomel Books, appear to have split the first four books into two each, so the original UK Book 1 = USA 1 Recruit + 2 Hostage.

Beware! Chris Bradfrod Bodyguard series has an American series and a British one.I think the story is the same and I didn't notice spellings being different . . . but after the series was recommended to us I ordered second hand books 1-5, this being book 1 . . . but as the other books were delivered, we noticed that in the frontpiece 'Recruit' wasn't listed. We waited patiently for book 2, so could get on with reading the series, but it turns out that (British) Book 1 is Hostage, and America Book 1 is Recruit which is half of Hostage, finishing with a cliff hanger, and book 2 is then Hostage . . .possibly the second half . .so BEWARE which Hostage you buy and you shouldn't really need Recruit, but the series has got off to a very promising start!

I bought the first two books for my 10yo son. They were described as Book 1 and Book 2 on Amazon. What I didn't realise is that there is a US version (8 books) and a UK version (6 books) of the series and they are DIFFERENT!! They also have different names to add to the confusion.We ended up with a US book 1 and UK book 2 which doesn't follow on as you would expect. Amazon need to make this clear on the descriptions! Don't get caught out by this and make sure you purchase the correct versions. You can see the 6 UK book covers and names at chrisbradford.co.uk.1. Hostage2. Ransom3. Ambush4. Target5. Assassin6. Fugitive1* is for Amazon....but he enjoyed the first book.

This book is a big hit with my 11 year old class who are mostly boys. The subject matter is a little tricky for younger children to understand but a great storyline and good characterisation by the author.

Enjoyed by 10 year old boy who is a reluctant reader