Have you ever been invested in a series and despite its flaws you’re willing to give it a chance in hope that it will get better... then you found a book in the series that soooo disappointing that you end up dropping the series as a whole? Well that's what Assassin (Bodyguard #5) did to me. Wasted potential, forced romance, poorly written characters and as whole just being meh has ruined this book and series for me and I can now guarantee that I will be no longer reading this series and honestly I regret not doing so sooner.
Now, before I being the review I think a bit of context is needed, just so you can have an idea of what position am in, your cool good. Now I really like Young Samurai, it told an interesting coming of age story about a boy becoming a samurai. Side characters were interesting and memorable and left an impact on me, plus it ended on a great note. So when I discovered Chris Bradford was writing another book I was interested. I read the first book of the series (Hostage) and while it wasn't as good as Young Samurai it had its merits and I was confident it could get better... it didn't and this book is the last chance am giving. Now to be honest this book has a lot of the problems that all bodyguard books have, so I will practically making a complaint about the whole series when reviewing this book.
SPOLIERS !!!
Firstly, the main problem with this book are the characters or to be more specific the side characters. Bradford has shown time and time again that he can make interesting side characters, however he seems to have lost it. This may be due to the fact that everything seems to revolve around Corner most of the missions are solo so there are no opportunities to see the characters in action, see how they react to danger, see them grow and face hardships. And when another character does go with Corner we only get a simple backstory. To put it simply their nothing but archetypes. This is an issue I have with Jason his simply not interesting just the typical rival character, but to his credit he at least made the mission much more interesting, why you ask? Simple, Corner as a main character is not interesting he doesn’t gain any interesting character development (besides getting stronger) and his pretty generic his simply the typical good boy that will always do the right thing. Another character I have a problem with is with Felix, his two dimensional at best and straight up unlikable; all he does is complain showing no gratitude what’s so ever.
Secondly, this story was wasted potential what could have been a thrilling a morally grey story about politics, corruption and revenge, was simply turned into an action fantasy with a cliché story, and it’s shown by how Bradford handle the character of the Ana). Now in the story we find out that she’s a hired assassin, she trained to be an assassin because Felix’s father killed her family. Now this could have been great opportunity to explore interesting themes, so what’s the problem? Well, after she kills her father murderer she suddenly feels empty and regrets it. This is BS, am sorry but when you’ve spent years and years training and are focused on revenge, you do not suddenly regret it or feel “empty”. This was ten years you don’t get over it just like that especially if you’ve been trained as a REBEL FIGHTER!!! I would understand if she regret as time when on but not in an INSTANT! To be honest Bradford could have spent more time trying to flesh her out instead of killing of at the end for the “feels”. I would have honestly had her be the main character honestly she was far more interesting the most of the characters in the book OR the whole franchise for that matter, in fact I was actually rooting for her to win.
Chris Bradford in my opinion really has strong opinions towards Russian and it’s really evident in the book. The amount of times the Bradford hits you over the head of how bad Russia is ridiculous almost offensive (and am not even Russian). The corruption is not handle very well, as the government seems like a villain rather than a corrupt but ordinary government. The book rarely goes into and it’s a real shame. Not only that but Corner simply remains the good guy all throughout the book (with zero character development) he even offers the Russian girl a chance to enter the Buddyguard organisation and shots he the person he was supposed to protect because of her. Everything, else in the book was just meh the stakes simply get lower and lower because teenage boys keep surviving life threating injuries for the plot.
And screw the romance in this book seriously, the romance between Jason and Ling was not only underdeveloped but came out of nowhere they seem more like friends rather than a couple, heck Jason in my opinion had a far deeper relationship with Ana (The Russian Girl) than with Ling. Plus, what was the put in developing a romance between Jason and Ana if it wouldn’t matter in the long run anyway. This is a problem with all the books he teases romance but we know it’s pointless in the end, Bodyguard Ambush being the worst offender.
Overall, I was disappointed with this book; it went by really fasted and failed to leave an impression on me. So am out this is the last Bodyguard book I will be reading. Anyways, let me know your thoughts in the comments and sorry for any spelling mistakes. Feedback is welcomed, am out.