The Target Review (Gerri Hill) — Is It Worth Reading?

Updated on October 9, 2026

Verdict: A brisk, outdoorsy romantic thriller in which an undercover detective joins a women’s wilderness trek to protect a senator’s daughter, carried by Gerri Hill’s Rocky Mountain setting and a survival plot that keeps moving, held back by a romance some readers find rushed and a 2007 conspiracy that does not survive close scrutiny.

Best for: Readers who want a bodyguard romance with real danger, a hiking-and-camping setting and open-door heat, and who will trade plot logic for momentum.

Heat level: ★★★☆☆ (3/5 — romance.io: open door)

Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.9/5 — a 4.12 Goodreads average across 2,512 ratings, discounted for a romance that does not land for every reader and a plot some call convoluted)

Tropes: Undercover bodyguard, forced proximity, wilderness survival, cop heroine, senator’s daughter, matchmaking friends, slow burn under threat, standalone.

The Target is a standalone sapphic romantic suspense novel by Gerri Hill, published by Bella Books in February 2007, in which homicide detective Jaime Hutchinson is recruited by the FBI to join a two-week Rocky Mountain trek led by Sara Michaels, the daughter of a senator running for president, and to protect her without letting her know she is a bodyguard.

It is a well-liked book from a prolific author’s backlist. Goodreads shows a 4.12 average across 2,512 ratings, with 78% of them at four or five stars, and Amazon carries 4.7 stars from 474 ratings. Reader opinion is warm rather than divided: the praise centres on the setting and the suspense, and the reservations, where they appear, are about the romance and the logic of the plot. Both are worth knowing before you start.

What Is The Target About?

This is bodyguard romance moved out of the city and into the backcountry. Sara’s father has been receiving death threats against his family, and the FBI is convinced she is at risk. Sara, who runs a self-help clinic, refuses to cancel a two-week hike she is leading for a group of ten women, so Jaime goes along undercover as one of the group. The mountains do the rest: there is no easy exit, no backup and, once a sniper appears, no question that the threat is real.

The romance runs alongside the survival story rather than ahead of it. The women in the group take it on themselves to play matchmaker for Jaime and Sara, which supplies much of the book’s lighter material, and the trek itself, with its peaks, campsites and hot springs, is described with the care Hill brings to the outdoors. Ten of the 30 most-read Goodreads reviews talk about the setting or the hike.

What Makes This Sapphic Romantic Suspense Work

The setting: Readers love the trek. One fan says she never tires of Hill’s outdoor adventures and the landscapes she describes, and others single out the peaks and the hot springs.
Momentum: Twelve of the 30 most-read reviews discuss the suspense or the plot, and the common verdict is that it is a page-turner once the danger becomes real.
The women in the group: Seven reviews mention the group, and readers enjoy both the bonding under pressure and the matchmaking.
Gerri Hill’s reliability: Fifteen of the 30 reviews mention the author, mostly as a reason to trust the book, and several call it a favourite.
The audiobook: Eight reviews mention listening, and Abby Craden’s narration is praised by every reviewer who names her.

Book Synopsis

Senator Michaels has just announced that he is running for president, and the threats against his family have been arriving for some time. His daughter Sara wants nothing to do with his campaign or his security. She has a clinic to run and a promise to keep: two weeks in the Rocky Mountains with a group of women who have signed up for her wilderness programme, and she is not going to cancel because the FBI is worried.

So the FBI improvises. Jaime Hutchinson, a homicide detective with no interest in babysitting, is talked into joining the trip as an ordinary participant and keeping Sara alive without blowing her cover. It should be simple. Instead Jaime finds herself absorbed into a group of well-meaning women who are determined to pair her off with their guide, and drawn to Sara in a way that has nothing to do with the job.

Then the threat arrives in the mountains, far from any help, and the trip becomes a fight to survive. The question the book sets up is whether Jaime can work out who is behind the danger in time, and what will happen between her and Sara when the truth about why she is there comes out.

My Review

The setting is the best thing here, and readers agree. Hill writes the trek as a real hike, with the physical effort, the campsites and the moments of beauty that make the wilderness worth the trip, and when the danger arrives it uses the same landscape against the characters. Readers who mention the setting love it.

The second strength is pace. Once the threat is confirmed, the book becomes a survival story, and readers describe it as hard to put down. One four-star reviewer notes that there is no big twist in the conspiracy and that the thrill lies in watching these women move through the mountains fighting for their lives, which is a fair summary of what the book is for.

Where it struggles is the romance, and it is a pattern rather than a single voice. Two of the four three-star reviews and the one one-star review say the couple did not work for them; one calls the romance forced at first, another says the leads never clicked, and a four-star fan concedes it is a little rushed, though she accepts that danger speeds things up. The plot draws a second, smaller set of complaints: one reader calls it convoluted and clichéd but still dumb fun, and another points out that the villains go to strange lengths when they could have done the job more simply.

The expectation to reset is the era. This is a 2007 romantic thriller, and one three-star reader says some of the language and drama feel dated, with the feel of an early-2000s action film, adding that the pacing lags late on and the ending arrives abruptly. If you come for a fast, atmospheric adventure, relax. If you want a tightly plotted thriller or a romance that leads the story, calibrate.

It is also worth knowing that the evidence is clean. None of the 30 most-read reviews mention an advance or review copy, and the most visible reviews are even warmer than the overall average, with 24 of the 30 at four or five stars.

My honest note: A four-star adventure with a three-and-a-half-star romance inside it. If you want Gerri Hill in the mountains with a sniper on the ridge, it is easy to recommend; if you need the love story to carry the book, it may feel secondary.

Element	In The Target
Central relationship	Jaime Hutchinson & Sara Michaels — an undercover homicide detective and the senator’s daughter she has been sent to protect
Core tropes	Undercover bodyguard, forced proximity, wilderness survival, matchmaking friends
Setting	A two-week women’s trek through the Colorado Rockies
Heat level	3/5 — romance.io: open door
Series	Standalone
Content notes	Death threats, sniper violence and peril, deception about the heroine’s identity

How Spicy Is The Target?

A 3 out of 5. romance.io places it in its “open door” band, from 22 reader ratings. The Goodreads reviews suggest the heat is concentrated rather than constant: only a handful mention it, but one five-star reader calls a single scene one of the best she has read, and another sums the book up as exciting and sexy. The hot springs supply some flirtation along the way.

The element worth knowing in advance is the balance. This is a suspense novel first, and the physical relationship develops under threat rather than at leisure. For comparisons, Hill’s own The Killing Room sits in a similar moderate band, and The Princess’s Bodyguard moves protection duty into a royal setting.

Who Should Read This Book?

You’ll likely love it if: you want a bodyguard romance with real stakes, you love hiking and wilderness settings, you enjoy a group of side characters with personality, and you already trust Gerri Hill.

You may want to skip it if: you want the romance to lead, you are bothered by plot holes in a conspiracy, you dislike romances that move fast under pressure, or 2000s-era dialogue pulls you out of a story.

In short: an atmospheric, page-turning mountain thriller, at the cost of a romance that some readers find rushed.

What Readers Are Actually Saying (October 2026)

The Target is a backlist book that has been given a second life in audio. It came out in February 2007 and has built to 2,512 Goodreads ratings and 129 written reviews as of October 2026, a modest written footprint for its rating count. I could not check Reddit or TikTok for this one. The revival came in August 2019, when Tantor Media released an unabridged edition narrated by Abby Craden, running 7 hours 12 minutes, as part of a run of Hill’s backlist in audio, and listeners now make up a visible share of the most-read reviews.

Prefer audio? Listen to The Target on Libro.fm — the audiobook shop that supports independent bookstores.

Why readers love it (according to the discourse): The setting, above everything. The second theme is suspense, with readers calling it a page-turner. The third is the narration: every reviewer who names Abby Craden praises her. Amazon’s review summary lines up with Goodreads, describing the book as engaging from beginning to end, with high tension and characters readers grow attached to.

What readers argue about and complain about: First, the romance, which is the most repeated reservation in the lower-rated reviews. Second, the plot’s logic, which a few readers find convoluted or clichéd. Third, age: one reader finds the language and drama dated and the ending abrupt. None of these dominates; 24 of the 30 most-read reviews are four or five stars.

The standalone question worth asking first: The Target is a standalone with no required reading. Hill has written dozens of romances, and if you enjoy this one, her crime novels The Killing Room and Hunter’s Way are reviewed on this site.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is The Target by Gerri Hill a standalone?

Yes. It is a complete standalone romantic thriller, and you do not need to read any of Hill’s other books first.

How spicy is The Target?

A 3 out of 5. romance.io places it in its “open door” band, and readers single out one scene in particular.

Is The Target a bodyguard romance?

Yes. A homicide detective is recruited by the FBI to protect a senator’s daughter while posing as an ordinary member of her hiking group.

Where is The Target set?

On a two-week women’s trek through the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, with campsites, high peaks and hot springs along the way.

Is The Target available as an audiobook?

Yes. Tantor Media’s unabridged edition is narrated by Abby Craden and runs 7 hours 12 minutes.

If You Loved The Target, Read These Next

For another sapphic survival story in harsh terrain, try Snowbound. For more Gerri Hill with a detective at the centre, go to The Killing Room. For protection duty in a very different world, The Billionaire’s Bodyguard is a good match. For more like this, browse our lesbian bodyguard romance list and the rest of our book reviews.

The Bottom Line

The Target sets out to put a bodyguard romance on a mountain trail with a sniper in the trees, and it does. The setting is vivid, the survival plot moves fast and the group of women gives the book warmth. The romance is quicker and thinner than some readers want, the conspiracy does not bear much scrutiny and the 2007 vintage shows. If you want an atmospheric, suspenseful sapphic adventure with open-door heat, it is well worth it. Check The Target on Amazon →

The Eikna Overall Ranking

On the Eikna scale, The Target ranks as a dependable backlist Gerri Hill thriller — atmospheric, fast and well loved in audio, held back by a romance that runs second to the plot, and best approached as an adventure rather than as a slow-burn love story.