When Day Breaks

KGI, Book #9

By Maya Banks

ISBN# 9781101602614

Author’s Website:  https://mayabanks.com/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

Swanny has never quite been the same since he was captured and tortured.  He has found a place with KGI that has given him a purpose and a family, of sorts.  Marlene Kelly has taken him in and treats him as one of her sons.  However, Swanny is self-conscious about his scars and tries to hide the disfigured side of his face when talking to people.  He can’t imagine anyone seeing past his appearance now.

Eddie Sinclair is in a panic.  His past has come to haunt him.  A military operation went horribly wrong, when he was younger, and innocents were caught in the crossfire.  Eddie thought they got their vengeance when they killed his wife all those years ago, but now he is receiving threats toward his daughter, Eden.  He has no choice, but to call in KGI to protect her.

Swanny and the twins served with Eden’s brother, Ryker, in the military so when he called needing KGI’s help they didn’t hesitate.  Swanny remembers the letters Eden used to send Ryker that he shared with them and how proud Ryker was of his beautiful sister making it in the cutthroat modeling industry.  And, of course the pictures inspired many racy dreams of his.

You would expect a beautiful model like Eden to be self-centered and shallow.  The entire team is floored when they see that she is the exact opposite.  And even more mind-boggling to Swanny is when she comes on to him!  Things heat up between the two.  However, right as the mission is winding down they face their biggest threat of all.  They will need to rely on their strength and trust in each other to survive!

I really struggled with this book.  I can usually read a couple books a week, but this one took me TWO WEEKS by itself!  That’s crazy considering it’s just shy of 300 pages.  I found myself so bored with it that I was using any excuse to do something else and NOT read it.

I found the romance to be too unlikely and that it came about too quickly to be realistic.  I just couldn’t get invested in this couple.  And, when they were together they were incredibly sappy.  I found myself rolling my eyes mentally a lot during this book.  I don’t believe that a successful model would be so down-to-earth and caring no matter what her upbringing.  I also can’t imagine a model being a virgin either, and one that wants to forgo condoms.  I realize that all of that is probably an unfair stereotype, but I can’t help, but feel the way I do….  I also can’t envision a big tough former military man like Swanny to be so sickeningly sweet with the sappy love talk.  I felt like the author was just too flowery with this couple, and it didn’t read true to me.

I also got annoyed with the repetition.  How many times do they really need to mention Marlene’s abduction in their thoughts?  Eden and Swanny were also pretty repetitive.

The book did have a decent ending, but honestly I was just more relieved to finally be done with this story than anything else.  I’m really hoping the next installment of the series will be better.