REVIEW: When Day Breaks by Maya Banks

In When Day Breaks (KGI #9) by Maya Banks, Eden is a beautiful highly successful model. She also has a very protective family who will do anything to keep her safe. When Eden’s father’s past comes back to haunt him, it is Eden who is threatened and in danger. To keep her safe, Eden’s father and brother’s hire the KGI group to protect her.

Swanny is part of the KGI team sent to protect Eden. Scared inside and out after a military mission gone wrong in Afghanistan, he has found a place to belong and a family within the KGI group. He is used to being on his own, and is completely unprepared for the instant attraction he feels for Eden. She is not at all what he expected and everything he secretly wants. He is determined not to let the attraction compromise the mission though. Swanny is not the only one feeling the unmistakable chemistry. Eden feels it to. Almost right away she knows who she wants…and it’s him. She is just as determined to pursue Swanny as he is to try to ignore how Eden makes him feel. What could she possibly see in him?

Will Swanny and the KGI group be able to keep Eden safe from danger? Or will Eden pay the ultimate price for someone else’s past regrets before she has a chance to explore what her and Swanny could have together?

When Day Breaks focuses mainly on the rapid evolution of Swanny and Eden’s relationship. The suspenseful action I am used to reading about in the KGI series was very secondary to Eden and Swanny. Swanny is a hot alpha man, who is more than capable of doing the job. Of all his scars, even though he fixates on the external, I got the feeling it’s the scars you can’t see that are more damaging. Eden is sweet, sheltered, and incredibly naive. She has led quite a sheltered life and her character is a little unrealistic, but I really liked her for Swanny. I felt like her innocence and love are just what Swanny needs if he can take the chance. She is the one person who can bring him to his knees, and make him look inside himself. I saw a lot of character growth mostly in Swanny in When Day Breaks. It was nice to see Eden help him banish his hidden insecurities.

Maya brings in a lot of characters from previous KGI books in When Day Breaks. I love the connection the KGI members have and how they really are one big family. Eden’s brothers and father are strong secondary characters also. There wasn’t as much interaction as I expected there would be though between the secondary characters and Eden and Swanny and I really would have liked more. I felt like Eden’s family was a bit of a contradiction and would liked to know a bit more about them. For example they are so protective of Eden in most ways, but don’t seem to be bothered at all with the speed of which Eden and Swanny’s relationship escalates. Maya has a great cast of characters to work with, but they don’t factor in much.

There was no gradual build up to a relationship between Eden and Swanny, they are just suddenly in one almost as soon as they meet. The chemistry between them is fantastic, but the whole thing was just a little over the top and not quite believable. When Day Breaks is labeled as romantic suspense and I would have liked to have seen a lot more suspense and action. It is impossible to review When Day Breaks without mentioning the other books in Maya’s KGI series, and this one did not have the suspenseful edge of your seat feeling and depth as some of the others do.

To get a feel for the characters and the KGI group I’d recommend reading the other books in the KGI series also. You can read When Day Breaks alone, but it has more meaning if read along with the other books in the series.

I’d recommend When Day Breaks to romance readers who like an instant, combustible connection with some background suspense.

Book Info:

Published June 24th 2014 by Penguin Group (USA) | (KGI #9)

The Kelly Group International (KGI): A super-elite, top secret, family-run business.
Qualifications: High intelligence, rock-hard body, military background.
Mission: Hostage/kidnap victim recovery. Intelligence gathering. Handling jobs the U.S. government can’t…

Eden is said to be one of the most beautiful women in the world. Her face has graced countless magazines and her body has sold millions of dollars of clothing. But her fame and beauty has earned her more than she ever imagined. Evil is stalking her, determined to extinguish the ethereal beauty forever.

Swanson or “Swanny” as his teammates call him is always up for the next mission. He came back from Afghanistan wounded and scarred. Hardly the kind of man who even belongs in the same room with Eden. And yet there’s something about the quiet beauty that stirs his blood and makes him dream of the impossible. Because Beauty loving the beast only happens in fairy tales and KGI doesn’t deal in fairy tales. Ever.