Eliza Cummings' life has come a long way from when she was a teenager. Now a highly valued member of Devereaux Security, Eliza has found her place in the world. One phone call shatters her peace though and sends her spiraling back into the darkest period of her life. This time Eliza has people she's willing to fight for though, and she'll die before she lets a monster from her past hurt her loved ones.

Wade Sterling is a self-made man and controls everything around him. What he can't seem to control is his reaction to Eliza and the feelings she stirs up in him. When Eliza disappears, Wade follows her but the Eliza he catches up with is nothing like the feisty warrior he took a bullet for. In her place is a panicked and scared woman that brings out all of Wade's protective instincts. Now determined to help the woman he considers his, Wade is going to have to face Eliza's past before they can have any future together.

I very much have a love/hate relationship with Maya Banks books and WITH EVERY BREATH is no exception. Ms. Banks creates these wonderful female characters that leap off the pages when they're in other peoples books but it seems that as soon as their stories come about, everything that made these ladies amazing is stripped down and we're left with a shell of a character you barely recognize. Eliza went from being a strong fighter in previous book in the Slow Burn series to a panic stricken woman who runs from her own team without explanation.

The other issue I had is that the previous books in this series have been very paranormal heavy. The women in these books all have some sort of psychic gift and it has played a big role in the books. In WITH EVERY BREATH, the psychic angle takes a back seat, almost becomes non-existent and the bad guy with the ability that Eliza spends the whole book being so scared of is barely a blip on the pages. The story spends all this time building him up to be this powerful monster and when he finally makes it onto the pages, it's over in the blink of an eye. While this has not been my favorite book in this series, this absolutely will not be my last Maya Banks book because she does write incredible stories. I always have hope that with every new book I will find the magic that made me fall in love with her books in the first place. I'm still a huge fan of the Slow Burn series, it's just that WITH EVERY BREATH won't be finding a spot on my keeper shelf. I have my fingers crossed for the next book, Just One Touch, which will give us Isaac's story.

Book Summary

Eliza Cummings fought free of a monster who terrorized her when she was an innocent teenager and helped put him away for good. She took a job with Devereaux Security Services and devoted every hour to taking down the very thing she’d nearly become. No one, not even those closest to her, know her darkest, shameful secrets. But now the killer has been set free on a legal loophole and it’s only a matter of time before he comes for her. Eliza’s only choice is to run and lead the monster away from the people she loves.

Wade Sterling has always lived by his own rules, a law unto himself who answers to no one. He’s never professed to be a good man, and he’s definitely not hero material. Wade never allows anyone close enough to see the man behind the impenetrable mask—but one woman threatens his carefully leashed control. He took a bullet for her and the result was more than a piece of metal entrenched in his skin. She was under his skin and nothing he did rid himself of the woman with the courage of a warrior and who thinks nothing of putting her life before others.

But when Wade sees a panicked and haunted Eliza he knows something is very wrong, because the fool woman has never had been afraid of anything. And when she tries to run, the primal beast barely lurking beneath his deceptively polished façade erupts in a rage. She may not know it, but she belongs to him. This time, Eliza isn’t going to play the protector. She was damn well going to be the protected. And as long as Wade breathes, no one will ever hurt what is his.