Review: With One Breath

✩✩✩

Laila’s not the type of woman who needs rescuing. Except for a tiny rule-breaking penchant, she’s a model CIA agent—smart, resourceful, brave, and very very determined.. But right now she’s in a tight situation—in more than one way. She’s hiding from the Taliban in a network of pitch-dark interlocking caves, so narrow a cat could barely thread its way through them. A cat or an agent trained for it.

And that would be Jase, her designated rescuer.

Once her CIA training agent, he’s the last man she’d get involved with, even though he’s the hottest guy she’s ever met. He’s bossy. Intimidating. Way too alpha. And a strict rule follower.

All traits on her ‘no fly’ list.

Set against the tense U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, this rapid-fire tale begins with electrifying action, moves on to fast-flying sparks, and never lets up. Laila’s on the way to Kabul to leave the country, where she also teaches a class of village girls, when her driver betrays her. She outwits him, but it’s only a matter of time till the Taliban track her down.

She’s never been so glad to see Jase.

Romance should be the last thing on either’s mind as they frantically crawl and slither their way through the claustrophobic caves, desperate to find an exit. Still, infatuation sparks.

And smolders.

But neither can afford to take their eyes off their own goals. Jase’s is simple--to rejoin his team and deliver Laila safely to Kabul. But Laila has a more ambitious agenda, one that will require breaking rules, disobeying orders, and endangering the whole team.

Genre: romantic suspense

Publication date: March 2022

Mature content: yes

Review: I really wanted to like this book, and I did like the general idea of the plot, but several things spoiled it for me:

• the instant attraction was a bit over the top
• Laila is the clingiest CIA agent I have ever read about. She seems to behave just fine on her own but turns into a spineless woman as soon as Jase is around
• she's terrible at following simple instructions. "Pick up the weapon, watch the tunnel and shoot any bad guys that come through" quickly turns into "he's taking so long and I'm so lost without him, let's put down the weapon, turn my back to the tunnel and try to see why Jase is taking so long to come back to me."  Definitely not what you expect from a CIA operator
• three special forces operators are convinced by a CIA agent to ignore their orders and venture into unknown, unfriendly territory to pick up a local family who may or may not betray them, because of course that's sort of unsanctioned operation makes total sense. Apparently they are not even remotely punished for disobeying orders

There were several other details that irked me a bit, but these were the main ones. After that, the story lost a lot of the glow and I just trudged through it until the end. Three stars for an interesting idea, but With One Breath deserved better characters and a more consistent plot. 

With One Breath is book one in the Blackhawk Security series by Margaret Watson, but I'm not sure I'm up for reading any of the following books any time soon.

Happy readings otherwise!

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

See it on Amazon