Tight Quarters

Trigger warnings: (view spoiler)[suicide, homophobia, description of child abuse, cancer (hide spoiler)] I’ve read a few of the earlier books in the Out of Uniform series, but missed the last few, but I decided to pick up this one anyway. It works perfectly fine as a standalone, though I recognized several of the secondary characters from previous books. Spencer was quiet for several long beats. “I’m not going to be embedded forever,” he said softly, almost as if he couldn’t believe he was letting himself speak. “Tell you what, sometime down the road, you get leave, you still want to burn up my sheets, you let me know. I’m not fucking you in this sorry excuse for a rowboat—” “Kissing?” Bacon couldn’t contain his hopefulness. “Ha. I don’t trust myself to stop at a kiss.” Bacon is a Navy SEAL sniper with a minor injury that’s preventing him from being in alpha squad – the best members of the team, the ones who do most of the heavy lifting – and is even more put out when he ends up assigned to babysit a journalist for their next mission. However, the journalist is none other extremely sexy, charismatic, and confident silver fox Spencer Bryant, named most eligible bachelor of the year by a gay magazine. Expecting the man to be a disappointment in person, Bacon’s surprised when Spencer is able to keep up with the team and follows orders. Bacon’s impulsive, but even he knows better than to start something with Spencer while he’s still embedded, but after a mission gone wrong leads to Spencer’s time with the team being cut short, their chemistry turns into a one night stand, and then, slowly, the beginnings of a relationship. But Spencer’s next project – an expose on the treatment of special forces spurred by the suicide of a friend – will put him at odds with the Navy and jeopardize Bacon’s career. Are both their jobs that they’ve worked so hard for more important than their chance at love? One of Ms. Albert’s strengths is her complex characters. Bacon is pan, with a deep and sad backstory, and not out to his team, some of whom don’t hesitate to make homophobic slurs every chance they get. Despite that, he still is incredibly loyal to his team and proud of being a SEAL. He also has an emo/goth side, a relic of his childhood in a rural community, one that he doesn’t show much to the world, but it’s one of the many facets that fascinate Spencer. Spencer is gay, and while he’s been previously married, that relationship failed under the stresses of the constant travel that comes from his job. The two had such great chemistry even with the slow-burn due to the deployment, but the part of their relationship I loved most was how much laughter and joy they had together. Yeah, there’s hot sex, but they also spend lots of time talking and just being a regular domestic couple. Most of the angst in this book comes from Spencer’s actions and misunderstanding of what motivates Bacon – and what motivates himself, and there was a bit of a tearjerker ending from Spencer’s mentor. Overall, I very much enjoyed this book, and I will definitely be going back to catch up with the rest of the series. If you love complex characters and a steamy slowburn romance, you’ll love this book! I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.