Review: Adored it
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 7, 2014
I can guarantee that Cat Grant and L.A. Witt have written this first book in their 'Only One' series for ME. Navy SEALS. Hello? In my world they are the second hottest military personnel after the US Marine Corps. SEALS are rumored to be the toughest and the sexiest in the Navy, hands down, so then throw in some male/male love and I pretty much thought I'd died and gone to heaven. In fact, my husband ripped my iPad out of my hands to ensure I'd get some sleep. *pouting and pissed*BUD/S training. I've heard some of the horrors, seen the Hollywood movie versions, but jumping right into it with Chief David Flint screaming at Lieutenant Josh Walker was eerily terrifying and my body hurt watching the paces Josh was put through. And, what I saw was just a tiny amount of the whole hellish training. *gulp* Flint gives Josh a kick in the butt which turns out to be the best motivation needed. A few weeks later when training is on hold for the holidays and everyone is out at the bar, Flint and Josh run into each other. Josh is surprised to discover that Flint graduated from the Academy, too, spent six years in the Marines, decided he wanted to be a SEAL, so he gave up his commission and enlisted in the Navy. Pretty damn impressive. Josh offers to drive Flint home as Josh is stone cold sober and Flint had a couple. Along the way, Flint teases him about taking Josh away from the only tail he's going to see in a while, and, well, that's when it inadvertently comes out that Josh is gay. Now Josh doesn't know what to think as Flint hasn't said anything negative, but he's also acting very uncomfortable even though he offers to let Josh wait inside his apartment for the cab."'I'll keep it quiet,' Flint locked eyes with him and stepped closer. 'As long as you will too.' 'What?' Josh furrowed his brow. 'If I don't want you to out me, why the hell would I out myself?''I wasn't talking about outing yourself.''Then what the hell--' Josh's jaw dropped. 'Oh. Oh'Flint took another step towards him. 'Do we have an understanding, Lieutenant?'"When Flint asks him to not call him chief for one night, to call him David, and then kisses him, well this is Josh's fantasy come to life and oh holy hell is it hot, and smoking, and incendiary and "I need a really cold shower now, thank you". I was pretty much a bundle of limp goo at the end. Thanks, Cat and Lori, I needed that. *grins* It, of course, could only be a onetime thing as they just broke a lot of rules, but neither one will forget it, or each other.Three years later, Senior Chief Flint is reporting for duty and is shown into Lieutenant Commander Joshua Walker's office. Fate either loves these two or hates them. I wasn't really sure for a while. It certainly doesn't take David and Josh much time to get back between the sheets, even knowing if found out both of their careers would be in the toilet. "'There is so much at stake here. We've both worked way too hard to get where we are, and I don't want....'  'You don't want to throw it away over a fling.' Josh chewed his lip. 'Neither do I. I'm just not sure that's what we'd be doing.' Flint's eyebrows shot up again."Oh, the total skeeze-bucket chief who blackmails Josh for a glowing eval so he can make senior chief and then retire. I despise people like that! Dear goddess, you're a Navy SEAL for criminy sakes, you should never stoop to blackmail to get a good eval. Jerk. Ugh. On a lighter note, I was really impressed with the authors' military lingo and the action scenes for the team's deployment. It was very exciting and I got really caught up in the moment. I felt like I was right there being terrified with Josh waiting for some information from the hospital on David's status from his gunshot wound.Returning stateside isn't exactly the relief it should be as Josh's higher-ups are all wondering why he didn't tell anyone he was being blackmailed and then he took his whole team, including the chief, on the mission. It seems they somehow believe Josh was going to give the chief a glowing eval and not deal with this at all, no matter how many times Josh explains that he didn't want this issue upsetting the team before a mission and he wouldn't have been able to replace the chief, who is also their medic, before they were scheduled to deploy. Politics, yuck.Oh, I really adored this story and can't wait for the next one. I fell for both Josh and David, and rooted for their happy ending the whole time. It broke my heart when David got the medical discharge after nineteen years in the military. Seeing these guys get their happy ever after made everything worthwhile and now I'm on pins and needles for the next installment.NOTE: This book was provided by Samhain Publishing for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews