Title: Tight Quarters
Series: Out of Uniform: Book Six
Author: Annabeth Albert
Publisher: Carina Press
Length: 336 Pages
Category: Contemporary
At a Glance: The story itself got better and better as it went on, and I totally loved the end. I ended up enjoying this one a ton.
Reviewed By: Jules
Blurb: Petty Officer Bacon, a navy SEAL and ace sharpshooter, has been on the front lines of more than his fair share of dangerous ops. Yet when a minor injury relegates him to the beta team, he’s tasked with what may be his riskiest assignment yet: the silver fox journalist he’s babysitting is the hottest, most charismatic man he’s ever encountered.
Award-winning journalist Spencer Bryant may have been named one of Pride magazine’s most eligible bachelors of the year, but he’s not looking to change his relationship status. He’s a consummate professional who won’t risk his ethics or impeccable reputation by getting involved with a source. Even a sexy-as-hell military man. But while Spencer can resist his physical attraction to Bacon, he has less control over his emotions—especially when the mission goes sideways and the two men are trapped alone.
Getting out of the jungle alive turns out to be easy compared to facing the truth about their feelings for one another back in the real world. And whether or not they can build a future is a different story altogether.
Review: I love Annabeth Albert’s Out of Uniform series, and after missing books four and five, it was great to be back with Albert’s SEALs for Tight Quarters, the sixth book in the collection. In this book, only one of the MCs is a man in uniform, though. One of the guys is Petty Officer Delbert Lawrence Bacon Junior—just ‘Bacon’ to his fellow SEALs—but the other is award-winning journalist, and one of Pride magazine’s most eligible bachelors, Spencer Bryant.
Spencer is well known for his thought-provoking newspaper articles and features in news magazines as well as a couple of books, including one about veterans. It’s the book on vets that helped get him picked to embed with Bacon’s SEAL team, which is about to be deployed for a mission. The bummer part for Bacon—aside from the fact that NOBODY on the team is happy about having a damn journalist with them, slowing them down—is that, because of an injury, he is the one who is assigned babysitting duty and has to hang with Spencer. This isn’t Spencer’s first rodeo, though, and he’s hardly just some aging journalist. While they’re training for their mission, Bacon finds out that his charge is not simply some burden he’s stuck with but is a totally capable, strong, and self-sufficient guy. Oh, and he’s also hot. And, on top of that, he’s a good guy. It’s obvious pretty much immediately that Bacon is screwed.
They do get deployed, but the mission goes south. Bacon and Spencer end up running into some danger when they’re headed to the rendezvous point, and Bacon has to shoot three men to save Spencer. Suddenly, Bacon’s normal position as the main sniper on Team Alpha is no longer just an abstract bit of knowledge to Spencer. He now has a first-hand account of where Bacon needs to be mentally in order to do his job on a mission. I thought Albert did a great job portraying the emotions both Bacon and Spencer went through when that happened. I loved that they talked about it and that Spencer cared so much about what Bacon needed afterward, and that he even got that he would need some space and TLC.
After that first phase of the mission is over and Spencer gets sent back stateside, the book takes on a bit of a different tone. The action settles down, except for some quick glances at Bacon in the field, and we see the relationship start to build and develop between the MCs. I enjoyed the author’s use of emails, and the snippets of time they got to be together when Bacon was on leave between deployments. I loved the picture Albert painted of the domestic routine they got into while spending that time together. I loved how being with Spencer calmed Bacon, allowed him to just let go of everything else and quieted his mind.
There were a lot of things I really felt like the author got right with this story. One of which was with regard to Bacon’s sexual orientation. Bacon is pansexual. He’s out to his best friend, Curly, but not to anyone else on the team. It was interesting that Albert chose to have a pansexual MC. It’s good to see so many different kinds of representation happening in the genre, and I liked the way she handled the discussion. Spencer sort of questions Bacon when he comes out to him as pan, commenting that it’s pretty uncommon to meet people who identify that way. It allowed Bacon to tell his story—specifically about falling in love with Jamie, his genderfluid best friend in high school—and it felt like a very genuine and realistic conversation.
I ended up enjoying this one a ton. While I loved Spencer from his first appearance, it took a bit of time for Bacon to truly grow on me. But, I wound up really, really adoring him. In fact, the story itself got better and better as it went on, and I totally loved the end. I’m sure I’ll end up going back and checking out the books I missed, but I’m so glad I picked this one up anyway. I couldn’t resist the May-December romance between these guys. And, thank goodness, too, because they were sexy as hell. And now I also can’t wait for Rooster’s book, which is coming up next!!
You can buy Tight Quarters here:
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