Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: One Marine, Hero
AUTHOR: E.M. Lynley
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 280 pages
BLURB:
He’s a hero to everyone but himself.
Marine helicopter pilot Captain Jake Woodley struggles after receiving the Medal of Honor for a mission where he didn’t bring every man back alive. Being called a hero and having his photo plastered across the news makes him hate himself more. He despises his cushy job flying with the Marine One squadron, carrying the president and other officials, when he’d rather risk something, even death. He gets his wish when he’s ordered to fly a series of classified trips.
Matt “Beau” Beaumont has been relegated to covering the fashion beat after getting downsized from a hard-news position. But an unexpected invitation to a White House dinner might be the boost his career needs. Offering a hot marine an after-dinner blowjob wasn’t on Beau’s agenda, but when Jake takes him up on the proposition, some phenomenal casual sex soon blossoms into a relationship both of them crave.
When Beau’s extracurricular research uncovers defense department funding anomalies, he soon discovers the trouble goes higher than he imagined. Just as events start to make sense, the investigation puts Beau and Jake in deadly danger. It takes a daring play by Jake—risking everything he loves—to uncover the truth.
REVIEW:
Beau Beaumont, writer of fashion stories for a Washington DC paper, former writer of political stories for another Washington paper, likes a man in a uniform. After a mistake is made with his name and the name of a political writer at his paper with the same last name, Beau and his best friend Laney attend the Autumn Correspondents’ Celebration at the White House. Beau catches the eye of a Marine in full dress uniform, stalks him a bit, then boldly offers the man a blowjob. Some sexy times are had, and Beau makes a new friend.
Jake Woodley has some issues. He’s called a “hero”, but doesn’t feel like one. He’s a helicopter pilot in the Marine Corps, formerly in combat, now in the HMX-1 Squadron, flying the President and other upper level officials around. Well, Jake isn’t flying POTUS yet, but he hopes to be. Sort of. He’s got a drinking problem and an attitude problem holding him back. He’s not a happy man at all. He’s got some serious guilt from a mission that went bad, losing a couple of fellow Marines, and he can’t let go of the blame. He’s a reluctant attendee at the Autumn Correspondents’ Celebration at the White House, when a lovely man asks if he wants a blow job. Why not? Seems like a cute guy…
This gets Jake and Beau together. It seems like it’s going to be a pretty straight (Ha!) forward romance, but it’s really not. Jake is pretty fucked up, as Beau comes to learn as they spend time together. Both keep secrets from the other, rightly so, this is a very new relationship and Jake has military things he can’t tell Beau. Beau is scared to tell Jake he writes fashion pieces, thinking Jake won’t be impressed. Jake of course finds out what he writes, and Beau finds out who Jake is. Things get serious as Beau finds out about Jake’s booze issues. Then there is this whole mysterious plot line going on… Beau gets himself involved in a research project that has ties to Jake, and they both end up in trouble.
So I have a confession to make… I have a close family member that spent four years in the HMX-1 Squadron. Not as a pilot, but still in this unit. I’ve been to Quantico multiple times, I’ve been on a Cage tour, I’ve sat in a helicopter a couple of times, and I’ve heard stories about the travel and the life of a Marine in this unit. When a fellow reviewer saw this book and messaged me I couldn’t decide if I wanted to read it or not. It’s like reading a book set in your home town, or featuring a character in the job you do, sometimes knowing details makes it harder to get in to a book and accept the story as it is, without seeing fault. I was going back and forth, until I saw the authors comments about working in the White House, and being familiar with the process of these big beautiful helicopters. So I thought, what the hell? How bad can it be? Not bad at all is the answer!
One of my HUGE and probably irrational pet peeves is an author or a character referring to a Marine as a soldier. I hate that. That one detail will toss me out of a book and piss me off. This book started out good, there were some details about the unit, the helicopters, and the base that had me happy. But you know when the author “got” me? With this exchange:
“Oh, you earned it, soldier.”
“Marine”
“Aren’t Marines soldiers?”
“No. Soldiers wish they were Marines.” Jake grinned.
“You earned it, Marine.”
“That’s better.”
Sold! From that point on I was happy to buy anything that E.M. Lynley would sell me! This is a great story. I loved the contrast between Jake the bad-ass Marine, and Beau the wearer of designer clothes. I liked the drama between them, Jake’s drinking and work schedule causing issues, and Beau’s attempt to help him. I liked the action of the mystery, although it felt a bit unrealistic to me. There were a few moments that I questioned the realism of some of the details, but those were small moments and they didn’t bother me. I also wasn’t a fan of the jealousy that comes up between them, that made me unhappy now and then. But mostly I just enjoyed the story!
I’ve read a few books by this author and I’ve liked them, this was by far the best though. Great research and writing, great characters with a good connection, and an interesting story. There is lots of sex but other than blow jobs it’s not overly descriptive, I thought that would bother me but I got over it. I liked the additional characters, even the kid next door, and I loved Daisy the dog! Overall it was just a great book, and I’d recommend it to anyone that likes military or political dramas.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
Vicki,
Thanks so much for the wonderful review! I’m so glad you think I did justice to the Marines and HMX-1. I wish I’d known your experience when I was writing this because research was tricky and short on details.
I bet it was tricky! It’s a pretty secretive thing…. I appreciate your respect and attempt to be accurate, that doesn’t always happen with books set in real world situations. I do understand it’s a challange to research things like this. Well done!