Reviewed by Tori (Vicki)
TITLE: Once Burned 
SERIES: Anchor Point #6
AUTHOR: L.A. Witt
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 289 pages
RELEASE DATE: April 9th, 2018
BLURB:
Captain Mark Thomas’s world has been tossed on its head: A long overdue but still unexpected divorce. A promotion out of left field. Last-second orders to a ship where careers go to die. As the dust settles in his new home, he barely recognizes his life, but he sure recognizes the loneliness creeping in.
Diego Ramírez wants nothing to do with the military or its men. Not after the Navy burned him both literally and figuratively, costing him his career, his health, and ultimately his green card. Now working illegally in an Anchor Point bar, he keeps the military and its personnel at arm’s length.
But after a single moment of eye contact across the bar, Mark and Diego can’t resist each other. As a one-night stand quickly turns into more, Diego knows he’s playing with fire. Now he can stick around and let things with Mark inevitably fall apart, or he can run like hell and wonder what might have been. One way or another, Diego knows he’s about to get burned. Again.
50% of the author’s royalties from this book will be donated to charities supporting US military veterans who have been deported or are at risk of deportation.
REVIEW:
Oh yea! Diego gets a story….
We met Diego in Going Overboard, the fifth book in this series. He is best friends/former fuck-buddies with Dalton (from book 5), and I was very curious about his backstory. We are told that he doesn’t date Navy men, which is what caused his breakup with Dalton, before they really had much of a start. It seems like Diego could easily have fallen for Dalton, if only he could have gotten past the no Navy rule. Now we find out WHY he has this rule. Diego was in the Navy, but was injured, and while he was recovering, he was kicked out, and lost his ability to apply for citizenship. He’s now working under the table, barely keeping himself fed, and still trying to send money to his family. He is barely recovered from his injuries, and has some serious PTSD. He’s unable to go to a doctor or hospital since he can’t afford to pay for it, and although he has benefits coming to him from the Navy, including care at a VA hospital, he’s afraid to go in case the realize he’s not a citizen and deport him. Basically he’s a mess!
Then we have Mark. Mark is very recently divorced, career Navy, recently promoted and posted to a ship that is stationed at Anchor Point. He contributed to the downfall of his marriage by cheating on his wife, both with women and men, and has a healthy fear of commitment. He was going to retire, but when he was given the promotion about the time of his divorce, he decided to just keep going. He gets settled in his new house in Anchor Point, and decides the best thing to do is go get laid! Not having been with a man for awhile, finding some random stranger for a quickie seems like a good plan. He finds the local gay bar, the High-&-Tight, and off he goes.
Where he sees the hot bartender and settles in for some flirting. Only to be turned away, because the guy wants nothing to do with a Navy man! Oh but wait…. maybe he does.
So Diego breaks his rule and goes home with Mark for a bit of fun in the sack. The two proceed to fuck like bunnies, each getting what they need out of their relationship. But as things progress, Diego’s story comes out, and the hidden care-taker in Mark comes out. Back and forth they go for a bit, it seems like they’ll get it sorted out and become a functioning couple, only for Diego to get cold feet and back off. Mark tries to help, and only makes it worse in Diego’s eyes. We see Diego breakdown and have a massive panic attack, and Mark helps him through it. We see them watch football together, go on an overnight trip, and have some really good times together. But it’s all tempered by Diego’s reluctance to commit, and Mark’s fear of fucking up a relationship.
I’ll stop there, you’ll have to read the book to find out what happens!
I read the first couple of books in this series and liked them, LA Witt is one of my favorite authors, and she is a Navy spouse so when she writes a book about the Navy you know it is authentic. When I found out I was getting to review this 6th book, I binge read the three in the middle I hadn’t read yet, so I went in to this one all up to date on the series. I will say that this was by favorite! My only issue with it, and I noticed the same trend in earlier books was the repetition of a theme. In this one it was Diego’s anti-Navy stance, and Mark’s conviction that he’s bad at relationships. Both of those issues were harped on a little too often for my taste. But otherwise I loved this book! On the surface it seems like just about book about a military man trying to have a relationship with someone not in the service, but once we learn about Diego’s plight it took on a whole different feeling. I was very disturbed by Diego’s story, and was heartbroken to understand that it really happens. I see in the blurb that the author is donating half of her royalties to charities that will help deal with this, which means I’ll go buy this book when it comes out.
As I said, LA Witt knows her military, and I have continued to learn from her books. I really appreciate her accurate descriptions of military life, from the standpoint of the service member, the former service member, and the partner/spouse of the service member. This series of books covers all of it. Some are lighter in angst, this one is not! Diego’s stress and anxiety was difficult to read, and I was stressed right along with him. I love it when a characters emotions affect me like that. I loved Diego, and I was so happy when he finally let his barriers down with Mark. I liked seeing Mark’s transition throughout this book, as he begins to care for Diego emotionally. I loved the physical relationship between them, the sex is obviously hot at first, and remains so, but as they become emotionally connected it gets even better.
I loved this book! Great characters with some good back stories, great sex, an engaging plot, and an ending that was exactly what I wanted for these two. I didn’t like what I learned about yet another way we let down our veterans, but I liked that I learned about, if that makes any sense. I appreciate that the author brought it to our attention, even though I hated knowing that it’s real. Definitely my favorite book of the series. Yes, these can be read as standalone books, but books five and six tie in together with Diego being in each. Book five was my second favorite, so I recommend reading that one as well. I can’t wait to see what the next book brings us! If you have read the others, obviously you have to read this one. If you haven’t read any of them, pick this one up and give it a try! If you are in to books about military characters, you’ll love it.
RATING: 
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