Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Better Late than Never
AUTHORS: L.A. Witt
PUBLISHER: GallagherWitt Publishing LLC
LENGTH: 442 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2025
BLURB:
Lieutenant Commander Connor Marks is starting over. His kids are grown up. His divorce is final. He’s settled into his new command and a beautiful house in Spain. Nothing left to do but move forward.
And maybe explore his bisexuality after all this time.
Unfortunately, his options are limited. He doesn’t speak enough Spanish to connect with the locals, and getting involved with other service members can get… complicated.
When HM1 Alex Barlow stumbles across a hot guy on a hookup app, of course it’s that gorgeous new physician Alex sees all the time at the hospital. Of course he’s looking to hook up with a guy. Of course he’s exactly Alex’s type.
The only problem is that Connor is an officer while Alex is enlisted. The fraternization regs are crystal clear—they can’t even be friends, never mind hook up.
Never mind be more than hookups.
But the Navy’s regs can’t cool the chemistry sizzling between Alex and Connor.
And nothing—not even their own stubbornness or Alex’s toxic, persistent ex—can stop them from falling in love.
CW: Discussion of past abuse, brief on-page violence; combat-related PTSD.
REVIEW:
Lt. Commander Connor Marks has just gotten divorced and taken his first overseas assignment. He’s in Spain and discovering that the language barrier is more than an inconvenience. He’s always been bisexual, but got married very young when he got his HS girlfriend pregnant and they got married. He joined the Navy for stability and a paycheck but the long deployment separations caused issues for them when he missed a lot of family life. Then he decided to go to Medical school, so his commitment has been extended. Now his kids are grown and he and Aimee, his ex-wife are moving on with their lives. He would like his to include being with a man. So he gets on a local app.
Alex Barlow is looking forward to his retirement from the Navy. He’s got a skill in radiology and he’s looking forward to finally living his life as a gay man. He’s not “come out” while he’s in the service and uses apps for hookups. He unfortunately did more than that with Tobias, a civilian contractor who has ended up being a problem. He was so desperate for scraps that he put up with a lot from Tobias that he shouldn’t have. Tobias is not happy that Alex cut things off.
Alex also has a sort of regular f*buddy – a guy in the Spanish Navy. But they don’t speak the same language to that really just barely scratches the itch. Alex is hoping that will be enough until he can retire and return stateside. He doesn’t get to see his family and he feels like the odd man out there with his parents time being spent with his siblings and their kids. It’s always the question of when he’ll settle down.
Then Alex sees the new doc on the hookup app. Tobias even drops by to point him out. The “profile” states that he’s new to the gay scene and is hoping to ease into things. Alarm bells go off for Alex that is Tobias gets his hooks into the new doc, things could go bad fast given what he knows about how untrustworthy and manipulative Tobias is. He decides to risk an uncomfortable conversation to warn Connor about Tobias.
Connor is embarrassed but grateful to Alex. He’s definitely a fish out of water and Alex reluctantly agrees to “help” Connor in his first foray into the queer world. They go away – separately – to another resort town where Connor gets his first taste of a gay club. He’s uncertain at first, but Alex is encouraging and he ends up dancing with some men.
When they get back to their town/duty though, it’s clear that these two really just want each other. There are so many reasons why they should not do this. It’s literally career suicide – particularly for Alex – if they get caught. But they can’t seem to keep away from each other. Connor has a secluded house and they meet there. It’s only supposed to be a no strings attached hooking up. You know how that goes 😉
Things get more serious and the stakes get higher. Connor’s kids can tell their dad is different. Both men are catching serious feelings and there is an inquiry from the base command. Neither wants to give up on this, but Alex still can’t believe someone like Connor would be interested in him. Nobody else seems to think he’s worth it. Oh, and they are both struggling with PTSD as well, but they can work on that together too. There is a lot at stake here and more than one possible landmine in their way.
Right off the bat, I’m going to just acknowledge that this is a very long book. It took me a bit to get into it and there is a lot of time elapsed before there is anything resembling a relationship. At first I was getting frustrated. However, I decided that this was deliberate in the end, because in fact, with two men whose careers are on the line, the dance to do anything against the code would be fraught with worry and hesitation. We’re talking about two men who had almost 40 years in the Navy between them. Alex is already on the countdown of 18 months to retirement. He’s got PTSD that he isn’t allowed to get treatment for without potentially derailing his career. He’s got serious self-esteem issues due to bad relationships and a family who doesn’t seem to value him. Connor is so happy to be with someone who makes him happy. It takes some effort and some truths to get Alex to see that he IS worth it (and some therapy to boot). There is a lot of information packed into this book – hence the large page count. With high stakes come high commitment. I loved where these guys ended up. Oh and I do love it when a bad guy gets what coming to him 😀 If you’re into military romances, bisexual characters getting a happy ending, overcoming adversity and a hard won HEA, this is the book for you. Highly recommended.
RATING: 
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