Book Review | On Point
8:30 PM
Title // On Point (Out of Uniform #3)
Author // Annabeth Albert
Publication Date // June 5, 2017
Publisher // Carina Press
Genre // LGBTQIA+
synopsis.
Never fall for your best friend…
Pushing thirty, with his reenlistment looming, decorated navy sniper Maddox Horvat is taking a long look at what he really wants in life. And what he wants is Ben Tovey. It isn’t smart, falling for his best friend and fellow SEAL, but ten years with Ben has forged a bond so intimate Maddox can’t ignore it. He needs Ben by his side forever—heart and soul.
Ben admits he likes what he’s seen—his friend’s full lower lip and the perfect muscles of his ass have proved distracting more than once. But Ben's still reeling from a relationship gone to hell, and he's not about to screw up his friendship with Maddox, too.
Until their next mission throws Ben and Maddox closer together than ever before, with only each other to depend on.
Now, in the lonely, desperate hours awaiting rescue, the real challenge—confronting themselves, their future and their desires—begins. Man to man, friend to friend, lover to lover.
review.
On Point is the third book in the Out of Uniform series by Annabeth Albert and focuses on the relationship between Maddox and Ben, two Navy SEALS who we have previously met in earlier books. It uses familiar and popular tropes - best friends-to-lovers and hurt/comfort - to flesh out the complicated relationship between these two men with different outlooks on life and love.
The story begins in the midst of a mission that soon goes awry, leaving Maddox and Ben - their friendship strained by a few choice decisions in recent months - seriously injured and at the mercy of the elements as they make their way back to their teammates for extraction. The reasons for the strain on their friendship is explained through flash backs and character thoughts as we switch perspectives between both main leads throughout the story.
Maddox has decided that he needs to reevaluate what he wants out of life. He’s accomplished a lot in the 10 years he’s been in the Navy, but he wants more. He wants a life outside of all that, and he wants Ben, his best friend who’s been by his side for the last decade. Ben, on the other hand, is reluctant to mess up the friendship that means so much to him. Still recovering from a relationship that ended badly - of which we as readers find out a little of throughout the story - Ben plays the field and as a result, causes more friction than before.
This story had a distinctly more military feel to it, given that it’s the first book in this series where the two protagonists are in the same SEAL team. It was great to read about the mission aspect of the story, while also reading about the harrowing experience Maddox and Ben have and the repercussions of their serious injuries and how it affects both of them mentally and physically in different ways.
As always, I love the inclusion of characters we’ve previously met, including Dylan, Apollo, Pike and Zac. It’s such a simple thing and yet it builds this world up for all of the books in the series.
For a book that deals with missions-gone-wrong and injury-recovery, there’s not a huge amount of angst in the book - which for me is a bonus, because I wasn’t looking for that in a read - but be aware of it when going in. If you like stories with HEA then definitely give this one a shot.
I gave On Point 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an eARC of this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts are my own.
0 comments