Saving Will, by Stephanie Vaughan

Stephanie Vaughan was one of my favourite discoveries last year, and as soon as I finished Crossing the Line, I went looking for her backlist. Among them was
Saving Will.

Will Bruschetti's life is simple. As a Navy SEAL he trains hard, works hard, and plays hard. Experience has taught him not to trust anyone outside the teams -- a woman least of all. But Will never expected to meet anyone like Lee Ann.

Newly relocated to San Diego, Lee Ann Hunt has traded in her expensive lifestyle as one of Hollywood's top entertainment attorneys to do something that matters to her. Smart, sexy and caring, Lee Ann is the epitome of everything Will ever wanted in a woman.

Burned before, Will knows the military life is a relationship killer, and vows to enjoy what the lovely lawyer has to offer while keeping his heart safely out of play. But for once, safe is a lonely place to be. Can Lee Ann save Will from himself?

I wasn't quite as bowled over by this one as I was by some of her other books, but it was all right. A B-.

First thing that struck me about Saving Will was how vanilla it seemed after the other three... I mean, two of those were gay romance, and the third had a dominance/submission theme, so it was interesting to read this one and see how Vaughan does without all those very different extras, some of which I enjoyed so much.

The first half is quite nice, but nothing too different. It's a pretty basic boy-meets-girl story. Lee Ann has just moved in to a new house, after leaving her old high-powered job in Hollywood. When she meets Will, her next-door neighbour, she's instantly overwhelmed by her attraction to him, and Will feels the exact same way. They are quick to act on that attraction and they begin a relationship. But just as things are getting more serious between them, Will is sent abroad on a long mission.

There's something a bit clichéd in the guy who distrusts all women just because one wronged him in the past, and, to some extent, this is the situation with Will. The last time he went on a mission and left a woman he was having a relationship with behind, she cheated on him, so when he has to leave Lee Ann behind, a woman he cares even more about, he's worried. He doesn't go overboard with it, though, just worries about it, but is pretty hopeful Lee Ann will turn out to be a different kind of person.

However, when he comes back and finds what he feels is a suspicious situation, he blows up. He says some very hurtful things to Lee Ann, and she, deeply offended and disheartened to find out exactly what the man she's come to think she could fall in love with thinks of her, kicks him out on his ass and refuses to have anything else to do with him.

Will realizes pretty quickly that he's been a jerk and that he was completely wrong in his assumption, so the rest of the book, then, is basically about Will having to win Lee Ann back... and it very definitely isn't an easy task; he really has to work for it. If you like a good grovel, you'll probably enjoy this part. I know I did!

I would have rated Saving Will a B, if it weren't for an issue that just doesn't get that much air time here, but that was something that bothered me. Their life from then on kind of worried me. I'd probably hate knowing that the man I love will be regularly going to risk his life at dangerous hot spots so hot they could qualify as hell, and that this will mean plenty of very long separations during which I won't know if he's dead or alive. I suppose I could have been able to handle this if it had been at least seriously discussed by Will and Lee Ann, but he basically dismisses her concerns when she brings them up, telling her not to worry, that there's no risk he could be killed. Er... not a good enough answer for me!