Often romances that feature Navy SEAL heroes tend to be a bit over the top. If you are willing to suspend disbelief, these books can be a lot of fun, filled with action and danger and steamy romance. Once a SEAL is…not that book. Rather, it provides a window into what I can only imagine is the true reality of the – sometimes mundane – life of a SEAL couple.

After a whirlwind four-week courtship, Aria Kavanagh is ready to marry Navy SEAL Dan McCullum. She should have a good idea of how chaotic life married to a SEAL will be when Dan is forced to arrive at the wedding via helicopter, fresh off his latest mission. When their honeymoon is cut short because a rare opportunity to get on-base housing falls in their laps, Aria isn’t sure that she’s going to like being a military wife. But she loves Dan so much, she’s willing to give it her best shot. Dan knows that it’s going to take Aria time to adjust, but he’s sure she’ll fit in with his unique lifestyle.

Aria moves on base and quickly comes to learn that life as military wife has both good and bad parts. The good: a crew of SEAL buddies willing to move new appliances and furniture off your front yard in the middle of the night. The bad: snippy military wives who think that their husband’s rank gives them the right to treat others poorly. When Aria’s uncle dies, she becomes the guardian of her younger brother, Jimmy.

It’s hard to begin a new life together when Dan is often gone on missions, leaving Aria to deal with a troubled Jimmy and life on the base. Thankfully, her best friend Mark is always ready to step in to lend a hand. For his part, Dan struggles to balance the high intensity of a job that takes him away without so much as a second’s notice with trying to be there for his new bride as she learns to adjust.

I know from reading the author’s bio in that back of the book that Ms. Elizabeth is married to a real live SEAL. As such, she affords the reader a lot of behind-the-scenes details that I found very interesting. For example, did you know that if a military person or spouse presents his/her DOD ID upside down when passing through housing security gates, the security guards will know that he/she is in distress and proceed accordingly?

While I appreciated this look at the hidden reality of life married to a Navy SEAL, I found the pacing to be a bit slow and tedious, something I attribute to a focus on details to the smallest possible level. We read how Aria goes about packing up their hotel room and how Dan organizes his clothes in his new closet. Too, some of the phrasing felt a bit old fashioned, especially given the nature and profession of the hero. When Dan thinks to himself “Oh yes, I married a very fiery vixen,” I had to keep from laughing out loud.

As if she knew that, while interesting, the day-to-day life of a military couple doesn’t necessarily warrant inclusion in a romance novel, in the second half of the book Elizabeth throws in a betrayal that puts Aria in danger and allows Dan to use his SEAL skills on the home front. I found this to be a tad bit silly, as if I’d been watching a documentary about global warming only to have Snidely Whiplash suddenly appear on the screen.

If you would like to read about the realistic side of life married to a Navy SEAL, then Once a SEAL may be the book for you. If you need your heroes and heroines and their adventures to be larger than life, you may want to skip this one.