ONCE A SOLDIER is book one in the new Rogues Redeemed series by Mary Jo Putney. This series will showcase a group of English spies who were all captured by the French and are awaiting death at sunrise in Portugal. They talk about what they would do with their lives if they were reprieved, and after a hard-won escape, the men agree to keep in touch by means of a secret contact in a London bookstore. Book one follows Major Lord Will Masterson on his final mission to San Gabriel, a small country bordering Spain and Portugal, to assess San Gabriel's stability after the rampages of Napoleon's forces.

Will meets his match in Athena Markham at San Gabriel's court. Athena is an illegitimate and unacknowledged English nobleman's daughter. She's eye-rolling described over and over as Amazonian, being tall and fiercely independent. I do love how smart and unflappable she is, actually. Athena has been in San Gabriel for the last five years, most recently supporting the young and untried princess while her father the king and her brother have disappeared while fighting Napoleon. Amazingly, Athena knows how to manage a country and how to guide Princess Sophia to become a worthy sovereign. She becomes a savior of sorts for the princess and the small country, which seems unlikely for the time.

Athena and Will are immediately drawn to each other, but Athena's past prevents her from allowing Will to seriously pursue her initially. The two work closely together to help San Gabriel recover from the tumultuous war, and make preparations for a coming attack by ragtag remaining French forces. There is a lot of text devoted to the nitty gritty of fixing vineyards and bridges, which slows the story for me. I do like the natural appearance of the slow-growing respect and trust between Athena and Will as the story builds, but it does contribute to the feeling of slowness.

Sometimes the story seems a bit simplistic. The solutions to a number of difficulties over the course of the book feel too pat and easy. This understated love story is not one of Putney's best works. Having been a long term fan of Mary Jo Putney for many years, I will certainly pick up the next in the series however, as she has earned auto-read status for me. ONCE A SOLDIER is a slow romance set against the lovingly portrayed backdrop of war-torn Europe at the end of Napoleon's devastating campaign.