Once a Soldier by Mary Jo Putney

We've met Will Masterson on the Lost Lord series.his brother Mac got married in "Nowhere Near Respectable" and we know from these stories that Will was once married and mourned the loss of his wife. In the beginning of this book, he is saving the lives of people who were thrown off a bridge wile trying to flee the French. He was deemed an enemy and sentenced to death. The latter part happened while he was unconscious and he wakes up in a prison cell with (presumably) the rest of the heroes in this series.
Of course, they manage to break out (otherwise that would be a short book) and go their separate ways, but not before creating a plan to stay in touch. This episode is the last in a series that causes Will to realize that he's ready to get out of the army. But just as he's ready to take off, one of the men from the breakout shows up asking him to return a small army unit to the country of San Gabriel. It seems the whole unit is not ready to go and they need an officer-type to be in charge. Will figures, why not?
When he gets to San Gabriel, he meets Athena Markham, an English subject like himself. She's in San Gabriel helping the princess rule the country, keeping it together since the king and prince have been taken by the French. Everyone is very relieved that the war is over but they are suspicious that the calm might not last for long since San Gabriel is a lovely valley country with (apparently) no strong men there to help rule the country.
I generally liked both Will and Athena. The story lumbered a bit in places but was overall fairly enjoyable.

This book comes out June 28
Three and a half stars