Since Navy SEAL romance novels first appeared in the mid-1990s, they have gone in and out of fashion. In 2009, Marliss Melton, who has written a successful series of Navy SEAL romance books, was dropped by her publisher, Grand Central Publishing, because it wanted her to write about the theme du jour: vampires. She is self-publishing her next SEAL effort, “The Protector.”

On balance, though, Navy SEAL romance novels have proven to be reliable sellers in the romance suspense category, and several have made the New York Times bestseller list, including “Dark Viking” by Sandra Hill, which features a SEAL who travels in time to the land of the vikings, one of seven viking Navy SEAL books she’s written…

That desire for realism extends to the female characters, who, unlike heroines in decades past, are not easily swept off their feet. For instance, Natalie Benoit, the heroine in White’s new book, considers SEAL Zach MacBride with wariness: “It wasn’t right for any man to be so dangerous and so sexy at the same time. Her adrenal glands and her ovaries were locked in a shouting match now, the former insisting she needed to run away fast, the latter wishing he’d kiss her again.”