Love that isn't forbidden

I've just finished the book False Colors by Alex Beecroft. It is advertised as a male/male romance and takes place in the English Navy in 1762. I bought it when it was offered for a low price back when Border's was going out of business. Yeah, I'm only now getting around to reading it.

The story was entertaining enough that I read the whole thing (333 pages), even though it was obvious within the first couple chapters that John and Alfie (short for Aelfstan) would eventually be together. Yeah, there were 300 pages of things that kept them apart, both of their own making and outside forces.

All that would not have been enough for me to bother writing about it. This part is: The book is described as being about "forbidden love" -- and we see how forbidden when Alfie is court martialed. With the gains we've made over the last few years (the book was published in 2009) I'm no longer interested in our relationships being described as forbidden (along with all the angst that goes with that). I feel we've come to the point where gay relationships can be richly explored, just like straight ones. I've read lots of books that do just that.

There was another aspect of the story that annoyed me. Yeah, Alfie and John are together at the end. But Alfie just went through a court martial because he was accused of doing what he and John are now doing. So what happens next? What lengths do they go through to avoid both being court martialed? Or do they leave the Navy? If so, where do they live and what do the neighbors say? If the whole story is of forbidden love their trials aren't over because they finally see they're right for each other.

One could argue that the book isn't worth such deep analysis. So, I'm done.