Outrageous Heroes of Romance

Title: Hush
Author: Tal Bauer
Genre: M/M Romance, romantic suspense
Release Date: July 12, 2017
Publisher:  Tal Bauer
Length: 462 pages

Description:

A federal judge running from the truth.
A U.S. marshal running from his past.
A trial that can plunge the world into war.

Federal Judge Tom Brewer is finally putting the pieces of his life back together. In the closet for twenty-five long years, he's climbing out slowly, and, with the hope of finding a special relationship with the stunning Mike Lucciano, U.S. Marshal assigned to his D.C. courthouse. He wants to be out and proud, but he can't erase his own past, and the lessons he learned long ago.

A devastating terrorist attack in the heart of Washington, D.C., and the capture and arrest of the terrorist leads to a trial that threatens to expose the dark underbelly of America's national security. The Russian president is gravely injured and fixated on revenge, while a gay Russian dissident is arrested and put on trial in Judge Tom Brewer's courtroom.

As Russia beats the drums of war and the United States struggles to contain the trial before it races out of control, secrets and lies, past and present, collide in his courtroom, before his bench. With the world's attention fixed on Tom, secrets from his past explode during the course of the trial, which place him at the very center of the case and make him the only man who can try to stop the world's slide into war.


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OUR REVIEW

When we heard that Tal Bauer had released Hush, we were excited, but also a little worried. How could Bauer possibly write another book as good as the ones in The Executive Office series?

Well, we shouldn't have worried. Bauer has done it again! Hush is once again set in D.C., but this time, we are plunged into the fascinating world of the Federal Court system where Federal Judge Tom Brewer meets sexy U.S. Marshal Mike Lucciano.

Tom has been in the closet since being given an ultimatum between being gay and going to law school. So, for twenty-five years, he's been celibate, but now that he's found Mike and now that times have changed, maybe it's his chance to come out, to be himself, and live the life he's always wanted to have.

"Living like I have, I don't recommend it."

Mike pulled back slowly, his hands on Tom's shoulders. He searched Tom's gaze, his expression unreadable. "Why now? Why are you doing this now?"

He squirmed. "I... fell for a guy," he breathed. "I fell for this guy, this amazing guy. I think he's worth it."

Mike looked like Tom had just kicked his puppy. "Tom..."

"It's okay, I don't expect anything. I know I'm not your type. But you are amazing, Mike. Just this. Just... telling you." He squeezed his eyes shut. Licked his lips. "Feeling your hands on me. It's worth it." His eyes fluttered open.

"You need to stop saying that," Mike grunted.

"Saying what?"

"That you're not my type." Mike swiped his thumb over Tom's cheek, brushing away the river of tears. "I met this guy, too. He's..." Mike sighed. "He's so brave. So, so brave."

With Mike at his side, Tom decides to take baby steps towards coming out. First with friends, and maybe later at work. But then there's an attack on the Russian president on the steps of the Capitol, and Tom's worst nightmare begins to unfold.

He couldn't think. Couldn't put two and two together. Could not string neurons into a coherent thought. Blind panic had replaced all higher order functions. Pure, unadulterated panic.

This was everything he'd feared. Exposure, media evisceration, millions of eyeballs poring over his life, his every movement, following him everywhere he went. Fears fell like drenching rain, and he tried to swim out of the rising tide before he drowned. Mike, the choices he'd started making, planning for his eventual coming out.

[...]

All of that, everything he'd planned, every careful step he'd agonized over, was going up in smoke. 

Page by page, Bauer weaves a web of plots, deals, and double-crossings that will blow your mind when it all comes to a head in a Bauer's usual spectacular way.

OUR RATING: 5 stars!

See our review of Enemies of the State (The Executive Office, Book 1) here.
See our review of Enemy Within (The Executive Office, Book 3) here.