Bi-Erasure and mixed messages on orientation

There is a belief among some readers/listeners of MM that books written by Gay male authors are somehow better and more 'authentic' because the author has the right equipment and experience of the sexual activity they write about. That belief is unfounded with Tal Bauer's writing.
Tal Bauer's writing is inconsistent. He writes great thriller content, but then he ruins it with longwinded internal monologues from the POV of main characters - expressing their inner thoughts in a way that is so cheesetastic, that I don't know whether to laugh or barf. It's a shame that when Tal Bauer writes Romance he has to throw every ingredient in the pantry into the mix. It makes the story melodramatic and removes the reader from the story as they constantly eye roll!
There was some good political thriller content in this story - but Bauer followed the same old trope of 'America are the best' and 'America saves the world'. With the current political turmoil that dried out old prune of a trope has had its day.

What struck me the most when it came to the romance between Jack and Ethan was the Bi-erasure of Jack's character. The man was in love with/having sex with a man and yet there was NEVER any consideration of his orientation other than that he was a proud STRAIGHT WHITE MAN. Bisexuality did not exist for Jack- neither did any other orientation on the spectrum. For Jack there is Gay and Straight, nothing in between - and falling in love with a man did not make Jack Gay!!!! Excuse me? This coming from a Gay, male author was seriously disappointing. I would have liked to see that Jack considered himself Bi or pansexual... that he fell in love because of the soul of the person rather than the body they inhabited. But there were constant reminders throughout the story that Jack was STRAIGHT... Gay was bad, even though Jack was seriously into havings sexy times with Ethan. That is a seriously mixed message. Lots of female MM authors are castigated for writing 'Gay For You' books- where a straight guy falls for a man for the first time. It's not surprising a gay male author gets a pass for writing a book with such a blinkered message about the character's orientation.

I enjoyed John Solo's narration - it was way better than Joel Leslie's for Tal Bauer.

5 people found this helpful

Brilliant book

Really loved everything about this book, and it was a wonderful surprise as I’ve not had anything from this author before so had no prior expectations. Delicious relationship build up, engaging plot, fantastic pace, rich characters, likeable heroes, great action and thrilling times, sweet and emotional times, tear jerking times, and all bundled up in just the right amount of everything. I thought with it being a fairly long book it might drag, but it was all perfect and meant you truly sunk into their world and were part of the story. The narration was great (some narrators might have a better range of voices/accents, but it was still good).

John Solo’s intonation and expressions really reminded me of Renee Raudman (narrates the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews) so I wonder if that means they’re from the same regional area, or if they’ve both just learned how to engage the listener with their voice. Either way, they do a good job.

I’d recommend Alice Winters’ “In Darkness” and her “A Hitman’s Guide” series if you liked this, and “Where Death Met the Devil” by L.J. Hayward. I also enjoyed “After the Crash” by Emma Alcott (though didn’t like the second book in that series as much). “Valor on the Move” by Keira Andrews is good, too. Other books I’ve enjoyed with M/M relationships but not in this subject are most by N.R. Walker including “Evolved”; Alexis Hall books including “For Real” and “How to Bang a Billionaire”; and the “SPECTR” series by Jordan L. Hawk.

3 people found this helpful

Enemies of the State

This was the first book I ever read by Tal Bauer about 3 years ago and hoped the series, Executive Office, would someday come to audio. I was thrilled earlier this year when I heard it was being released at last and downloaded and listened to it in one sitting.
It is a highly intelligently, well written and researched political thriller with a slow burn love affair centred around the fictional President of the United States, Jack Spires, and Secret Service Agent Ethan Reichenbach, head of security for the presidential detail.
The complex plot and character development is beautifully crafted, especially Jack and Ethan, I just loved them both.
I can’t wait for the next book to come to audio.
John Solo’s narrating was excellent and I enjoyed him bringing the excellent book to life.

3 people found this helpful

Brilliant Book Bad Narrator

I tore through these books when they came out in print and throughly enjoyed them from start to finish.
But. The narrator ruined this version for me, I wish Tal had stuck with Joel Leslie who is a master of storytelling and performance.
Unfortunately Solo doesn't even come close. He doesn't have a very versatile range or vocal repertoire. Some of his narration sounds like a bad impersonation of Captain Kirk. He has a habit of either starting a sentence and taking it from a low range up to a top register and dipping again, like the sentence is on some sort of a roller coaster, or being totally flat. The pacing seems really off as well, descriptions are rushed and blend together. There's very little variation between some characters voices, Spires and Ethan for instance sound practically the same.
I did wonder why the ratings for the following books were far fewer than Hush after this book and I think it's a reflectionof the narration. It's a shame and really disappointing that I now won't be able to listen to the whole series and didn't even manage to finish this one. These are such good stories and deserve a better narrator.

2 people found this helpful

I wanted to like this book

The saying is "never the twain shall meet". This should have been the moto for this book. Romance and politics: these two subjects did not fair well in this story by this writer.

The politics was too real and detailed which ever side one votes. That there are sexual encounters involving politicians is only too well known. These MCs were too cookie cut and featureless, and the crafting of story more awkward than the situations they found themselves in to try to facilitate the plot and subplot.

I expect heroes to be heroic not hiding in closets actually or metaphorically.

Maybe I will return to try to complete the tale, but nothing this far can tempt me to go there.

DISAPPOINTING

2 people found this helpful

Excellent, so good

Such an awesome book, didn't think it could get any better. But John Solo does such a good job of bringing the characters to life, conveying the right amount of tension or comedy value when needed.
As a huge fan of the novel and series as a whole, have waited so long for an audio version, and it was so worth the wait. Being on the rest of the series.

1 person found this helpful

OMG !!

Nothing could have prepared me for this thrilling ride. There are so many WTF moments that made it impossible for me to stop listening.
Amazing story, given justice by a great voice.

One of the best!

Only problem was having to stop listening in order to get some sleep. Want more.

So enjoyable

Realised id already reax same book by kindle or ibooks. Still good story well read. Going to read book 2 on kindle

Brilliant

If I could have given this more than 5 stars I would have. I listened to the whole thing in three days and had to download the second book straight away. It’s a shame that’s not out on audio yet.
Fast paced, tense with some sweet scenes thrown in ...what more could you ask for. I cannot recommend this highly enough.