Reviewed by Tara
TITLE: Silence
AUTHOR: Shawn Bailey
PUBLISHER: Amber
LENGTH: 94 pages
BLURB: When Andrew Lansky, a mild-mannered erotic romance writer, receives a phone call from his mother, his life suddenly changes. His old friend Richard Julian has been killed in a car accident in Mississippi, and the news devastates Andrew. He hasn’t seen Richard in more than nine years. He had always planned to call him, but never did, and now he would never see him again.
With Richard gone, deaf twenty-four-year-old Brett Julian has lost the last member of his family, leaving him all alone in his world of silence. As another wicked twist of fate, Richard’s old friend Andrew shows up for the funeral and repast, awakening long-dormant feelings within Brett.
After reconnecting with Andrew and confessing his hidden desires for the man, will Brett finally have a chance at happiness? Or will his life get messed up again because his deafness keeps him from hearing what Andrew’s love has to say?
NOTE: This story was previously published with the ISBN: 978-1-61495-890-1. This reissued version of the story has been revised and reedited.
REVIEW: Andrew Lansky receives a call that his good friend from his childhood died, a friend that he had not seen in many years. Rushing to the funeral he sees Richard’s brother Brett now all grown up and very handsome. Brett is twenty-four and deaf. Richard was the last living member of his family left and now that he is gone he has decided to pack up the old house and sell it. He had always had a crush on Andrew since he was younger and seeing him again makes him want to offer him friends with benefits type deal. After listening to his mother, Andrew offers to let Brett live with him since he was looking for a roommate anyway. Even though he is attracted to Brett he keeps him at arm’s length at first but when Brett finds out there was nothing between Andrew and Richard nothing can stop him. Soon they develop a romantic relationship and of course feelings get in the way. But not everything is picture perfect, outside influences come into play, but will it be enough to overcome or will it tear them apart?
I’m sorry to say this book did not speak to me in any way. I found the two main characters to be very self-centered and full of flaws. Andrew turned me off immediately. Although he was nice and didn’t make Brett feel bad for being deaf, he just fell flat for me. I kind of felt that he knew straight off the back he was going to sleep with Brett and just use him to keep house. In the end he did show some shining moments of being nice but I felt no spark between the two beyond lust and if it had been in the real world I would say they wouldn’t last more than two minutes together. Brett annoyed me. He was bratty, very cocky, and just stupid at times. He couldn’t resist his best friend James because he was blond and his tastes ran to anybody tall blond, and muscular. I mean if you are truly in love would you really just cheat because the guy was so your type. I mean Andrew fit his type perfectly that should have been enough to stem off any attraction to James or at least make it bearable. What I didn’t understand was they had been friends for a while and all that time they never made moves towards each other, now all of a sudden Brett is with someone then boom I want you. The other character that grated me was Troy. I know that you weren’t supposed to be able to stand him but really if he had fallen off a cliff I would have been glad. The sex was hot between the two but that’s about it. The way it reads kind of distracts from the story as well since it didn’t have a good flow. I do like other works by the author but this one for me just didn’t float my boat.
RATING: 
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