Reviewed by Larissa

 

TITLE: Secret Service

AUTHOR: Tal Bauer

PUBLISHER: Self-published

LENGTH: 423 pages

RELEASE DATE: June 18, 2022

BLURB: 

A passionate, thrilling, and addictive standalone MM romance.

President Brennan Walker captivated me from the moment I walked into his Oval Office.

He’s a mystery I’m determined to unlock. I don’t know what’s hiding inside Brennan’s gaze when he looks my way, or why black lightning keeps crashing between us. He’s a storm at midnight, a dark moon rising, trouble on the horizon.

I’m on the verge of sliding into discoveries and truths that maybe I’m not ready for.

I’ve never been with a man, but now? I’m dreaming about his bleu clair eyes and wondering what it would feel like if his lips touched mine. There’s something here, something between us, like the oxygen we’re breathing is igniting before each inhale.

But he’s the president. I’m his Secret Service agent. He’s the job.

He’s forbidden.

If we cross this line, Brennan could lose everything.

I know I have to walk away.

But I can’t.

How much are we willing to risk?

And how badly will this go up in flames?

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Secret Service is a standalone MM romance, full to the brim with passion, suspense, and forbidden pleasures. Fall in love with Special Agent Reese Theriot and President Brennan Walker… and hold on tight for the ride of your life.

REVIEW: 

Note: Secret Service is a spoiler-heavy book so it’s crucial to avoid any foreknowledge of the plot.  My review below is spoiler-free.   

Very few books compel me to push everything aside to read them in one sitting. Tal Bauer’s Secret Service is a notable exception. From page one, I was all in and couldn’t stop reading. Bauer has created an addictive, thrilling, sexy, at times heartbreaking, political suspense thriller/romance that is unputdownable. Incomparable. Exceptional.

I’ve never been a read-the-last-page-first kind of reader. But Tal Bauer’s Secret Service almost made me a convert.  It’s only through sheer force of will that I didn’t cave and flip to the back to confirm a HEA for President Brennan Walker and Reese Theriot, the head of Walker’s Secret Service personal protection detail. Bauer creates anxiety about their fates – as only he can – in the very first chapter and it tied my stomach in knots. While I stayed strong and white-knuckled through, it was a near thing.

Bauer writes big emotions, big feelings, big conflicts, and big suspense. It’s the difference between Reese saying “I love you”, and Reese saying this:

“I am no one. I am no titan, no giant walking this planet, but if my love for this man was ever tested—if ever the world tried to take him from me—I would rip the sky from the edges of this earth.”

As they say, go big or go home.  Tal Bauer isn’t going home. 

Bauer excels at making his readers feel, and Secret Service is a tour de force for him in that department.  Brennan and Reese exude palpable energy, a connection we feel as strongly as lightning striking. Bauer’s analogies are vibrant, relevant, and dead-on accurate for the feelings he evokes in the reader. For example, the reference to black lightning for the power of Brennan and Reese’s love conjures the electric current running between these men like a living, breathing thing.  We experience the all-encompassing, striking, dangerous, undeniable tether between Brennan and Reese, so when Bauer spins their world off its axis, the world spins for us as well.  

The hallmark trait of a Tal Bauer book is the nuanced portrayal of his main characters’ emotions.  His imagery is impactful and creates a resonant, empathetic reaction in the reader.  For example, in Secret Service, the backbone of Brennan’s character is his self-sacrificing nature. He gives everything up, including his own happiness, to make the world a better place.  He expresses his resignation to his self-imposed fate through his oft-repeated, heartbreaking mantra: 

“In this life, I’m not meant to find love.” 

We hear Brennan’s unending loneliness through his footsteps on the carpeted stairs leading up into the White House residence, and the deafening, heavy silence that surrounds him. We see it in the twelve-foot-long formal dining room table where Brennan sits eating dinner alone. We experience Brennan’s absence of a partner to support him through decisions big and small as acutely as he does.  

While a few plot points strained credulity, they’re not significant and suspension of disbelief is easy to lean into. Bauer’s imagery is top-notch, and the story is thoroughly researched and otherwise feels authentic. Ironically, other aspects of the story seem too accurate, like Bauer’s preternatural prediction of a Russia/Ukraine conflict playing out in real-time in real life, as he notes in the Foreward at the beginning of the book.

We get a different note from Bauer at the end of the book and it’s one that will send his readers (me included) into a squeee-filled tizzy: Secret Service is the first book in a series (*cue squeee*).  There is someone who definitely needs a HEA, and I’m hoping that will be in the Secret Service sequel.

This is my favorite Tal Bauer book to date and is already clamoring for a reread. I give Secret Service my highest recommendation, along with this PSA for this deliciously thrilling story:   Buckle up, buttercup. You’re in for a bumpy ride.

RATING:

BUY LINK: 

Amazon