Title: Hush
Series: The Manse: Book Four
Author: Lynn Kelling
Publisher: Forbidden Fiction/Enspire Publishing
Length: 398 Pages
Category: Contemporary, BDSM
At a Glance: Hush ranks right up there as one of my favorites in this series. These guys just grabbed me, and I am really glad they did. Highly recommended.
Reviewed By: Carrie
Blurb: Rune Tooby is a smartassed Jewish rebel and closeted gay biker with the Born Soldiers motorcycle gang. Rune’s life centered on casual sex and less-than-legal employment, until a pickup truck full of Neo-Nazis rammed into his bike, destroying his hearing and shattering his life. Learning to live deaf and silent overwhelmed Rune, sending him to humbly beg help from the last people he trusts completely: the rich and powerful Dominants of the Manse, who trained Rune in the arts of BDSM.
Oliver Hughes, cocky day trader and sexual Dominant, lives a life of indulgent luxury. Despite this, he feels adrift and unneeded since his beloved submissive, Jackson Whitney, became absorbed into life as a family man and cardiologist, leaving him little time for his Master. When a meeting between Rune and Oliver is carefully arranged by the leaders of Manse, it starts a wild ride, sweeping up everyone who gets too close to the explosive pair. Rune and Oliver find themselves on a path filled with frustrating miscommunications, rage-filled vengeance, and painfully unearthed secrets.
Review: Have you read—no, experienced—the Manse series? If you have, then you know that Kelling doesn’t necessarily write the books in chronological order. Each and every one is so intense on their own and you can read them individually, but I am here to recommend you start with number one in the series and go from there. Books one through three were actually written and published in reverse order but shouldn’t be read that way. And once again, we have two connecting novels, Bare: book five and Hush: book four, which were written in reverse order also. These stories are all part of the Society of Masters series, which Kelling writes and shares with Jack L. Pyke, another contemporary BDSM, M/M author. Hush is the story of Rune, Oliver, Jackson, and Adam. It is a roller coaster of an emotional ride from beginning to end. At its heart it is a romance, but there are so many layers and nuances to it that wading in keeps you riveted.
Rune Tooby lives in a world of silence. He didn’t always, and it’s killing him. As a young, angry man, he sought out the masters at the Manse, and they trained him in the art of submission. Straying from that path, he got cocky and stayed just on the other side of the law, living as he wanted and answering to nobody. And then the accident happened. Being the victim of a horrific hate crime left him deaf, scarred and emotionally torn to pieces. Now he lives in a deafening silence, not speaking because of the awkwardness of not being able to hear himself, and becoming a hermit because communication with the world outside his motorcycle club is just too difficult. He’s lost everything, even the will to live. The only thing that keeps him going is hope that he can get revenge on the white supremacist group that attacked him. Rune’s motivations are not that revenge will make him feel better but that the hate group will be stopped so that they cannot inflict pain on anyone else the way they did him. Now, six months out from the accident, Rune’s friend Max has had enough. He takes Rune back to the Manse and drops him back into David Davenport’s world—the owner of Manse—and David calls Olly.
Oliver is a young Dom but a determined one. After training at the Manse, he has crafted a life where he has complete control. Only, he craves to be needed by someone. His submissive Jackson needs him, but Jackson also has a wife and children who, if push came to shove, would absolutely come first no matter the connection between him and Oliver. He’s needed by Adam, a brilliant, haunted painter and his best friend since elementary school. But Adam is also a Dom, and one day he will have his own boy to care for, leaving Olly on the outside in the process. When David calls and says he needs him, not just his skills, but him, Oliver cannot resist.
What begins is a dance of dominance, submission, sharing, surviving, and building of trust. And the feels… These men have a dynamic which screams chemistry. The power dynamics here are potent. These are strong, character driven stories. You become invested in each of these men’s lives to the point of a single-minded focus. I admit, I read Bare first. It came out first. But when I hit the end of this book, I pulled Bare right back up and read it again so that I could keep the story of these four men going. I did a review for Bare, and I have to admit I wish that I had had this book first. I wouldn’t change that review because I loved the book, I would just add to it now that I have a better background on Adam (Bare is Adam’s book). This book being about these four men, how they intertwine and need each other and what they all bring to the table to make it work, is complicated. We have the connection of Jackson and his wife. We have the connection of Jackson and Rune as fellow submissives to Oliver. We have Adam as best friend to Oliver, and really more. Their relationship is a deeply emotional one. But at the heart we have Rune and Oliver and how, despite all the extraneous noise, it all comes down to them—what they can give each other, what they need from each other, and how they expand that to reach the men around them.
Fair warning, you cannot pigeon-hole this one into an m/m slot, but it isn’t an m/m/m or m/m/m/m either. Just letting you know there are multiple ménage scenes and differing multiple partner scenes of a steamy BDSM quality that put scorch marks on the page. If you are not a BDSM enthusiast, then you might want to skip this one because it is all written within the parameters of a Dom/sub dynamic, but it is also clear how these men need that dynamic and how it makes them the men they are. Oliver and Rune struggle with the feelings between them but also with Rune’s need to shut down the group that attacked him. Because Rune is not concerned about himself to the point of self-destruction he doesn’t watch out for himself or see how his actions affect the other men in his life now, especially Oliver. After finally finding someone to truly call his own, Oliver struggles with holding tight or letting go, and it is so painful to watch. Kelling draws such believable, dimensional characters that you’re invested from page one.
Ok, I’m a fan… Can you tell? I am actually really glad this book was written. When these three men appear in Bare, Adam’s book, I admit to being a little confused as to their rightful place in his life. Now, all the puzzle pieces fit. The Manse series is different in that the first three books all deal with the Manse itself and the primary men who own it, work and play there. These last two books, Hush and Bare, stand alone in that the Manse is mentioned but it is not a primary plot point. So, if you wanted to break the series up and read them a little at the time, read the first three together and then read these two together. However you decide is fine as long as you read them. They are excellent stories and I highly recommend them all. I will say that Hush ranks right up there as one of my favorites, though. These guys just grabbed me, and I am really glad they did. Highly recommended.
You can buy Hush here:
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