Breaking Free

A Saga of Self-Discovery by a Gay Secret Service Agent

De: Cory Allen

Narrado por: Nick Gallagher

A deeply personal, yet candid saga of a gay Secret Service Agent in the Obama era; an agent who was struggling with his own identity, marriage, discrimination, and balancing the demands that accompany being assigned to protect the most powerful people in the world.

Cory Allen delivers an amusing view into his adventurous life, with culture references, twists and turns of his relationships, and an inside look into the life, as a gay Special Agent in the hyper-masculine career field. Through intense self-reflection he recounts the impacts it had on his life and the hardships imposed by a career in the spotlight.

At the pinnacle of his career, he left the Secret Service to restart his life in California and begin the process of finally being his own person. Struggling to break free from social norms, creating his identity apart from his all-consuming profession, and learning to listen to intuition are at the heart of the memoir.

©2023 Cory Allen (P)2025 Cory Allen

A book you don’t want to end!!!

It is a very interesting journey well written and preformed. Several scenes I could see myself there. Really enjoyed all the ups and downs twist and turns. Hope there is a sequel. :)

A candid story of a fascinating life

Not sure why there are no ratings here yet, It gets 5 stars on Amazon with over 100 reviews. Anyway, a very interesting memoir read by the author. A good beach or vacation read, not too long that you lose interest and not too short,

10/10!

Fabulous book, makes for great reading for LGBTQ history month, or any month for that matter.

powerful and thought provoking

After finishing his book I think Cory Allen has a future in writing. When I was done with this book, I felt like I was saying good-bye to a friend. His writing style is engaging, honest, and endearing. It is an easy read that reveals a lot about the writer’s most intimate life details in an easy style kind of way. In reading a few other reviews, I was glad to see nobody was offended by his honestly in describing his love life. This book shows a detailed and honest analysis of one man’s journey through the military, police force, and secret service training. It shows how he rises from his childhood to become a confident, gay male working in a governmental field where he is the minority. In the end I honestly liked and respected Corey Allen. I hope he pursues writing I think he has much to offer. If there was a small negative here, I was not as impressed with the performance as I have been with nearly all the audiobooks, but it did not detract from my enjoyment of the book.

What is the point? Where is the story?

I listened and listened waiting for “it”. What is the point of this memoir? What did he accomplish? What might I wish to emulate or learn from? I really don’t understand why the author thought it appropriate to write an autobiography. From what I can tell (I listened to the entire book), there is no story to tell. From an LGB POV, there are mostly references to encounters via open relationships, breakups, and excessive drinking . LGB literature has much more to offer than this. This is not heroic. This is not really interesting. I just don’t get it. I expected much, much more.

No Interesting Story Here

I almost exclusively listen to memoirs and this was by far one of the least interesting or engaging of them all.

The book reads more like a report (Who? What? When? Where?) than an actual memoir with interesting, insightful or memorable experiences or anecdotes.

If you care to know more about Mr. Allen’s history of car purchases, moving/housing journey and boyfriends, this book is for you. Even the minimal references to his sexual experiences feel salacious rather than integral to his story.

For someone with a such an exciting career, all of the stories are superficial and offer nothing more than dates, times and places. There is no substance to this memoir at all. You will find this book extremely boring. (If I could return it, I would.)

After listening, I know very little about Mr.Allen. To me, the purpose of a memoir is to learn about and be inspired by another’s journey. With the exception of his career in the Secret Service, Mr. Allen’s journey of self-discovery and maturation is like most everyone else’s — gay or straight.

My only revelation from listening to this memoir is — What would make someone think their life is so interesting that it warrants writing a book? In this case, I guess being gay and a Secret Service agent was enough.