CLOSE TO YOU

Author: Kathryn Shay ISBN: 0425214508 2/2007 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: BERKLEY SENSATION

Close to the top... Secret Service Agent C. J. Ludzecky has been on the job for only six years and already she's made her mark. Her dedication to her career lands her the assignment of a lifetime: protecting the vice president's wife. Close to happiness... Aidan O'Neil feels responsible for his father's recent heart attack, since it happened when Aidan told him he wanted to leave the family business and follow his love of photography. Close to you... At the hospital Aidan's family gathers together, including this sister, the Second Lady of the United States. Though keeping her professional distance, C. J. finds herself drawn to the close knit clan, and especially to Aidan. But will their mounting desire for each other destroy their separate dreams or make them all come true?

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

CLOSE TO YOU is a slower-paced, yet emotionally charged romantic story that brings to light the hard but elected lives of Secret Service Agents assigned to guard political figures. Yes, they know what they are getting into when they sign on, but that doesn't mean their choices aren't tough ones, or that they should be thought of as robots.

There are some very tension filled and anxiety riddled scenes in CLOSE TO YOU, but I didn't quite feel all the emotion I wanted to when I read this one. I just didn't feel close enough to the hero and heroine. Not because I didn't like them or wasn't interested in them, but because the story has so many good characters. That element is necessary in order to have the plot unfold the way it did, but my focus was more on the families as a whole, rather than rooting for the hero and heroine.

I like Kathryn Shay's writing style and enjoyed CLOSE TO YOU. I just found some other aspects and characters to be more interesting than the hero and heroine.

Shannon Johnson