Close to You
by Kathryn Shay

Award-winning author Kathryn Shay delivers a powerful novel about two people whose undeniable passion for each other pushes them to take the chances of a lifetime.

Close to You is the story of Secret Service Agent CJ Ludzecky, who is assigned to the coveted Vice Presidential Protection Division, guarding the Second Lady of the United States and her two children. After overcoming a rocky start in the Service, CJ is out to prove herself big-time. There's no room for men in her life, especially not the Second Lady's charming, sexy, sensitive brother, Aidan O'Neil.

On his part, Aidan never expected to fall for an uptight, by-the-book Secret Service agent, but when it hits, it hits, and he does everything in his power to win over CJ.

Back-dropped by the hustle of New York City, the political world of Washington D.C. and the pastoral scenery of the Finger Lakes, CJ tries to protect her charges, while Aidan tries to persuade her to let him into her life. The invasion of the press, a hostage situation involving the Vice President, a former gang member who hasn't forgotten the Second Lady shut her posse down two years ago, and a kidnapping attempt on the Second Son all move the story—and CJ and Aidan's relationship—to a stunning conclusion.

Other Books by Kathryn Shay

Nothing More to Lose

Kathryn Shay's Bio

Kathryn Shay is a lifelong writer. At fifteen, she penned her first 'romance,' a short story about a female newspaper reporter in New York City and her fight to make a name for herself in a world of male journalists - and with one hardheaded editor in particular. Looking back, Kathryn says she should have known then that writing was in her future. But as so often happens, fate sent her detouring down another path.

Fully intending to pursue her dream of big city lights and success in the literary world, Kathryn took every creative writing class available at the small private women's college she attended in upstate New York. Instead, other dreams took precedence. She met and subsequently married a wonderful guy who'd attended a neighboring school, then completed her practice teaching, a requirement for the education degree she never intended to use. But says Kathryn, "I fell in love with teaching the first day I was up in front of a class, and knew I was meant to do that."

Kathryn went on to build a successful career in the New York state school system, thoroughly enjoying her work with adolescents. But by the early 1990s, she'd again made room in her life for writing. It was then that she submitted her first manuscript to publishers and agents. Despite enduring two years of rejections, she persevered. And on a snowy December afternoon in 1994, Kathryn Shay sold her first book to Harlequin Superromance.

Since that sale, Kathryn has written seventeen books and two online reads for Harlequin, five mainstream contemporary romances for the Berkley Publishing Group, and two online novellas, which Berkley will publish in traditional print format.

She has been quoted in People Magazine, interviewed for The Wall Street Journal, and will be featured in Cosmopolitan magazine as their book excerpt for the December 2003 issue.

Kathryn has become known for her powerful characterizations - fans say they feel they know the people in her books - and her heart-wrenching, emotional writing (her favorite comments are that fans cried while reading her books or stayed up late to finish them). In testament to her skill, the author has won five Romantic Times Bookclub Reviewers Choice Awards, three Holt Medallions, two Desert Quill Awards, the Golden Leaf Award, and several online accolades, including five 5- Heart reviews from The Romance Reader.

Even in light of her writing success, that initial love of teaching has never wavered for Kathryn. She still teaches in the same school where her career began. These days, she lives in upstate New York with her husband and two children. "My life is very full," she reports, "but very happy. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to pursue and achieve my dreams."