Close Up by Amanda Quick

Vivian Brazier is just trying to make a living as a photographer. It's an emerging field in the 1920s and very few people are making Art. She's making ends meet by being a photojournalist, taking pictures of crime scenes. And it's the latter job that brings her in contact with the person known as the "Dagger Killer." Her second sight when she uses the camera helps her capture nuances that no one else can see. When she becomes a target, a bodyguard is arranged.
Nick Sundridge is that bodyguard. He also has visions and manages them through lucid dreaming and being a detective (being a good guy balances the horrible parts of his visions.)  He saves her life and then decides to take her up to Burning Cove where the Hollywood glitterati goes but he can control more of the security.
The romance between them felt a bit thin but it was overall a fun read and a nice addition to the Burning Cove series. We are starting to learn a little bit more about Luther Pell's work behind the scenes; it's unfolding slowly, hint by hint. I'm still holding out hope for Luther and Raina's story as well.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out May 5, 2020
Follows Tightrope

Followed by The Lady Has a Past
ARC kindly provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Reread September 2022 as audiobook from Libby

Go Fetch! by Shelly Laurenston

Miki Kendrick just wants to finish her PhD. She doesn't want to deal with mysterious people calling her from alleys and she darn sure doesn't want to deal with overly large shifters who are obsessed with her. Yet here she is with Conall Víga-Feilan a wolf descended from Loki himself. And the man is hot. Distractingly hot.
Super-smart and well trained in the art of the hunt, Miki takes no prisoners. And in Conall's case, she doesn't want to be caught with him either. But trying to make it through her dissertation may prove harder than she originally thought.
Early Laurenston shifter, a little rough but a fun read nonetheless.

Three books
Follows Pack Challenge
Followed by Here Kitty, Kitty
This book came out March 6th, 2007
Audiobook from the library
Opinions are my own

Reread July 1, 2022, March 2023

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

January Scaller does not live with either her mother or her father. Instead, she lives with Mr. Locke while her father travels the world, searching for treasures for the New England Archeological Society. And Mr. Locke seems to care for her. She cares for him. Her life is distressingly normal for a girl who is neither white nor black in (I think?) the early 1900s. But her life begins to change at seven when she briefly sees a blue door and goes through to another world. When her father dies, her life changes irrevocably. Her first person narration pulls us into the story, into her feelings and sense of wonder.

Her story intersects with two others whose identities are originally concealed from us by the third person narrator. All of them, explorers, trying to discover all 10,000 doors (which is actually "too many to count" but 10,000 works well.)

Great character development, awesome world building, and a happy ending. All things that make me happy. I did skim a couple of sections but not very much.

Four and a half stars

This book came out September 10th, 2019

Borrowed as audiobook from library

Opinions are my own

Scoring With the Wrong Twin by Naima Simone

Sophia Cruz agrees to a one-off for her twin. Where Sophia is an app designer and intensely shy, her sister Giovanna is well on her way to becoming an internationally known model. But when Vanna needs help, Sophia agrees to step in.What she doesn't realize is that she's going to be working with football player Zephirin "Zeph" Black. Immediately attracted, she just can't figure out how to let him know she's not what he thinks. Especially since he's been burned by lies before.
This was a really quick and fun book. Easy to read but short. And the shortness means there are some corners cut in showing how either character got to the place of true remorse for their errors or that this would be a relationship with an HEA but it is worth a read, especially when you're having trouble concentrating on reading.

Three and a half stars

This book came out January 15th, 2018

Followed by Scoring off the Field
Ebook from Kindle
Opinions are my own

Reread March 2023

Hidden Star by Nora Roberts

Having a character lose their memory is a common trope in romance. It allows the reader, the love interest, and the character to learn about each other all at the same time. It can also set up a mystery. Like why Bailey (last name as yet unknown) is carrying around millions of dollars in diamonds and a gun.
Cade Parris immediately pegs her as a woman he's going to fall in love with. She's gorgeous (and, of course, that's all that matters in 90s romance.) Then he gets to know her and falls into True Love.
And that is part of my problem with this book. Cade is a private investigator but he leaps to all of these conclusions about Bailey. Yes, I do remember that this was put out as a Harlequin Romance but, c'mon.

Three stars
Followed by Captive Star
This book came out October 27th, 1997
Hard copy I didn't keep
Opinions are my own

Lord Holt Takes a Bride by Vivienne Lorret

Lord Asher Holt lives under the shadow of his father, a man who patently has a gambling addiction so deep he's put not only himself into debt but is trading on Asher's name as well (is that even a thing? I decided to go with it.) If he can put together a thousand pounds, he can join his friends on a hunt for hidden treasure. But seeing his father one night and then being captured by two debutantes delays his plans. It's the third debutante, Winnifred Humphries, who really captures his interest. Partly because she is an heiress but it's mostly her attractive form. So when she barrels into his carriage the day she's supposed to be getting married, he starts by wanting to get some money but it turns into something more.
Lorret is a wonderful writer and I overall enjoyed the book but there were just SO MANY misunderstandings. About 3/4 of the way in it just got tedious.

Three stars
This book came out March 31st, 2020
Borrowed this as an ebook from the library
Opinions are my own

Here Kitty, Kitty! by Shelly Laurenston

The hyenas are still up to no good. Even the tigers know it. Which is why Nik’s brothers kidnap Angelina Santiago from outside her shop in Texas and take her to North Carolina. Well, and they know their brother really likes her.
Angelina wakes up swinging. She never expected to wake up in the house of a man she flirted with briefly. Nor did she expect to fall in love so fast...
Wish that we had seen more with the hyenas but a fast, fun, and fluffy book all the same.

Three stars
This book came out July 3rd, 2007

Follows Go Fetch! 

Followed by Miss Congeniality in When He Was Bad
Audiobook from the library
Opinions are my own

Reread March 2023 as audiobook from Hoopla