My Reads: One to Keep by Tia Louise

You just never know what I'm going to feature next, do you? I like to keep you guessing. This time I'm featuring a book from a series that I've grown to love. I featured the first book from this series back in July. This is the second, but definitely not the last. This week's read is Tia Louise's One to Keep.

The first book in this series and the namesake of the series, One to Hold, was told in Melissa's voice, and through it we learned how Melissa and Derek came to be together. One to Keep isn't a continuation - it's Patrick Knight's story, in his voice, as it runs somewhat concurrent to Melissa and Derek's story. Starting slightly before theirs, it continues on through theirs and quite a few twists and turns, including a plotline that, quite frankly, I don't think I've ever seen before. I was impressed with that. We see a whole bevy of interesting characters, including Kenny (not a guy), Star (use your imagination), and Elaine, Melissa's friend. You know I don't do spoilers, and I'm not going to make an exception.

Let me just say that Patrick is the quintessential player. Former National Guard, Patrick had come to Alexander-Knight, LLC, as his brother, Stuart, a retired Marine, had taken a job in Saudi Arabia and Stuart's partner, Derek Alexander, needed a new partner. From day one, Patrick's main focus is somewhere between the neck and knees of every attractive woman he comes across. He gets an immediate admonishment from Derek regarding their policy of keeping clients off-limits when it came to seduction. Patrick seemed to believe, however, that the admonishment wasn't extended to coworkers, and he makes a major misstep in that regard. While I followed the twists and turns of the plot in this book, I had to grin.

Because of Patrick. I wanted desperately to hate him, but I just couldn't. Along with his super-ego and cocky attitude, there was something charming, disarming, and childlike about Patrick that I just couldn't resist. There were more than a few times that I wanted to absolutely throttle him, shake him, slap him, or ask him what in the hell he was thinking or, even more telling, what he was thinking with (and I was pretty sure I knew the answer to that question). He's Tia's version of my Steve McCoy, that guy who's far more multi-layered than he first appears, and far more loving and tender than I thought possible.

I loved this book as much as the first one. Yes, I want to know more about Derek and Melissa, but I more than enjoyed watching Patrick and Elaine's relationship bobble around in the ebb and flow of Patrick's crazy, sometimes irresponsible, always touching self-awareness. Even though I didn't want to, I found myself cheering for him to get where he needed to be and be where he wanted to go. It was a crazy ride, but one that I hope continues in later books in the series.

Don't miss these. They're too much fun.