Ramblings of a Book Lunatic: One To Keep by Tia Louise with Excerpt, Book Trailer, Giveaway & Review

Title: One to Keep

Author: Tia Louise

Release Date: Jan 15, 2014

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Tour Host: The Book Nuts Author Promotions

Synopsis:

There's a new guy in town...

"Patrick Knight, single, retired Guard-turned private investigator. I was a closer. A deal maker. I looked clients in the eye and told them I'd get their shit done. And I did..."

Patrick doesn't do "nice." At least, not anymore. After his fiancée cheats, he follows up with a one-night stand and a disastrous office hook-up. His business partner (Derek Alexander) sends him to the desert to get his head straight--and clean up the mess.

While there, Patrick meets Elaine, and blistering sparks fly, but she's not looking for any guy. Or a long-distance relationship.

Patrick's ready to do anything to keep her, but just when it seems he's changed her mind, the skeletons from his past life start coming back.

Excerpt:

Suppressing a grin, I cupped her cheeks again and covered her mouth with mine. Her lips parted, and our tongues met. I felt her relaxing, and in that moment, the questions in my head were answered and the answers satisfied me deeply.

She was mine. No matter what came next. With a calm confidence, I knew I’d never let her go again. My mouth moved to her cheek.

“Nobody’s getting over anybody here. So why torture us both?”

Her body shook with her small laugh. “Aren’t you trained for torture?”

“Yes, but you’re not.” She slid down and put her cheek against my chest again. My fingers threaded into her silky hair. She was so beautiful in my arms. Her head turned, and she rested her forehead on me, exhaling deeply. “I still don’t want a long distance relationship.”

But her words didn’t knock the breath out of me like the first time. Back then, I wasn’t sure of anything. Now everything had fallen into place. Everything felt possible. I pushed against the mattress, sitting up and bringing her with me. Her green eyes glistened when they met mine, but I smiled.

“So we’ll figure it out,” I said, smoothing my thumbs over her cheeks. “We’ll get through the weeks however we can, we’ll be together on the weekends, and we’ll figure out what the future’s going to look like. This distance is not forever.”

Her head dropped, but only for a moment. When she lifted it again, she moved forward, wrapping her arms around my neck. My hands spanned her waist before sliding up her body to her beautiful breasts. The scent of cactus flower surrounded me, and I lay her back, ready to catch up on all the days we’d missed.

“Now, that first time was amazing, but it went way too fast.” I covered one tight nipple with my mouth and then the other as her little moans began, her fingers threaded in my hair.

“You think?” she sighed.

“Yes,” I said against her body, traveling lower. I kissed her flat stomach, inhaling the warm perfume lingering on her skin.

She whispered my name, and I gave her belly one more kiss before catching her thighs and spreading them open...

Book Trailer:

http://vimeo.com/88268296

Buy Links:

Amazon: http://amzn.to/19uGIL6

Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1eDD3Ie

Kobo: http://bit.ly/1dw2sY0

ARe: http://bit.ly/1ap7VwW

iTunes: http://bit.ly/1d5hGgL

Paperbacks on:

Amazon: http://amzn.to/LI0VCF

Createspace: http://bit.ly/1fRHyEs

My Review: 5 stars

This was a messy, complicated story. Just like life. Patrick is a good guy. He just moved his entire life to get away from his ex-fiance after he caught her cheating on him. Patrick makes what appears to be a bad decision one night with a nice girl he had met the night before, and Kenny becomes a good friend to him. His new partner, Derek, is a strung a little tight and Patrick has no idea how to deal with him initially. Eventually, both Derek and Patrick find the women they've not been looking for. And they are everything to them. Patrick meets Elaine at a restaurant, and has an instant connection with her. Once they get together, Patrick and Elaine are difficult to keep apart. The issue is that they live several hours apart, and Elaine tells Patrick she can't do long distance, effectively breaking his heart. It's unusual for two people to fall for each other so quickly, but they do. Things keep getting more complicated, Kenny pops back up with interesting news that sends Elaine packing. They torture themselves for a while, but Patrick is determined to keep Elaine, and make the situation with Kenny right. Which he pulls off with some long nights, brutal honesty and pure love for Elaine. I loved Patrick and Elaine together. they both needed the other in a primal way, like you need air to breathe. They had difficulty functioning without the other. Somehow, Tia manages to pull off not one, but three happy endings that did not disappoint. I totally loved the end of the book, and I was glad to have it from Elaine's point of view, as all the rest of the book is from Patrick's. I'm really looking forward to reading more from Tia. I enjoyed reading this book one hell of a lot. I loved that the characters were flawed and sometimes fragile. I liked that they were determined to fight for what they had the only way they knew how. Tia's got a new fan in me. She's on my to-read list forever.

Give-A-Way

Goodreads Book Giveaway

One to Keep

by Tia Louise

Giveaway ends March 30, 2014. See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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Meet The Author:

Tia Louise is a former journalist, world-traveler, and collector of beautiful men (who inspire all of her stories... *wink*)--turned wife, mommy, and novelist. She lives in the center of the U.S.A. with her lovely family and one grumpy cat. There, she dreams up stories she hopes are engaging, hot, and sexy, and that cause readers rethink common public locations...It's possible she has a slight truffle addiction. Books by Tia Louise: ONE TO HOLD (Derek & Melissa), 2013 ONE TO KEEP (Patrick & Elaine), 2014