My Bookshelf: Keep Holding On by Melissa Tagg

Beckett Walker hasn’t stepped foot in Maple Valley in years. There’s no getting past the painful memories, and there’s every chance he’ll be arrested as soon as he shows his face. Which is exactly what happens when he finally returns. Suddenly his dream of adventure as a military lawyer comes skidding to a halt.

Horticulturist Kit Danby has spent too much time missing home and her childhood best friend—Beckett Walker. Now she might have a shot at reclaiming both. After years of living abroad, she returns to run her family’s apple orchard. She has one season to turn a profit and impress the father she barely knows. But she can’t do it alone.

It should be simple: Beckett needs community service hours. Kit needs a helping hand. But there’s more at stake than either of them planned. With a tangled past and futures that look nothing alike, they’ll have to find a way to weather the storms of the present…or risk losing everything.

 

Keep Holding On is the third book in Melissa Tagg’s Walker Family series, coming after From the Start and Like Never Before. I really, really loved the first two novels of this series, so I was SUPER excited for Beckett’s novel, and I am glad to say I most definitely wasn’t disappointed! The storyline ebbed and flowed perfectly, and I was completely captivated from beginning to end. I fell in love with the characters, and Beckett and Kit’s story, and I had already loved the Walker family to begin with, so this was just the perfect novel for me. it also made me so, so completely and utterly excited for the last sibling, Raegan, to have her story told, but I haven’t heard anything about her book yet! It’s absolutely killing me because I can’t wait to see what happens to her!

Beckett Walker is a wonderful character whom I absolutely love! I hadn’t gotten to know him as well as the other siblings throughout the first two books, since he was mostly absent for the majority of them, but I did get a really good taste of his character near the very end of Logan’s book, and I knew I would love him from that moment forward. He is super sweet and caring, passionate and reckless, and broken and hurting all at the same time, and I couldn’t help wanting to know him better and better. He tugged at my heartstrings, and I wanted him to figure out the answers to all of the questions that were eating him alive. And I also wanted him to finally have his day with Kit.

Kit Danby is just as equally a wonderful character, although the two really couldn’t be more different! However, I loved her from the beginning as well, only it was for her thoughtfulness and quiet strength and determination to do the right thing. I also just loved the friendship she and Beckett shared, and how close they were from the very beginning, so that helped me to love the both of them even more. Plus, Kit’s story just broke my heart, so I felt the most intense amount of compassion for her. I can’t imagine ever having a father so completely detached from his family, and I wish that wasn’t a part of her story, but on top of the fact that her mother died when she was very young, I just couldn’t stand it for her. However, she overcame it really well, and I have to say she blossomed in spite of it.

All in all, I absolutely loved this story, and I can’t imagine not giving it all five bookshelves, since I’ve already added it to my all-time favorites list. Kit and Beckett’s developing love story is just the sweetest little thing, and I loved being able to catch up with the Walker family. I’m so glad I purchased this novel, especially since it’s the perfect excuse for me to buy all the rest in the series! Melissa is a fantastic author, and I can’t wait to read even more of her books, especially Raegan Walker’s story!

Happy reading!

To see where I’m linking up, check out my Where I Party page.

All credit for the italicized synopsis goes to Melissa Tagg and Larkspur Press.