Give Chase (St. Hawk's Medical #2) by Willa Okati

Declan’s always been careful to guard his heart, but Isaac’s catching up at last. Some things are worth fighting for, even when they’re running fast.

Dr. Isaac Paliades has never been much for letting sleeping dogs lie, and he’s been intrigued by his colleague Dr. Declan Day from the moment they met. Declan’s a hard man to get a read on, one minute cool as snow and the next minute hot-blooded enough to give Isaac a run for his money. Though they work together, play together—and occasionally sleep together—Isaac has yet to get a good look at the man Declan is behind the carefully constructed masks he shows to the world.

But when the pair of physicians rescue an abandoned baby discovered while they’re out for a jog, Isaac sees cracks start to appear in Declan’s façade. He’s taking the care of their foundling more seriously than anyone imagined he would, and bringing Isaac along for the ride. He’s asking for dominance in bed, and a deeper friendship at St. Hawk’s.

Isaac thinks he’s finally found the key to unlocking Declan’s guarded heart. But even when the walls come down, can Declan find the courage and will to let Isaac in?

Give Chase had a different feel to it than the other books I have read by Ms. Okati. I think the combination of two really intense doctors, them finding an abandoned baby, and Declan having to deal with a past he’d much rather forget made this a much more serious read than I’ve experienced in the past. There was still some playfulness between the two men, but it was not nearly as light-hearted as Take Heart or the Mighty Casey series was. That said, I absolutely enjoyed Give Chase just as much as her other books.

Initially I kept getting the two docs confused, but I think that has more to do with external interruptions I was dealing with than the book itself, so I recommend reading it when you can ignore the rest of the world. Then again, that’s my preference when reading Ms. Okati. Not only does she create characters that I enjoy getting to know and spending time with, she creates characters who have amazing chemistry with one another and Isaac and Declan are no different in that respect. Where they differ from my past experience with the author’s writing is that Declan is determined to keep his distance from Isaac, emotionally and physically – he doesn’t even seem to want to be friends but concedes to it in an effort to minimize pressure from Isaac for more. Declan’s resistance is in spite of the fact that he is drawn to Isaac. When they discover the abandoned baby – I loved that Isaac called her their foundling – Isaac takes the opportunity to wedge himself further into Declan’s life. What Isaac didn’t pick up on during their first liaison but learned quickly was that Declan responded better when Isaac took charge of a situation, especially in the bedroom. This hint of D/s made Ms. Okati’s normally hot sex scenes even hotter!

I’m not sure what I enjoyed more about Give Chase – watching Declan “run” from Isaac or watching Isaac “chase” after him. I do know that I enjoyed the way that their relationship developed, even if it did take someone abandoning their infant to give Isaac the opening he need to wedge himself into Declan’s life. Although I didn’t get to see as much of the actual relationship development as I would have liked, Ms. Okati does a wonderful job with the Epilogue and gave me the closure I needed for Isaac and Declan’s story to be complete. Once again the wait begins for the next book in the St. Hawk’s Medical series and I can only hope that we get an update on Declan and Isaac at that time. 

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