Mara's Passion Saving Shenanigans
Contemporary Romance
Kelly Abell
Reviewed by: Linda Tonis
The trilogy about the three O’Banyon sisters is coming to an end with Mara’s story. The three sisters’ lives were all very different, although each was affected by their drunken father. Mabe, the father’s favorite, stayed to run Shenanigans, the family bar. Meg ran off when she discovered she was pregnant and couldn’t face her father’s reaction. Mara became a top chef at a very exclusive restaurant in Manhattan where she lived the high life with an older rich man for whom she worked. It took a long time, but the sisters were finally reunited when their father died. Mabe faced difficulties with the bar and Meg returned with cancer and a ten year old daughter.
Book two ended with Meg’s marriage and Mabe’s pending marriage. That is where we pick up Mara’s story. Meg is still fighting her cancer. After a bombing at Shenanigans, the pub is coming along, and Mara has to figure out how to break her two year contract with Jacques. She loves being a chef and she loves New York City, but she no longer loves the man who taught her everything. She returns to settle things with Jacques only to find out that he is not the man she thought she knew. It seems that as long as Mara was making him richer with her reputation as a top chef at his restaurants he was fine, but when she threatened to leave he became the crazy, violent man he really was.
Mara wants to return to her family by Christmas. It will be the first Christmas all the sisters will get to spend together in many years, but Jacques has no intention of letting her go and has hired a man to watch her every move. She isn’t allowed Internet or a phone so contact with her family has to be done with people she trusts, and those are few and far between. Jake, who has confessed his love for Mara, heads to New York to bring her home. However, he never counted on the one threat that would keep Mara where she was. It is now time for the family to come together to bring Mara home where she belongs.
This was a wonderful series about three amazing sisters, who in spite of troubled childhoods, came together when they needed each other the most. Each sister’s story was heartwarming and filled with love. Although Mabe and Meg finally are with the men they love, will Mara finally open her heart to Jake a man willing to give her the love she never knew? As with the other books there are secrets, surprises, sex ,and romance. In one way I am happy to finally know the outcome for each sister but on the other hand I am sorry the series is over.