Meg's Secret Saving Shenanigans
Contemporary Romance
Kelly Abell
Reviewed by: Linda Tonis
When we left off in book one, Mabe O’Banyon had survived the bombing of her pub, Shenanigans, and a hit on the head. Now Mabe is coming home from the hospital where she came to terms with the fact that the man she loves, Aaron Shaw, is the nephew of the man to whom her father owed money. And, the nephew of the man responsible for the fire at the pub, and her near death experience. In addition, she had to come to grips with the fact that Aaron paid her father’s debt. Now she and her sisters own the pub outright, and she has accepted Aaron’s marriage proposal.
Meg is now the focus of this book. She faces surgery in a few weeks for her ovarian cancer. While repairs are being done to the pub, Mara has refused to return to New York and her older French boyfriend, Jacques. The sisters are finally together again and they will let nothing keep them from helping each other. Meg has had to face some very difficult things, Mabe almost dying, her cancer, and then out of the blue, seeing the man she has loved since high school and the father of her daughter Emma, Rod Owens.
Rod left for boot camp shortly after Meg discovered she was pregnant. Since she had no idea of how he felt about her and since she knew that her drunken father would most likely kill Rob if he found out, she did what she thought was best. She ran. Rod always talked about being in the military, and she didn’t want to be the one to stand in his way. Even if she told him, he was off to Afghanistan. He would not be available to be a father or a husband. Now with the possibility of not surviving her cancer and the idea of her ten year old daughter not having her father in her life, Meg is faced with a very difficult decision.
Meg has never stopped loving Rod. When they meet again, it becomes obvious he has always loved her. When he finds out she has kept the fact that he is a father from him, there is no doubt he will hate her. However, Emma comes first. Will she confess her secret to Rod? Is Rod the kind of man who can forgive and forget? Will he even be willing to become a father to a child he hasn’t known for ten years? Is Meg destined to be alone without the man she has always loved?
This series is about the three O’Banyon sisters who due to different circumstances found themselves separated from each other. Meg ran because of her pregnancy. Mara ran because she was the constant target of her father’s drunken temper. Mabe, of course, was their father’s favorite, and she was the one who took care of the family pub. With the death of their father, the girls reunited and realized that they needed each other and loved each other. We had Mabe’s story, and now Meg’s. I look forward to Mara’s. If there is one thing women can learn from this book is how to recognize the silent killer, cancer. So often ovarian cancer is not diagnosed properly and is thought to be a stomach malady. Hopefully, women will come away with a new understanding of what to look for before it is too late. In addition to a wonderful story, there is a lesson to be learned as well.