SAVE ME - Cecy Robson
O'Brien Family,  Book 5
Crushstar Media
ISBN: 978-1-94733-004-7
April 2018
Contemporary Romance

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Present Day

Seamus O'Brien doesn't have the best of luck with women.  Not to say he doesn't have a very active sex life – just that the women he ends up with tend to be felons.  Or married.  Or psycho.  With two of his brothers and Wren, his sister, getting married, his ma and Wren are really putting on the pressure for Seamus to find a nice girl and settle down.  When he runs into Allie Mendes at the bakery, he has no idea who she is at first, in spite of the fact that they went to the same school, and the church, where she once upon a time taught his younger siblings at Sunday school.  The arrival of her sister and mother, bent on humiliating Allie, spurs Seamus to action, and before he knows what he's doing, he admits that he's Allie's boyfriend – or rather, her lover.

Allie has spent her life in her older sister's shadow, never quite measuring up to Valentina.  While Allie has a successful business and helps her family with money, Valentina is a successful model who rarely visits.  Worse, she slept with Allie's fiance, and now she's come back to Philly to marry him.  Allie's never been able to stand up for herself, and when they start in on her at the bakery, Allie begs God for help.  Apparently, God sent Seamus O'Brien.

It seems like the perfect set-up: Allie can pose as his girlfriend, the kind of woman who's not going to burn the church down and will make his family happy.  Allie has a shield for dealing with her sister's wedding, and Seamus will also help her release her inner seductress.  What neither counted on in this charade was for the feelings to become real.

The final book in the  O'Brien Family  series brings things to a fun, sweet, and satisfying end.  With the words SAVE ME, Allie inadvertently sets in motion a fake courtship which turns into a real relationship.  Allie has always been the good girl, going along with her family and trying to ignore the hurt over the family's preference for Valentina.  It's been seven years since Valentina and Allie's fiance betrayed her, and she hadn't even been aware they were still together.  Their upcoming marriage throws her for a loop, but having sexy Seamus O'Brien claim her as his throws her even more.  Seamus had been trying to figure out where he's going to find a “nice” girl to placate his Ma and sister when Allie walks back into his life.  After a bit of prodding, he remembers her and what a sweet, good Catholic girl she is.  Watching the way her family treats her prods Seamus's protective instincts.  To make things believable, they spend some time together and slowly, a friendship develops.  While they both start to want more, neither is willing to tell the other, so a relationship between them takes even longer.

Fans of the  O'Brien Family  will love the chance to catch up with the family, as we get to see all of the brothers and Wren, as well as their friends.  We also get to see three of their weddings, all of them unique, heart-warming, and fun.  If you haven't read the series in order, SAVE ME does stand well on its own, giving readers enough information to follow along and enjoy the slow-building relationship between Allie and Seamus.  However, each of the books is a mix of humor, emotion, and family, and SAVE ME is a thoroughly enjoyable end to the series.

Jennifer Bishop