Yours to Keep – Shannon Stacey

Sean Kowalski no sooner leaves the army than he’s recruited by Emma Shaw to be her fake fiancé. Emma needs to produce a husband-to-be for her grandmother’s upcoming visit, and, though Sean doesn’t like the deception, he could use the landscaping job Emma’s offering while he decides what to do with his civilian life. And, despite his attraction to Emma, there’s no chance he’ll fall for a woman with deep roots in a town he’s not planning to call home. 

Emma’s not interested in a real relationship either; not with a man whose idea of home is wherever he drops his duffel bag. No matter how amazing his “pretend” kisses are…

I love the Kowalski family.  The grown Kowalski “kids” are smart ass adults like the rest of us, their mother has no qualms about hitting you with a wooden spoon (that was something my grandmother would have done) or giving you the honest answer you didn’t want and the grandkids are rambunctious and loud, just like real kids are.  This installment of the Kowalski family books is no different, in fact it made me love them even more.

Sean Kowalski, cousin to the main group of Kowalski’s in the other 2 books, has just returned home from Afghanistan and discharged from the Army.  His goal is to chill for a bit with his cousins until he figures out what he wants to do next.  He figures he’s given 12 years of his life to Uncle Sam, now was time for him to do whatever he wants.   Sean’s not a complicated guy, but you can tell the years of being told what to do morning, noon and night has weighed on him.  He’s looked forward to being his own man and doing what he wanted once he returned to civilian life.  

Emma Shaw wants to make sure her grandmother stays in Florida, where she loves it, instead of worrying about how Emma is doing all by herself.  A knee jerk response to the constant threat of Grandma returning home and/or selling the house Emma lives in causes her to create a fictitious boyfriend, one Sean Kowalski (who happens to be a cousin to her good friend Lisa’s husband…Mike Kowalski).  That fictitious boyfriend soon turn into live-in lover and then snowballs into fiance.

I enjoyed “watching” Sean and Emma fight the pull of attraction they had with each other.  Sean went from “no way in hell” helping Emma with her little farce, to showing up on her doorstep with a cheap JC Penny engagement ring.  On the other side, Emma figured it would be no big deal to give up her comfy bed for the sofa she had in her room.  It wasn’t until she had Sean instilled in her house that she realized it wasn’t going to be so easy sleeping 10 feet from him…couch be damned.

They each had moments where you wanted to slap both of them (especially towards the end…so I was glad when Aunt Mary made good use of her wooden spoon), but it was a very satisfying ending.  I’m hoping that maybe we’ll get stories for Sean’s brothers and sister.  After all, that’s 4 more single people that need a HEA!