Customer Reviews

The Taming of Shaw MacCade

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From the moment Becca Raeburn suppresses a shiver of apprehension as the tall figure on horseback materializes through the ghostly twilight (it's Shaw MacCade, of course!) right up until the breathless moment the deliciously handsome Shaw vows to prove his love forever and ever, I was hooked!

No one can spin a tale like Judith E. French. Her plots are laced with daring adventure and tender emotion. This book is a must read!

The MacCade and the Raeburn families had feuded for generations. After being away four years Shaw MacCade returned to his family in Missouri and found the feud as strong as ever. When Shaw learned his brother, Laird, was dead he was livid! Worse, everyone, except the jury, believed Laird's killer was Campbell Raeburn! The only thing that kept Shaw from killing Campbell was Rebecca Raeburn!

Shaw and Becca, even knowing their families would be furious, had grown up as friends. Now they found themselves in love with each other. However, the Raeburns believed Shaw had gotten Eve (Rebecca's sister) pregnant before he ran off to California for four years and the MacCade's believed Campbell had murdered Laird. Rebecca decided to find Even in Saint Louis to learn who the father of Jamie really was. At least one mystery could be solved. Shaw followed her. Both knew that if they gave into their love for each other, the feud could escalate into a blood bath!

... Judith E. French has a master talent of telling a story so that the Reader can understand both sides of a problem. I could sympathize with the MacCades and the Raeburns! This tale starts out with a punch and has many twists to keep the Reader glued to the pages! Recommended! ...

Everyone thought Shaw MacCade had died, but in 1849, Shaw returns home to Angel Falls, Missouri only to receive a nasty dunking by his childhood friend Becca Raeburn. He later learns that her sister Eve accused him of being the father of her son. He denies that, but Becca does not trust nor believe him. Shaw's return also reheats the feud between the MacCades and the Raeburns that started four centuries ago in Scotland. Shaw begins to persuade Becca that maybe he is not the father of her nephew.

Needing to know the truth about Eve and to see if her exiled sister is okay, Becca travels to St. Louis. In Jefferson City, Shaw catches up to her and they marry, but she knows it cannot last because she has a responsibility to her family who would never accept a MacCade. Still, they make love before going on to St. Louis. They find an ailing Eve whose son was sold by a local preacher to a wagon train. Though she knows that her beloved did not sire her nephew, Becca knows love is not strong enough to stop the feud from destroying her happiness.

Award-winning Judith E. French relocates the feuding Scottish clans from their homeland and intriguingly moves them into the American heartland with a powerful tale. Due to the feud and the cross-star love aspect of the lead couple, the story line is packed with excitement. Becca and Shaw are wonderful characters struggling to make a loving relationship surmount the impossible merger of a MacCade with a Raeburn. Sub-genre readers will take pleasure from this warm novel.

Harriet Klausner

Sorry - but this book is a plus better than just Excellent --
This story is about more than just Shaw MacCade and Rebecca Raeburn.

There is the Raeburn family - with Grandma Jeanne Monro Campbell [sweet but strong enough] - her sons, Campbell and Quinn Raeburn [both stubborn and some ornery].
Rebecca and Eve and her little son Jamie -- their brothers Corbett [who slides in and out of the picture], the 21 year old twins, Welsh and Drummond and the adopted brother Noah who is 16, near 200 pounds and has wheat yellow hair.

Now there is the MacCade family [grin] mama, Fiona [a true matriarch] and Murdoch MacCade [boy, what women have to put up with] - [had 12 children - I must of missed some]-- there was Will, Tom, Payton, Bruce, Laird [deceased] Shaw [maybe 27 years old, 180#, and 6 ft. tall], Leslie, Nigel [19] Ewen [16] and sister Katie married to Jake. Leslie has a common law wife Janie and a daughter and 2 sons -- and a cousin, Bruce McDuff raised by the MacCades from a little sprout. [I love family lines].

Angel Crossing helps perpitrate the feud begun so long ago yet nothing but misunderstandings come between Shaw and Becca. Their love began when they were too young to know or understand love and its strengths. What do you suppose brought Shaw back after 4 years absence?? His deep seated love for Becca.

The way the story is developed and resolved is some times hilarious, always heart warming and proves that women hold families together. You can't help but become involved with these families and their squabbles, meaning that the author has achieved her goal in writing a truly memorable story - the trouble is you want more of their stories!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED -- definitely add this book to your library and reread it again and again!