Review: A Story with a Core of Love and Family
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 22, 2013
While reading the first few sentences of this novel, I said to myself, "What! Who gets married like this!" Then it dawned on me that the story was taking place during the Depression Era, which made the male lead's behavior and female lead's patience and quiet resilience understandable. If I were to liken McCade's Way  to a fairy tale, it would have to be  The Beauty and The Beast,  my favorite fairy tale.Actually, this is a modern version of the Beauty and the Beast, the story time of the late 1920's and early 1930's excluded. The story starts with the scene showing Genevieve Kelly on the train. We learn that earlier, In New York City, while Genevieve Kelly is fighting with hunger and survival, the local priest, through the church, has found her a husband, Trey McCade, in Virginia, and Genevieve now is on her way to go to that man and the city he lives in. Genevieve and Trey have communicated through mail only and have never seen each other, at all. When they meet, their first impressions of each other are that of surprise bordering on shock.On the inside, Trey McCade is an honest, straight, and fair person, and in his heart, he is a family man, but his behavior toward Genevieve is somewhat verbally abusive. This roughness in him, however, is directed at everyone else around him because his past experiences have wounded him deeply.Genevieve is a girl who is afraid of her own shadow, for being also wounded because of an abusive father, although she shows considerable courage at times. Will Genevieve manage to tame the beast in Trey and will those two grow to like and love each other, despite their own shortcomings plus the people and incidents around them? These facts are what the reader has to find out.The author, Mara McBain, is a master of creating scenes, as every scene in this novel is  constructed and attached to the main storyline with care. The transitions between the scenes are smooth to give the story an effortless flow. In addition to that, the tension inside the characters and events arouse the curiosity of the reader for what will follow next.The description of the setting and other details are beautifully written, and the sex scenes are offered with taste without taking away from their fire and intensity.This novel, in my opinion, surpasses all that is expected of the romance genre and becomes a gem to be enjoyed for its own merits.