Shattered Lives

Violence, heartache, and three devastating hurricanes ravaged Madelaine LeBlanc's life in late summer 1860. In the luxurious Creole world of French food, meadow picnics, and silk-gown veranda parties, her father plots her marriage to a rich heir, and with the infamous Nightriders he secretly terrorizes the poor Cajuns in the swamps. Madelaine, searching desperately for a life of meaning and freedom, finds it at last in storm-wrecked fields, where Françoise Jarousseau helps her father rebuild their livelihood. But her family would never accept her love of a poor Cajun laborer. Can she really abandon her whole world for him?

When Françoise's work is done, Madelaine despairs of ever seeing him again -- until a second hurricane threatens her father's crops, and he returns to the plantation. She can't resist their secret meetings, despite the risk of discovery. Her father's vengeance and the final hurricane break over them in one terrifying night. Will their love survive? [close]