The Loner (Bitter Creek Series #3) »

Joan Johnston is the bestselling, award-winning author of fourteen historical romances and twenty contemporary romance novels. She received a Master of Arts degree in Theater from the University of Illinois and was graduated with honors from the University of Texas School of Law at Austin. She is currently a full-time writer who lives in South Florida.

The Blackthornes and the Creeds. Two powerful Texas dynasties–and lifelong enemies. Set in the heart of the modern-day West, New York Times bestselling author Joan Johnston brings to passionate life the clash of wills between Blackthorne and Creed . . . as a man and woman discover a love stronger than the forces trying to tear them apart.

Summer Blackthorne swore she’d never forgive Billy Coburn for running out on her and their future together. But that was before she found out she wasn’t Jackson Blackthorne’s child–Billy was. And now the “Blackthorne Bastard” has come home for a final day of reckoning...to the town that damned him and the woman he had always wanted. Only Summer can satisfy the hunger burning deep within him. Only she can help him hold on to his own unwanted son. It will be a marriage of expedience only. Until doubts and mistrust vanish in the heat of passion...and a man and a woman who never stopped loving each other fight bitter blood and impossible odds for a glorious second chance....

Publishers Weekly

Although the Blackthornes and the Creeds have been enemies for countless generations, love has found a way to transcend their feuding in the last two entries in Johnston's Bitter Creek series (The Cowboy; The Texan). This turbulent third installment follows the romance between Summer Blackthorne, who discovers she is not a Blackthorne after all, and "Bad" Billy Coburn, who learns that his father is none other than Jackson Blackthorne, Summer's father. When Billy returns to Bitter Creek to tend to his dying mother, Jackson attempts to run him off and away from Summer by sabotaging his efforts to find employment. The young couple thwart Jackson's schemes by quickly marrying, but Billy's pride and insecurity prevent him from believing that Summer, heir to thousands of acres of prime West Texas land, could love him. Further complications arise when Jackson leaves his wife, Eve, for Ren Creed, and a jealous Eve plans her suicide to implicate Jackson as her murderer. Uniting to save family members, Summer and Billy discover the truth behind Eve's death and finally realize the strength of their own love in a satisfying, though saccharine, denouement. Johnston employs more plot twists than a soap opera, but she carefully controls each entanglement to craft a warm and charming homespun tale. (Apr. 2) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.