The Loner

March 18, 2002
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.

March 15, 2002
Those feuding Texans, the Creeds and Blackthornes, are at it again. Now a responsible lawman and single dad, Bad Billy Coburn returns to Bitter Creek just two weeks before Summer Blackthorne is to wed another. Blackjack, patriarch of the Blackthornes, gives Billy 24 hours to leave or lose everything he's worked so hard for. With a mother dying of cancer and a pregnant teenage sister, Billy really can't leave, plus he needs cash to pay off the mother of his child so he can retain custody. Summer breaks up with her fiance and offers Billy a solution by agreeing to marry him. Meanwhile, it looks like Blackjack will finally be able to leave his wife, the evil Eve, for his true love, Ren Creed; but Eve, who previously tried murder to keep them apart, will go to any lengths. Skillful storyteller Johnston makes what in lesser hands would be melodramatic compellingly realistic in this page-turner, the third in the Bitter Creek series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)