Joan Johnston writes novels with a western theme. I went to a used book sale and found one of her older books that I hadn’t read; “Shattered“, one of the her Bitter Creek novels. I had forgotten what a truly gifted storyteller this lady is.
Nine years ago Kate Grayhawk Pendleton walked into a hotel room she shared with her husband to find him in bed with another woman. Kate walks out of the room and into the bar downstairs, where she picks out a stranger and asks him to go upstairs with her. He checks them into the penthouse suite and a few weeks later she learns she is pregnant.
Fast forward nine years and she has buried her husband with military honers and become involved with a Texas Ranger, but all is not what it seems. She had been shot a few months before and while she is unconscious one of her twin sons had an accident, requiring a blood transfusion. Her mother-in-law, who is a prominent politician, has found out the twins are not her son’s biological children, but that doesn’t concern her as much as what the news, should it come out, will do to her political future.
As if Kate doesn’t have enough to deal with, her husband comes back from the dead and the biological father turns out to be a mob boss’ illegitimate son. Now I admit when you write this all out it sound a little hokey, but Kate and Wyatt Shaw have found the kind of chemistry that happens once in a lifetime. It also turns out Shaw is one of the good guys who has had a hard time living down the circumstances of his birth. While he is angry with Kate for keeping his sons from him, he is so pleased to be a father that he can’t hold on to his anger. He also finds out he is still as attracted to Kate as he was on that long ago night. Kate on the other hand is fighting her attraction to Shaw. She keeps telling herself that she is in love with the Texas Ranger, but she just can’t seem to make herself believe it.
This is really a fun read with plenty of mystery to keep you turning the pages.
Happy reading, Linda Laughlin
