New York Times bestselling author Joan Johnston brings to life an unforgettable love story between two strong-willed people from different worlds in her thrilling new novel featuring the Blackthornes of Bitter Creek, Texas, and their formidable rivals, the Grayhawks of Wyoming. Juggling single motherhood and her job as deputy sheriff of Teton County, Sarah Barndollar hasn't lost hope of solving two cold cases of missing young women. When a third vanishes, all hell breaks loose -- because she's the illegitimate daughter of Texas scion Clay Blackthorne and the granddaughter of his mortal enemy King Grayhawk. The crisis pits the two powerful families against each other in a race against time. Playboy Drew DeWitt, a Blackthorne cousin, insists on taking part in the search -- putting him on a collision course with Sarah. Her cop instincts tell her the sexy Texan is trouble. But when evidence emerges of a conspiracy against the U.S. government, Sarah accepts Drew's high-powered help as she negotiates a shadowy landscape of hidden rivals and ruthless greed where every moment counts in saving lives, including her own.

From "New York Times "bestselling author Joan Johnston, the thrilling seventh "Bitter Creek "novel featuring passion and intrigue mixed with an explosive, spine-tingling tale of murder, wrongful imprisonment, and a woman who counts no cost too high to see a killer brought to justice.
FBI Special Agent Breed Grayhawk has the hottest sex in his life with a stranger who calls herself Grace Smith, only to discover early the next morning that she's a convicted double murderer who broke her parole a year ago and disappeared. Now she's his prime suspect in an assassination plot against the US president.
Grace Caldwell--a.k.a. Grace Smith--is determined to find the killer who framed her for the murder of her father and stepmother--and make him pay. She burgles the home of her #1 suspect and nets a surprising haul: a hot-pink, silk-covered diary--the record of a sex-addicted wife's adventures--which suggests that Grace's top suspect is a serial killer. But her theft has been caught on tape, and the man she's been chasing becomes the hunter...with Grace as his prey.

Joan Johnston presents the thrilling saga of two dynastic families, the Blackthornes and the Creeds, with this powerful "New York Times" bestseller -- a novel of intrigue, passion, ambition, and love set amid Houston's towering skyscrapers and the majestic plains of South Texas ranch country.
Luke Creed has sacrificed everything for his career at the prestigious law firm DeWitt & Blackthorne: a chance to run his family's ranching empire, his marriage, even time with his two daughters. Defending a major client in a wrongful death case, Luke crosses paths with his high school sweetheart, Amy Hazeltine Nash, an advocate for the bereaved plaintiff. Now, Luke and Amy are divided by forces beyond themselves -- and overcome by an all-consuming desire. But when the case takes a deadly twist, Luke delves into a dangerous web of corruption that may place his life in jeopardy -- and may also target the one woman who loves Luke for who he really is: rebel, cowboy, loner, and lover.

A lavish summer wedding is being planned at Bitter Creek ranch. In one month, Clay Blackthorne will wed socialite Jocelyn Montrose. But when she hears stirrings of a corporate takeover by the family's archrival, North Grayhawk, Jocelyn covertly heads to North's ranch to offer a valuable commodity -- herself -- if North will call off his plans. Striking a deal to spend the summer with the steely, seductive North, Jocelyn fails to see that her sacrifice to protect the man she loves may have dire consequences.

Stunned by his fiancee's rejection, Clay, a newly appointed federal judge, begins presiding over an incendiary terrorism trial, which brings him face to face with his first love, Libby Grayhawk. As tensions mount, forces beyond Clay's control threaten the women most precious to him in the past and the present. And only in a daring act of sacrifice will he know which woman will become the next Mrs. Blackthorne.

The historical biographies of Joan's Great Great, and Great Gradnfathers, Eli and Edward, both Sea Captains, plus master ship builders and voyagers brings to life romance, dramatic family life, Atlantic Ocean, Great Lakes sailing adventures, whaling, voyage ship wreck, conflicting religious situations, local government corruption and murder. In addition Captain Eli's government commission to charter the Great Lakes and Captain Edward's Civil War service record under Admiral Farragut.

For Sloan Stewart, romance meant only heartache and betrayal, but Cruz Guerrero planned to seduce the iron-willed beauty with soft words and tender caresses. Yet as Texas raged in a bloody battle over statehood, not even Cruz's love could protect Sloan from a web of treachery spun years ago.

From New York Times bestselling author and romance legend Joan Johnston come two favourite stories about true love and family, available together for the first time.

The Man From Wolf Creek

Seeking restitution from the elderly ingrate who robbed him, a reclusive, huge and handsome ⡥ast⟯f a mountain man receives a most unorthodox compensation: the old thief's ⡥auty⟯f a daughter. Now this unlikely pair discovers that true love can find you when you least expect it.

The Christmas Baby

Having wed to end the warring ways of their feuding Texas families, a reluctant bride and groom find life together and unending battle--until a beautiful arrival at Christmastime teaches them the true meaning of peace and joy and love.

Dear Reader,

Colter's Wife has always held a special place in my heart because I believe it is the first of my novels that fully conveys my love of the magnificent American West -- the breathtaking landscapes, the excitement and danger of the frontier, and the passionate, strong-willed people who built lives in an untamed land.

Set in Wyoming Territory, it tells the story of Kinyan Holloway, who has no idea how she's going to survive when her husband is killed in a range accident. Kinyan is torn between the Sioux world where she was raised and her responsibilities to her children and their heritage -- the largest ranch in the Territory.

Into her life rides a scarred stranger who's fast with a gun. Benjamin Colter has tried to put vengeance behind him, but the past seems destined to catch up with him. What he wants now is Kinyan Holloway -- and her ranch -- but he can get them only if he defeats a deadly rival and agrees to become a father to three children who want more from him than he's able to give.

Enjoy!
Joan Johnston

Joan Johnston sweeps readers back to the untamed American West in a tale of powerful emotions and breathtaking action.
1865: The Civil War was over, but new dangers lay in wait across the open frontier. Disguised as a boy in buckskins, pretty Rebecca Hunter wasn't afraid of any enemy who might cross her path in the Rocky Mountains. She vowed never to belong to any man...until she met city-bred Christopher Kincaid, the stranger she rescued from a fierce band of Sioux. All too quickly she learned how powerful an attraction can be between a man and a woman.
No Indian ambush could scar Kincaid as deeply as the tragic loss and broken heart he suffered in the war. Now, being nursed back to health by Reb in an isolated mountain cabin, he found himself coming alive with a powerful desire for her. But how could he know that his mission for the government would jeopardize his chances of winning Reb's heart, bring down the wrath of a renegade Sioux chief, and test the lengths he'd be willing to go to convince this passionate woman to stay beside him for all time?

Determined to capture the heart of her childhood friend Ethan Hawk, Patch Kendrick, now a beautiful blonde, helps Patch clear his name so that he will be free to love. By the author of "Kid Calhoun."
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Texas Ranger Jake Kearney was astonished to discover that the "Kid" Calhoun he stalked, the same outlaw who saved him from ambush, was a woman--and an irresistible one at that Now Anabeth Calhoun was an unwilling captive of the flinty-eyed Ranger as they pursued a gang of cold-blooded killers . . . and a cache of stolen gold that had mysteriously disappeared. But the lawman's problems had only just begun. Fighting his desire for the outlaw he had sworn would not escape justice, Jake Kearney was soon torn between his duty . . . and his love. . . .
Anabeth knew she had found her match in the rugged loner who taught her the joys of passion . . . while "she" taught "him" the exquisite perils of love. She also knew that Anabeth "Kid" Calhoun was one outlaw both willing and eager to fall into the long arms of the law

Fleeing England as a destitute widow, Lady Verity Talbot settles in the wilderness of the Wyoming Territory. In the arms of a buckskin-clad stranger, she recognizes the unforgettable kind of passion from the man she left behind 20 years before. But this time Viscount Linden, now a frontiersman, would not let her go so easily.

Sworn to protect her, he was forbidden to touch her....

Joan Johnston is a masterful creator of unforgettable characters and stories that make you feel as if you're falling in love again. Now she sweeps you back to Regency-era Scotland, where a determined young woman challenges a man's world--even as she embraces the outsider who protects her life and steals her heart....

When the tall, rugged stranger stepped out of the shadows and rescued her from a fate worse than death, Katherine MacKinnon knew she had found her bodyguard. With his steely arms and reckless courage, he would shield her from her clansmen, who refused to accept her as laird, and from the hated Duke of Blackthorne, who controlled her family's lands. As her desire grew for the mysterious man who was constantly by her side, she had no idea that she was falling in love with the enemy himself....

Delia Carson was only sixteen when she fled her hometown--running thousands of miles away from the deadly Texas tempest of lies and shadows that tore apart her family...and her aching love for smalltown bad boy Marsh North.

But she never could escape.

A New York judge with a reputation for toughness, Delia has tried to forget, but cannot. And now a family crisis is calling her home--back to the mystery, back to the shadows...back to North, the "bad boy" turned respected, prize-winnning journalist. But some things never change. Dark secrets long denied must finally be revealed. And a youthful passion interrupted but never destroyed must be rapturously reborn as adult love if Delia is to be truly free.

Dedicated Texas Ranger Jack Kittrick is hard on the trail of a killer who is preying on the helpless in a large San Antonio hospital--a hunt that leads him to Maggie Wainwright, the beautiful, enigmatic legal eagle who had access to the victims. . .and a motive for the crimes. The more Jack learns about Ms. Wainwright, the more this secretive lady--who makes his spurs tangle and his heart run wild--enthralls and perplexes him.

When her own son becomes the killer's target, Maggie can no longer keep silent about her painful. shadowy past. With everything she truly cares about at stake, Maggie must cast her fate to the Texas winds. . .and trust her future--and her love--to the determined lawman who has more questions for her than she has answers.

Her rich titian hair in a bun, schoolmarm Eden Devlin was too tall and too doggone smart. Most men in Sweetwater wouldn't tangle with her. Until Burke Kerrigan rode into town. Big, hard, and handsome, he wore a pair of six-guns and a bold, lazy smile. He came to settle the war between the nesters and the ranchers, but soon had another challenge on his hands.

From genteel Boston to the wilds of Montana, she is searching for a safe haven for her family--and finds unexpected love.
Having lost her beloved husband, a whaling captain, to a watery grave, Molly Gallagher refuses to risk more heartbreak. Determined to keep her headstrong son from following in his father's footsteps, she agrees to become the mail-order bride of a Montana country doctor. She tells her new husband that she can never give her love to another man; what she doesn't tell him is that she has a young daughter and a rebellious teenage son.
Molly's ruse might have worked, but Seth Kendrick has secrets of his own: a willful daughter determined to end the marriage before it even begins--and a double life keeping his neighbors safe from outlaws. In an untamed land of vigilante justice, Molly has no choice but to trust this gray-eyed stranger whose stubbornness matches her own, whose kisses unleash flash floods of desire--and who may be the one man in a million who could win her fiery, faithful heart.
"A book you will read and remember for a long, long time . . . Wonderful characters light up the pages."--"Rendezvous"

In this dazzling prequel to the New York Times bestsellers The Cowboy and The Texan, Joan Johnston takes us back to a time when Texas was a young and wild republic, and three strong-willed sisters carved out a destiny that would spawn two legendary dynasties. Here is the spellbinding tale of a woman captured by Comanches--and of the proud warrior who vows to make her love him.

Comanche Woman

Born to a white father and his Indian bride, Long Quiet believed his destiny lay with his Comanche brothers. But his heart secretly belonged to Bayleigh Stewart, daughter of the richest cotton planter in Texas, who’d been abducted by a marauding brave and sold to the highest bidder. For years he’d searched for the violet-eyed beauty, and now a strange twist of fate led him to her.

Called Shadow by her captors, Bay had almost given up hope of rescue, when a rugged stranger in buckskins appeared, risking his life to bring her home...and awakening a passion that burned hot and true. Bay knew her place was with her family. But Long Quiet hadn’t found her only to lose her again. He had to convince this woman--his woman--that her true home was with him... as together they would fight for a love strong enough to bridge two worlds....

The prequel to the New York Times bestseller The Cowboy

Sprawling 1840s Texas comes alive in the hands of Joan Johnston, New York Times bestselling author of The Cowboy and The Texan. Introducing the unforgettable Creed dynasty, transporting us back to a wild, lawless frontier, Frontier Woman brings us a stirring, passionate story of Texas Ranger Jarrett Creed and the free-spirited beauty who captures his heart ... a woman sworn to love no man....

Captured by Comanches as a boy, Jarrett Creed grew to manhood torn between two worlds. But with the young republic under siege from ravaging Mexican armies and marauding Indian tribes alike, he made his choice. Now, as a secret government mission brings the Texas Ranger to lovely Cricket Stewart’s door, he must choose again.

The youngest daughter of a wealthy gentleman planter, Cricket lives life as she pleases and vows never to be a wife to any man. Until the day Jarrett Creed saves her from avenging Comanches ... by claiming her as his bride.

The last thing either expects is to fall in love. But as a traitorous conspiracy and a secret tragedy test their newfound union, a wild-spirited beauty and a Texas lawman will discover just how far they will go for their precious homeland ... and for a love that could free them from the sorrows of the past....