The Next Mrs. Blackthorne (Bitter Creek, No. 6)

by Joan Johnston

Book Overview

New York Times bestselling author Joan Johnston returns to the drama, passion, and intrigue of Bitter Creek in this exciting, new novel to reveal who will vow to love and honor powerful Texan ranching... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743454413
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Pocket Books
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 1.0" x 4.2"

Customer Reviews

A Trio of interesting stories with one being much better than the others

This is the first novel I have read about Joan Johnston's Bittercreek Dynasty, so all the characters and the background were completely unknown to me. There are three leading couples in this novel that are intricately tied together by events occurring twenty years earlier. The Blackthornes and the Grayhawks are 21st century Capulets and Montagues. Their distrust and bitterness permeate all their interactions save two people, Clay Blackthorne and Libby Grayhawk, these two young lovers met twenty years ago when Libby was only 16 and Clayton was a worldly 26 year old. They fell in love and when Libby became pregnant, she lied about her feelings to Clay (but not her pregnancy) to protect him from her vengeful father. Both have moved on with their lives, in fact Clay is soon to marry beautiful young Jocelyn. Clay and Libby's 19 year old daughter Kate desperately wants her parents together and she confides her longings to her mother's brother, North. He listens without comment but hatches a scheme which he believes helps everyone. He buys up stock in the Bittercreek ranching corporation and plans on a takeover, hoping Clay will call off the wedding to Jocelyn in order to regain his stock. Riding to Clay's rescue is his fiancée Jocelyn who offers herself to North in exchange for the stocks. Joss kind of has an inflated sense of self worth but she also has an attraction for North. They met a year earlier. North takes her up on her offer and the two begin a hot overwhelming affair. Meanwhile Clay is a federal judge presiding over a dangerous terrorist trial. His daughter Kate visits him regularly but when she takes up with a much older former NFL player, Jack McKinley, he and Kate's mom, Libby, join forces to prevent their daughter from marrying someone they find unsuitable. These stories combine fairly well but not all the couple's have a well written story. Joss and North by far are the best of the couples. Besides having a passionate and heated romance, Joss confronts her feelings about North almost immediately and North reevaluates his feelings and future with Joss. Their personalities fit one another well, which explains their instant attraction for each other. Kate and Jack have a romance that is not supposed to be a romance. Jack tells Kate he is only helping out Rachel as a favor for his friend North. He has no intention of acting upon this May/December romance. Kate is impetuous and hard headed. She struggles with her growing feelings for Jack. Their dialogue is somewhat unnatural and never really flows as well as the other couples. Clay and Libby's romance of course, has a long history which played out to its happy conclusion. Both are deeply hurt over the other's actions and quite frankly both are stubborn when it comes to forgiving one another. Sometimes these stories intersect well and at other times they seemed forced. Woven throughout this novel is the specter of a terrorist targeting the Blackthorne family.

satisfying

This was an easy to read romance that was very predictable, but it was still satisfying. The characters were interesting. The author writes with a style that is easy to read, as well as enjoyable

A Great Read

Joan Johnston has done it again - drawn us into the bitter feud between the Grayhawks and Blackthornes and wrapped us in the not-to-be-denied emotional bond between Libby Grayhawk and Clay Blackthorne. At eighteen, Kate Grayhawk is still waging a campaign to get her parents together and married. One big stumbling block - Jocelyn Montrose, sister to Clay's late wife and now his fiancee. When she appeals to her Uncle North Grayhawk for help, he takes a step that will have a far-reaching effect on everyone - especially him. A man whose view of women is colored by his father's multiple marriages and lost love, he has held himself apart from emotional entanglement. Until Joss, trying to help Clay, offers him a bargain that turns out to be almost more than he can handle. Clay and Libby, meanwhile, are thrown together through the plottings of their daughter. History has made them both stubborn and wary of each other, but circumstances will teach them, too, the meaning of real love. As Joan Johnston takes the reader through the emotional turmoil of these four people, as she skillfully involves us in their conflicts and battles, we see the depth of character in each of them that directs their course for the future. The decisions they will ultimately make will effect everyone, and have a major impact on the Grayhawk-Blackthorn feud. Who will be the next Mrs. Blackthorne? You'll have to read the book and see, but it is a most staisfying read, and will leave you waiting at the bookstore for the next Bitter Creek novel.

strong entry in the long running feuding Grayhawk- Blackthorne dispute

Nineteen years old Kate Grayhawk thought that her rescue from a kidnapping would be the catalyst to bring her biological parents together, but one year since her harrowing experience, Libby Grayhawk and Clay Blackthorne remain apart. Though she knows the families feud, she still has hopes until her prayers seem to be forever unanswered when her father announces his engagement to Jocelyn Montrose. With the gene pool she carries Kate is not a quitter so continues her efforts to bring her parents together. Surprisingly and serendipitously her Uncle North Grayhawk assists her by buying shares of stock in the Blackthorne Bitter Creek Cattle Company. Meanwhile Jocelyn who always wanted Clay even when he was married to her late sister meets North and is stunned as he sets her heart ablaze like no one else including her fiancé has ever done before. Feeling a need to make things right for Clay and his family she offers herself to North in exchange for the stock not realizing the inferno she and Kate, acting separately, set between the two of them and the fighting families. This is a strong entry in the long running feuding Grayhawk- Blackthorne dispute. Fans will appreciate the internal battles of the obstinate cast as no one wants to take the first step for fear of rejection by the significant other they love and the consequent scorn by their family. Though Police Officer Jack hits it on the head that Kate is too spoiled and has pitied herself over the years due to the lack of a two parent home, readers will enjoy the latest in Joan Johnston's long running saga. Harriet Klausner