Review: Shattered by Joan Johnston

I am a huge Joan Johnston fan and have followed her Bitter Creek Series for some time and I have to say this is one of the best one's in the series thus far! There is a love triangle or square you could say with the four main characters; first we have Kate Grayhawk Pendleton whose missing and presumed husband is a bad, bad man. A Cheater, a liar and a thief to boot with his mama bailing him out time and time again just to keep his antics under wraps in hopes to save her political ambitions....oh and NOT the father of her twin eight year old boys. Believed by the world to be a war hero he is hiding out from the mob in South America until he is caught stealing from said mob 20 million dollars worth of heroin. A true winner! But who is the daddy? Finding out in the first two pages sets the stage for one of the most intriguing stories in the Bitter Creek Series. Kate admits that Wyatt Shaw, who happens to be the bastard son of Dante D'Amato (the mob boss), is the father. After walking in on JD, Kate's husband having sex with another woman, Kate picked Wyatt up in a bar not realizing exactly who he was. Wyatt is still madly in love with Kate after all these years and when he finds out that he has twin sons he seizes the opportunity to get Kate under his roof. He knows that his father will be after the boys as well as JD so it isn't a lie when he tells her that he wants move her to his compound for their protection. Feeling a little pissed about it, but helpless, Kate realizes that she has denied him 8 years with the boys and besides at this point she believes she is still in love with Jack but he moved back in with his wife and their son! So let’s fast forward 9 years and bam, her husband JD is back in the states and is planning on killing her and Wyatt, her mother in law she has now learned has ties to the mob, she wake from a 4 month coma to find out the man she has been in love with most of her life, Jack (a Texas Ranger), is moving back in with his wife. And the clincher there.... she's pregnant with his baby. Have I confused you yet?

I thought I would be, but one thing that Joan Johnston does is make the story flow like warm honey. And I ate it all up. Whew, the drama, it will capture you and suck you in, because all the details that happen in between are absolutely riveting! So many surprises I am keeping to myself (spoilers), which I thought were brilliant because frankly not everyone can have a happy ending! Now if you are unfamiliar with the other books in the series it is still easy to follow along because JJ does a wonderful job of tying in loose details about linage to help you along. A lot of details, but the book is 423 pages. I finished it in two days because I just had to find out what happened!

Synopsis: "From bestselling, award winning author Joan Johnston comes a tale of forbidden love and deadly secrets.

Nine years ago KATE GRAYHAWK PENDLETON walked into Wyatt Shaw's life—and out of it the next morning. Now Wyatt's back—and has the power to shatter Kate's future with the man she loves.

By reputation, WYATT SHAW is a brutal killer who always gets what he wants. And he wants Kate and her twin eight-year-old sons.

Texas Ranger JACK McKINLEY is hot on Wyatt Shaw's trail. The presumed heir to the D'Amato crime syndicate is threatening to steal the woman he loves.

HOLLY McKINLEY is fighting to keep Jack from leaving her for another woman. Now the secret she's kept for over twenty years may save their son's life, and cost her the only man she's ever loved."

READ an EXCERPT

SHATTERED

Bitter Creek Series Book #8
MIRA Books, Mass Market Original
January 2010
ISBN-13:978-0--7783-2829-2

DISCLAIMER

I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me,

in exchange for my HONEST review.

No items that I receive "in kind"

are ever sold...they are kept by me, donated to The Medford Public Library,

or given away on contests on this blog.