Lonnie — Jennifer Roberson

Orphaned by prairie scavengers on the High Plains of Kansas in 1881, Lonnie Ryan is determined to make a living off the land. It's a hardscrabble life, but she hangs on. And then one day more trouble arrives at the farm: Toby Markham, fleeing the notorious Barstow gang. They put a bullet through his shoulder, but he escaped. Now it's up to 17-year-old Lonnie to nurse Toby back to health even as she faces new threats: a bounty hunter, a banker set on taking her farm, the knowledge that a vicious outlaw gang may track Toby to her place. And also face the assault on her emotions as the wall she built to live behind is slowly eroded by a a young man who seems to understand her better than she does herself.

Jennifer Roberson has published 25 novels since 1984. Her primary genre is fantasy, but she has also written historicals, historical romance, romantic suspense, and a western. In 2011, she moved to Tucson, Arizona, where she breeds and shows Cardigan Welsh Corgis, lives with a token Labrador, and creates mosaic artwork, specializing in pawprint designs.