You, and No Other

Return to Troublesome Gulch #3

by Lynda Sandoval

The boy is back in town…

Twelve years ago Jonas was run out of town on prom night by the police chief. Even worse, the chief’s daughter, Cagney, love of Jonas’s life, seemed to go along with Daddy’s wishes. But the boy from the wrong side of the tracks made millions and he’s back to fund a youth centre for troubled teens…and rub the naysayers noses in it. Especially Cagney’s.

Cagney Bishop’s chance at happiness was ruined forever on prom night – until seeing Jonas reopened a door in her heart she thought was sealed forever. But is Jonas there to get even…or get true love back on track?

Genres: Romance, Category Romance, Harlequin, Contemporary

259 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

**Since I'm intimately familiar with the blood, sweat, and tears that go into producing a book, I will only be listing my 4-and 5-star reads. We don't all like the same fare (as is evidenced by some of the Goodreads ratings on my own work!), so if I don't love a book, you won't see it on my page. I'm not interested in bashing anyone else's creative efforts or negatively influencing anyone's reading choices. This is PURELY my choice, and how you review is up to you. On with the bio.**

Lynda Sandoval is a former police officer-turned fiction writer with 22 published (or soon to be published) books to her credit. She's written women's fiction and nonfiction for HarperCollins Rayo; romance for Silhouette Special Edition; a romantic novella for Avon A; and young adult novels and novellas for Simon & Schuster and Houghton Mifflin. She launched her career with five award-winning books for Kensington Bouquet and Pinnacle Encanto, and her popular nonfiction text published by Gryphon Books for Writers, True Blue: An Insider's Guide to Street Cops—For Writers, is still selling strong.

Lynda also works half-time as an emergency 9-1-1 dispatcher for the Fire/EMS Department, teaches writing for Long Ridge Writer's Group, volunteers at a GLBTQ youth center and speaks regularly to book groups and clubs.

Lynda's Awards:

Look of Love/Pinnacle Encanto/1999
~~2000 Rising Star award

One and Only/Pinnacle Encanto/2001
~~4-1/2 star Gold Medal Top Pick in Romantic Times
~~2002 Golden Quill Award, Short Contemporary

Thief of Hearts/Pinnacle Encanto/2001
~~2003 Colorado Romance Writers' Keeper Award
~~2002 Beacon Award, Long Contemporary
~~Finalist, 2002 Booksellers' Best Contest, Long Contemporary
~~Finalist, 2002 Golden Quill award, Long Contemporary

Unsettling/HarperCollins Rayo/2004
~~2005 Write Touch Readers' Award, Mainstream Fiction
~~2005 Laurie Award of Excellence, Single Title Fiction
~~2005 The Lories, Mainstream Fiction
~~2005 The Lories, Best of the Best Published
~~2005 Colorado Romance Writers' Award of Excellence, Mainstream Fiction
~~2nd place, 2005 More than Magic Award, Mainstream Fiction
~~2nd place, 2005 Beacon Award, Mainstream Fiction
~~Finalist, 2005 Golden Quill Award, Mainstream Fiction
~~Finalist, 2005 Aspen Gold Award, Single Title Fiction
~~Finalist, 2005 National Readers' Choice Award, Single Title Fiction

And Then There Were Three/Silhouette Special Edition/2004
~~Two weeks on the Waldenbooks Series Bestsellers' List, peaking at #3
~~2nd place, 2005 The Lories, Long Contemporary
~~Finalist, 2005 Colorado Romance Writers' Award of Excellence, Long Contemporary
~~Finalist, 2005 Orange Rose Award, Long Contemporary

One Perfect Man/Silhouette Special Edition/2004
~~2005 Holt Medallion, Long Contemporary
~~2005 Write Touch Readers' Award, Long Contemporary
~~3rd place, 2005 More than Magic Award, Long Contemporary
~~Honorable Mention, 2005 Barclay Gold Award, Long Contemporary
~~Finalist, 2005 Colorado Romance Writers' Award of Excellence, Long Contemporary

Who's Your Daddy?/Simon Pulse/2004
~~Finalist, Colorado Endowment for the Humanities's Colorado Book Award, Young Adult Literature
~~2007 Evergreen Young Adult Book Award nominee
~~2005 ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Readers
~~2005 New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age
~~2005 National Readers' Choice Award, Young Adult Literature
~~2005 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, Young Adult Literature

Chicks Ahoy/Simon Pulse/2005
~~2006 ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Readers
~~2006 Books that Kids Love and Parents Hate, Cleveland Public Library System

The Other Sister/Silhouette Special Edition/2007
~~Nominee, 2007 Romantic Times BOOKCLUB Best Special Edition of the Year
~~Borders Group/Waldenbooks Series Romance Bestseller

www.LyndaSandoval.com

Reviews

[Saly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cagney was the other person involved in the prom night accident.
Her family defines dysfunctional, her father the police chief was always controlling and verbally abusive. Only Jonas, Cagney's love knew the full extent of her home situation. Jonas came from the wrong side of the tracks, he wasn't wealthy and her father had forbidden her to see him but she did and they made plans. Cagney loved art and planned to go to college but the day before the prom her father found about Jonas and threatened to withdraw her college financing if she went to the prom with him.

Just to show him she decided to go and her father said she had to go with a friend, so she did. She wanted to tell Jonas but her father took all her means of communication so she thought she'd tell him when she is with friends and he would understand since he knew her father. But things turned out differently when Jonas showed up the Chief made it sound that Cagney was done with him and Jonas who had always thought that he wasn't good enough for her believed him since he also gave him a letter(it was forged).

Now, in the future, Cagney is a cop working under her father, the accident changed her and losing Jonas. She never went to college and never followed her art. The city is having a new hospital wing opened and the donor is Jonas, who is now wealthy.

Jonas rise to the top has been fueled by revenge but he feels weird when he sees Cagney again, she seems happy to see him and wants to talk while he doesn't wants to keep it all business. He does realize that he still loves her but it is mixed with a whole bunch of feelings. To anger her dad and put then in proximity Cagney volunteers her warehouse to be the teen-centre.

But she soon realizes after being re-buffed one time too many that she cannot recapture what she and Jonas had and that he doesn't want to. Jonas wants to but he is afraid of making a move, of course her father figures into them play-acting later.

I enjoyed the book a lot, I loved seeing Cagney confront her mother and even her father and her fears. Jonas was good as well but the star was Cagney.
I never doubted these two were meant for each other even if Jonas was stubborn at first.

[Booklover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful read,liked it very much,enjoyed the way Jonas-Casey start together their mission to give it back to chief for destroying their lives and taking everything from them,enjoyed the way after so much of pain these two talk out from the beginning clear out the misunderstanding and start afresh as friends which is only a label deep down both love each other very much.

Overall an intense emotional second chance at love story with revenge in the start but later its turned towards a culprit who deserved it
Wonderful read
Recommend it

[Fiona Marsden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reunion romances are my crack but I especially like it if they haven't formed other relationships in between.

Jonas and Cagney are high school sweethearts. Only trouble is that Jonas is the son of the town lush and lives with her in a van on the other side of the tracks. Cagney isn't rich, but she's the daughter of the Chief of the sheriffs office in their small home town. Chief, as Cagney calls him cos he isn't any kind of a father, hates Jonas with a passion and when he finds out they intend to go to prom together, he takes radical steps to prevent it, including ensuring Cagney can't get in touch to explain why. That night, she is involved in a tragic accident that forms the core inciting event for this series by Sandoval. Jonas doesn't know because he's already on his way out of town with his mom.

Now it's more than ten years later and Jonas is a computer whizz millionaire endowing an art therapy wing at the Troublesome Gulch hospital. This may sound kind and thoughtful, but to Cagney, who never did become the artist she planned on being before the accident and Jonas abandoning her, it's like rubbing salt into the wound.

Jonas is in town for one thing only, to prove to the town that sneered at him and his mother, and to the girl he thinks rejected him, that he's made it to the top. He's shocked to find Cagney has followed her mean dad into the police force, instead of going to college like she planned, like they planned. He didn't know because he'd gone to a different college so he didn't have to meet her again. Wasted effort as it turned out.

Thrown together on a project for youth at risk, Jonas and Cagney are forced to spend time with each other getting to know each other all over again.

This was a nice story with two people who needed to rethink their choices and develop strengths to break away from the past. I wouldn't mind reading the rest of the series.

[《Jaqueline》 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/3 stars

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wanna get a very satisfied smiles after reading

[Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very angsty book that I think I got as a giveaway at RWA National. Hero and heroine were high school sweethearts, but the heroine's daddy, the town police chief/sheriff, basically spent his life making his children (esp. the heroine) miserable. He ruins their plans for the prom, and then life blows up in their faces. Now years later, the hero has earned a bazillion bucks, and wants to come back to town to rub their faces--especially the heroine's--in it. He wants revenge. And he's shocked to discover that the heroine is now a cop under her dad. But things aren't at all what either one of them thinks--especially him. This is a very good reunion romance. I liked it a lot.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great story about two people getting back together who should never have parted---don't pass this one up

[mandy]

this book just seemed to drag on and on. Forced myself to finish it on my car trip last weekend but I'm taking a break before starting the next of my assigned romance novels.

[Char · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wish the had the 1/2 rating so I could make this 3 1/2.

[Laurie Stoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the strength of the female character. No simpering female here!

[Lindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really appreciated the heroine's honesty.