Bitter Roads of Summer

Harper Lee Gallagher has been waiting more than a year to face the man who killed her entire family. From across the courtroom, she finally sees Donald Beckworth, but now that the time has come, painful memories sweep back into control. As she faces the wealthy and influential drunk driver, and the school bully who injured her in the spring, she also mourns the loss of her friends: Adrian, who has gone from Stone Lake, and entered the foster system, and Winter, who has simply--gone. The summer brings the drama of two court cases and the understanding that the man who killed her family has destroyed another family as well, and leads her into an alliance she could never have expected. It also brings days of sunshine and beaches; of friendship and trust. Then Harper meets Julien. When Ed Thompson's handsome young nephew comes to spend the summer on Ed's horse farm, the young man offers Harper more than friendship; much more than she expected. Juggling her burgeoning love life, friends, legal cases, the demanding attention of the media, and her dedication to help save 18 horses from a life of abuse and neglect, Harper races through the summer months, toward her junior year of high school. But with the bitter changes that the summer brings, she is left to wonder again if she is where she belongs, and if she ever will be.