The Crossing at Bitter Creek
(2025)(Book 20 in the Back in Time series)
A novel by Susan Leigh Carlton
A Novel of Love, Loss, and Second Chances
When Kim Whitaker's car stalls on a remote Wyoming railroad crossing, she has only seconds before the freight train strikes. In a blinding flash of light, she braces for death—but wakes instead in 1875, alone on the empty prairie with nothing but the clothes on her back.
Stranded 150 years in the past with no way home, Kim must navigate a world she only knew from history books. The modern conveniences she took for granted are gone. Her parents, her education, her entire future—erased in an instant. All she has left is her determination to survive.
When a quiet rancher named Sam Reed finds her wandering the tracks, he offers shelter without demanding answers. As Kim builds a new life in the frontier town of Bitter Creek—teaching children, earning the community's trust, and slowly opening her heart—she discovers that home isn't always where you start. Sometimes it's where you choose to stay.
But when the railroad begins construction on the very crossing that brought her here, Kim faces an impossible choice. The door between worlds may open again. She could see her grieving parents one last time. She could go back to everything she lost.
There's just one problem: returning means stepping back into the path of the train.
The Crossing at Bitter Creek is a sweeping historical romance about the courage it takes to let go of the life you planned and embrace the one you never expected. It's a story about love that transcends time, family that extends beyond blood, and the extraordinary strength of an ordinary woman who discovers that sometimes the greatest journey isn't finding your way back—it's finding where you truly belong.
For readers who love Diana Gabaldon's Outlander, Nicholas Sparks' timeless romances, and stories of resilient women who forge their own destinies against impossible odds.
Genre: Paranormal Romance
When Kim Whitaker's car stalls on a remote Wyoming railroad crossing, she has only seconds before the freight train strikes. In a blinding flash of light, she braces for death—but wakes instead in 1875, alone on the empty prairie with nothing but the clothes on her back.
Stranded 150 years in the past with no way home, Kim must navigate a world she only knew from history books. The modern conveniences she took for granted are gone. Her parents, her education, her entire future—erased in an instant. All she has left is her determination to survive.
When a quiet rancher named Sam Reed finds her wandering the tracks, he offers shelter without demanding answers. As Kim builds a new life in the frontier town of Bitter Creek—teaching children, earning the community's trust, and slowly opening her heart—she discovers that home isn't always where you start. Sometimes it's where you choose to stay.
But when the railroad begins construction on the very crossing that brought her here, Kim faces an impossible choice. The door between worlds may open again. She could see her grieving parents one last time. She could go back to everything she lost.
There's just one problem: returning means stepping back into the path of the train.
The Crossing at Bitter Creek is a sweeping historical romance about the courage it takes to let go of the life you planned and embrace the one you never expected. It's a story about love that transcends time, family that extends beyond blood, and the extraordinary strength of an ordinary woman who discovers that sometimes the greatest journey isn't finding your way back—it's finding where you truly belong.
For readers who love Diana Gabaldon's Outlander, Nicholas Sparks' timeless romances, and stories of resilient women who forge their own destinies against impossible odds.
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Used availability for Susan Leigh Carlton's The Crossing at Bitter Creek