With the opening pages of this story, I found myself thinking, “Ho hum, here we go again with a family feud story. That’s certainly never been done before.” As the story progressed, the conflict moved beyond the family feud, but the ho-hum still remained, despite an interesting premise behind the story.

Lawyer Luke Creed wants nothing more in life than to make partner at DeWitt and Blackthorne. He’s sacrificed his family and his life toward that goal. When he goes to work for the Dragon Lady, a partner at the firm, he’s nervous, but up for the challenge. His first case, working for one of the firm’s largest clients, a pharmaceutical company, becomes personal and hits home. Luke’s firm is defending the company against wrongful death lawsuits charging that the company’s drug for diabetics, D-Free (which allows diabetics to take pills instead of insulin shots), kills kids. It just so happens that Luke’s daughter, Brynne, is diabetic and taking the drug. The case also puts him in contact with his former high school sweetheart, Amy Nash, who is opposing counsel. As Luke digs for the truth about the drug, he works on getting closer to Amy, too.

I’m guessing that Johnston’s previous books in the Bitter Creek series tell more about the family feud that is prominent at the start of this book. See, the horrible, evil Blackthornes always oppressed Luke’s family, and Luke hates them. Hates them! They are evil and responsible for anything wrong that befalls the Creed family. And Luke hates them. A lot. He hates them. Are we getting the picture? It’s even worse because Luke’s mom is now married to a hated Blackthorne. Luke’s so not happy about that… because he hates Blackthornes. He’s rude and surly to Blackjack, his mother’s husband, while the rest of the family has moved beyond it. I will not be seeking out the previous books in this series.

The main problem in The Price is that both Amy and Luke are completely generic characters. Amy’s a loving mother and do-gooder lawyer with a horrible ex-husband. She’s initially scared about getting involved with another man, but eventually decides that she won’t let her ex prevent her from being happy.

Luke’s a workaholic, obsessed lawyer in a high-powered firm who’s attempting to be a better dad. He loves his kids, but his work is very important to him. He’s determined to find out the truth about D-Free, and goes through some changes while researching it. Throughout the book, he seems to be becoming a better person, but there’s an unfortunate moment at the end where he seems to backslide.

As for Amy and Luke’s love story – eh. They connect and find that there’s chemistry between them. The fact that they are opposing counsel on a case doesn’t seem to stand in their way. Amy makes him work a bit for the relationship, but not much. Luke has no doubt that he wants Amy, so where’s the conflict?

The plotline about the drug should have been interesting, and it could have been – the premise is unusual and timely – but the totally generic characters simply overwhelmed the whole book. Although I imagine the author’s intent was for me to worry about whether Luke’s daughter had an adverse reaction to the drug, I didn’t.

The other characters add pages to the story, but only a few are mildly interesting. This book couldn’t have been more average. I’d recommend waiting for the paperback rather than spend the money on a hardback.