COYOTE DREAM

COYOTE DREAM – Jessica Davis Stein
7February 2 to February 4th
Rating 9.5/10
Date Published 2004
Genre: General Fiction
# of Pages 364
Where did the book come from: Recent purchase, has been on my wish list for months
Reason for reading the book: Read a good review several months ago.

My comments:
Where do I begin? This book reeled me in from the first page. Sarah Friedman, a 30-something Jewish girl from New York who is currently in a relationship with a boyfriend (David) that’s pretty much going nowhere, offers to take her ailing father’s place for an annual art-buying trip to the Southwest. While in a store in Santa Fe, she discovers a beautiful necklace and even though her father’s gallery doesn’t sell jewelry, she is so enamored of this piece that the buys it and then tracks down the artist who made it, Ben Lonefeather. On her way to find Ben, Sarah loses control of her car and it crashes into a boulder in the desert – several miles from Ben’s remote home. Being so out of the way, her cell phone has no service, so faced with the decision to either walk to Ben’s home two miles away or two go back to the main road (a distance of about three miles) Sarah treks in her brand-new, fancy cowgirl boots on to Ben’s house. By the time she gets there she can barely walk due to the bloodied blisters on her feet. The town’s only mechanic being away for a few days, no motel available, and no public transportation, Ben reluctantly allows Sarah to stay at her place until she can get her car fixed and be on her way. What she finds at Ben’s house are three young coyotes he has rescued, a treasure trove of art and sculpture by the talented Mr. Lonefeather, and a complicated and lonely man in need of some tender loving care. But Sarah can’t stay forever and after a little over a week she is forced to return home to New York, grateful for her experience in Navajo country and leaving part of her heart behind. Soon though the time she spent in Arizona is little more than a memory and her boyfriend is finally ready to commit. Of course the reader is left knowing the relationship between Sarah and David is all wrong, but will Sarah realize it before it’s too late??? There is so much more to tell, but I being afraid of spoilers, I will just say this was a very moving read, beautifully written, and very satisfying. I loved it and hope that the author has another book coming out very soon.