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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Apr 2023, 320 pages
Paperback:
Apr 30, 2024, 320 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Jennifer Hon Khalaf
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Beautifully rendered, Where Coyotes Howl is a vivid and deeply affecting ode to the early twentieth century West, from master storyteller Sandra Dallas.
Except for the way they loved each other, they were just ordinary, everyday folks. Just ordinary.
1916. The two-street town of Wallace is not exactly what Ellen Webster had in mind when she accepted a teaching position in Wyoming, but within a year's time she's fallen in love―both with the High Plains and with a handsome cowboy named Charlie Bacon. Life is not easy in the flat, brown corner of the state where winter blizzards are unforgiving and the summer heat relentless. But Ellen and Charlie face it all together, their relationship growing stronger with each shared success, and each deeply felt tragedy.
Ellen finds purpose in her work as a rancher's wife and in her bonds with other women settled on the prairie. Not all of them are so lucky as to have loving husbands, not all came to Wallace willingly, and not all of them can survive the cruel seasons. But they look out for each other, share their secrets, and help one another in times of need. And the needs are great and constant. The only city to speak of, Cheyenne, is miles away, making it akin to the Wild West in rural Wallace. In the end, it is not the trials Ellen and Charlie face together that make them remarkable, but their love for one another that endures through it all.
One
He sat hunched over in the saddle as he rode up to the schoolhouse on the spotted devil horse he called Huckleberry, the reins held loosely in his gloved right hand. He was dressed in a broad-brimmed white Stetson hat, a leather vest over a boiled white shirt with pockets, and fifteen-dollar fancy striped pants that were tucked into high-heeled boots. Spurs with little chains dangled from his boot heels. A big revolver hung from a wide leather belt strapped around his hips. He touched the brim of his hat with his left hand.
He was just a plain puncher—wiry, because ranchers preferred small, tough men; big men were hard on horses.
She had read The Virginian and all of the Zane Grey books, and he looked to her like a hero straight out of one of those novels. She felt a shiver of excitement go down her spine.
"Ma'am," he said. He could be a talker and had practiced in his mind how he would greet her, but he was so tongue-tied he could barely get out the single word.
"Yes," she ...
Some of these details could be hard to bear, if not for Dallas's stylistic simplicity. She holds back from delving into complex or tortured internal narratives or ruminations on the underlying causes and emotions that are undoubtedly a part of domestic abuse, rape, mental illness and subsistence living. Instead, there is an innocent positivity threaded throughout — represented by Ellen and Charlie's relationship. Where Coyotes Howl is essentially a grown-up version of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie series. It is mature, as it doesn't turn a blind eye to the harsh conditions of its world, but it also refuses to be consumed by them, focusing instead on hope, love and kinship...continued
Full Review
(454 words)
(Reviewed by Jennifer Hon Khalaf).
Francine Rivers, New York Times bestselling author of The Lady's Mine
What an extraordinary story done by a master storyteller. So many characters fully rendered, lives that grip the heart. I could feel the Wyoming wind in my face and smell the dust. Paulette Jiles, New York Times bestselling author of News of the World
Anybody who writes about a cowboy with a 'spotted devil horse' and a woman who 'loved him more than the sunrise' has a great story to tell. Where Coyotes Howl is addictive. Highly recommended!
Where Coyotes Howl is set in the young and growing town of Wallace, Wyoming in 1916, following a couple named Ellen and Charlie's path as they set out to build a ranch on the High Plains. Author Sandra Dallas provides a slice-of-life picture of homesteading and ranching in Wyoming through the various characters. Many of Ellen's friends and neighbors are in different stages of settling their farms and ranches - with some scratching out a living subsistence farming while others have much more well-established farms and ranches.
Life out West in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was extremely arduous due to the High Plains' low rainfall and extreme temperatures. Winters would give rise to sudden blizzards, with little to no visibility...
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