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This romantic women’s fiction is set both in cosmopolitan New York City and the desert southwest. This blending of two vastly divergent, but strong, ethnic backgrounds is played out on the stage of Native American art and business.
Sarah Friedman, the daughter of a Jewish family, chooses to take her father’s place on a mission to buy Native American art because his health prevents his annual trek. She is at a time of transition in her own life, and the trip brings all her issues to the forefront. Because she is well past the age that most Jewish girls marry, her mother has been pressuring her to find a good Jewish husband.
What she finds on her travels is Ben Lonefeather, an artist and sculptor. Ben lives up to his name, because he prefers to live far from what the others in his tribe consider civilization. When Sarah Friedman becomes stranded, he grudgingly offers her a room.
Ben is different from any man she has ever met, but very fascinating with multiple levels in his personality. Their cultures drive them apart while their attraction pulls them closer to each other. Sarah discovers many things about herself, her father, and the Indian man who agrees to share his home with her for a short time. When she returns to New York, an old beau asks her to marry him, and she accepts. However, will circumstances help them to come together or hinder their relationship?
I particularly like the sense of settings that this author portrayed. She was able to pull me into each of them as if I had really visited them. Her descriptions, cleverly woven throughout the narrative, paint a rich tapestry against which she weaves a compelling tale. Although the story was interesting, I did find her jumping from scene to scene without transitions to be a little choppy. However, the book was an interesting journey through the two cultures as well as containing a wonderful, though sometimes rocky, love story. I would recommend this book to other readers.
Reviewed by Lena Nelson Dooley
for The Road to Romance
November 16, 2004
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