First sentence: A ragged curtain snapped against the broken glass of the window in the old shack, which had begun to list. Its boards, the paint scraped off by the wind and sand, were a splintery gray. The door sagged open, its white china knob cracked and yellowed.

Premise/plot: Are you looking for a book completely devoid of hope and joy? Are you looking for a book where women [and children] are oppressed on every single page? Did you find Romeo and Juliet too cheerful? If you want the 'one ring to rule them all' of bleakness, then Where Coyotes Howl might be a good fit for you.

The premise is simple enough, Ellen Webster, goes to Wyoming as a school teacher in 1916. She meets and falls head over heels in love with a cowboy, Charlie Bacon. They marry. Life goes downhill after the 'I do's.' Not because they stop loving each other madly. No, because of situations and circumstances. Ellen experiences many tough situations, no doubt, but she witnesses a thousand times worse in the community.

My thoughts: Is this one realistic? Pioneer stories can be ROUGH. It isn't that I went into this one expecting it to be cheery-happy-lovely-cozy-warm-fuzzy. But personally, I think a chain of hope OR a strong resilience [or both] could make a difference in perspective.

The overwhelming message seems to be that without agency, a woman cannot hope to have even a 1% chance at happiness. Men will abuse, misuse, manipulate. Even if you find the one in a million husband that will be tender and loving and supportive, you still can't be happy because you inevitably will suffer. Without birth control, you are doomed to SUFFER. This one seems very, very, very heavy-handedly pro-choice. The message seems to be that women need full and total control over their own bodies and their lives. A secondary message seems to be that it would be better to be a prostitute than a wife. [Some characters, though not Ellen, have been both. Husbands make life HELL on earth 99.2% of the time.]

Mental health. Every single character needs help or intervention. Of course, there's no help to be had. Again, embracing the abandon all hope philosophy.

This one needs LOTS of trigger warnings.

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Spousal abuse--verbal, physical, mental, sexual. Child abuse. Miscarriages. Murder. Suicide. Death. Death. Death. Death. Death. Death. ( )

I definitely recommend having lots of tissues handy for this tragic story. I loved the characters. I loved the narrator of this story because they were able to convey when the characters were happy and when they were sad. I loved the story even though it was very tragic. I received a copy of the audiobook from the publisher for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will. ( )

Life in Wyoming in 1916 was brutal, even during the best of times. Drought, fires, blizzards, and scorching heat plagued the settlers. Eager for an adventure, Ellen comes from the east to teach school. She falls in love with a cowboy, Charlie. Both are enamored of the wide open prairie, in spite of the hardships involved. But life is more than hard for them: it is devastating for the heartaches heaped upon them. This has to be one of the saddest novels I’ve read in a long time. The author does a masterful job of painting the scenes with words. Her descriptions of the prairies, the desolation, the lack of basic necessities, and the loneliness will envelop the reader with feelings of what life was like then. In the novel, Ellen says that the coyote’s howl was the loneliest sound she ever heard, and that is the feeling readers will have when they read this book. ( )

Good story about the prairie area in early 1900's
Very difficult life foe women. ( )

I love a good western romance and Sandra Dallas writes an excellent story in her latest novel. Set on the plains of Wyoming in 1916, Ellen Webster accepts a teaching job in Wallace, a small town that is miles away from a big city.

Almost immediately Ellen meets a cowboy named Charlie Bacon. Charlie is a decent man who has been through some tragic times in his life. Even so, he finds enough love in his heart to include Ellen in his life. They soon marry and begin a life together in the rugged countryside of Wyoming.

Church socials, dances and picnics fill the couple’s social lives, but most of their time is dominated by work on the plains. Naturally, there are more tragedies to come in their small community.

I am not going to give the story away, but readers need to prepare their hearts for the struggles, love and loss that the young Bacon family endures. This is definitely a tissue-worthy story. I loved it in spite of the hardships they went through and am happy to recommend this to historical fiction and romance readers.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to offer my honest review. ( )