4.5 stars

This was such a beautiful and heartbreaking story!

When Ellen Webster accepted a job teaching in Wyoming, she saw it as a new beginning full of opportunities. The harsh landscape was far from what she was used to, yet she still fell in love with the small town of Wallace and its few inhabitants. One of the townsfolk stood out among their rest, though.

Charlie Bacon all but swept Ellen off her feet, and together they conquered prairie life the best they knew how. Through triumphs and tragedies, their relationship grew strong; as did Ellen’s relationships with the women spread out across town. Not all of them were lucky enough to have a loving husband like Charlie, but they looked out for one another and helped each other when in need.

This story has its fair share of ups and downs, but it was Ellen and Charlie’s love that shined through it all. I have to admit, I shed a tear or two by the time I finished this book, but it was well worth the heartache. Highly recommend!

*Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing a copy of this book to review.*

This book was absolutely gripping. The story follows Ellen as a young school teacher coming to Wyoming to teach. At first it reminded me a lot of When Calls the Heart. But the book takes a completely different turn as she falls in love with Charlie Bacon and details their struggles on the ranch together. It is not a happily ever after book and talks about the grim realities of ranch life in Wyoming in the late 1800’s. But, the story was riveting.

Content considerations: Prostitution is discussed often and considered an acceptable practice.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy. All opinions are my own.

Where Coyotes Howl by Sandra Dallas is a heartbreaking tale of life on the ranches of Wyoming in the early 1900s.. People may arrive with hope and optimism at the thought of the lives they will build but are soon met with the reality of the struggles and heartaches that come with living in the wild of Wyoming. Ellen Webster learns that not long after arriving to be the town's new school teacher. First, with the couple she is staying with and then, later on, after marrying Charlie and starting their own family. Ellen sees the struggles of the other women and families who live on nearby ranches and faces many of her own.

Where Coyotes Howl made me cry and think about the life I live now compared to those of the characters from this book.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This evocative story of life on the frontier was emotional and visceral. The hardship and struggle of making a life when nature seems to be pitting itself against your success was heartbreaking but so realistic.

Ellen and Charlie’s growth as a couple and their fierce determination to make their cattle farm a success had me cheering them from the first page to the last.

Full review to come soon on my blog.

It’s been a few years since I’ve read anything by this author but now I remember why I loved her. Great story about the hardships of the West and Wyoming but more of a story about the love between two people.
I really enjoyed this one and am giving it 4 stars but feel like that extra amount of depth was missing-which would have made it into a 5 star read. I feel like maybe it was the fact that we didn’t really get to know the rep main characters that well…I’m not sure but something was missing to push it up and over the top. Still a great read I’ll recommend.

I have read all of Sandra Dallas’ fiction books and this one will take its place as another great story. Yes the story is brutal and survival is not guaranteed, even with the help of neighbors and friends. But that is what makes Sandra Dallas stand out. She makes the characters and setting real, not necessarily happy. Sandra Dallas is in a class by herself.
Thanks to #NetGalley and #WhereCoyotesHowl for advanced digital copy.

I like an occasional story about hardships of life on the plains with a couple of strong female characters. I had a copy from NetGalley but instead listened to the audiobook, which was nicely done. The story was an emotional rollercoaster and by the end, I found it more depressing than most such books I've read. Very depressing, in fact. Enough said without throwing in spoilers.

Sandra Dallas has written a beautiful novel. "Where the Coyotes Howl" is a story of the settling of the West, how difficult it was, and how painful for the women who lived there. Many did not survive and for those that did, lack of medical intervention, hard work, and just plain loneliness of the prairie were too difficult for many to stay. Eeking out a living on dryland farming, surviving the heat and pounding sun and lack of human interaction on remote farms and homesteads made daily life almost impossible. For one couple, who loved and lived there it almost seemed possible though. Dallas tells the love story of Charlie and Ellen in the most eloquent and realistic way. Friendships, family, and hardships are the mainstay of the book. I enjoyed reading this story, especially the difficulties the women faced, and am glad to see more writers emphasizing that in their books. Thanks to #netgalley#WhereCoyotesHowl for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Once again, as with all the other Ms. Dallas novels I’ve read, I became totally absorbed in this poignant, yet tragic story of two people’s lives during the early years of settlement in the west. Charlie and Ellen experience horrific weather, tragedies and extreme travails. But they survive – bound together by the love they had for each other.

The novel shines with the descriptions of the landscape, the isolation, and severe hardship, but also the understanding and care for those facing even harder times. The sense of community was inspirational and I found their losses and those of their neighbors just heart breaking.

Where Coyotes Howl is highly recommended as absorbing historical fiction — a full and gripping tale of early America and the struggles of it’s settlers.

In 1916 Ellen Webster leaves her safe job in Iowa to take a teaching job in Wallace, Wyoming. In that first year she falls in love with both the challenging land and a young ranch cowboy. They wed, start to farm and start a family. Sounds like a typical western romance, but Sandra Dallas does not write ordinary nor romances. Where the Coyotes Howl is a story of a tender, but strong love and amazing friendshps that despite their depth cannot guarantee a happily ever after. The novel realistically shows that it was not just the weak or the ill-prepared that fell to the west. Sometimes the land and circumstances were more destructive than the strongest families could handle. I've always loved Sandra Dallas's writing and this book is no exception despite that heartache present throughout the book. I received a copy of this title from Netgalley and all opinions are mine. i highly recommend the book to readers of historical fiction and to those who have read other stories by Dallas.

After reading LITTLE SOULS last year I was very excited about reading this book. It is both good and bad. Good in that it will definitely make you feel lots of deep emotions. Bad in that there is a bit too much devastation happening. Also I did not like the very end. To me it was just too much. I don't believe it would have happened. Thus I did find that part unbelievable and it lost a star for that.

When Ellen comes to Wallace, Wyoming to be the new school teacher little does she know that her life is about to take a huge turn. Partly for good and a little not so good. She meets Charlie and they instantly fall in love. They don't really do a lot of courting but they do go on horse rides and to visit people. They go to the school picnic and after that they do seem to spend a lot of time together. They get married and live in a small shack that he built for them. Ellen becomes friends with several of the local ladies and her best friend turns out to be a prostitute turned wife who is very likable and pretty down to earth. Then the tragedies start.

Life on the plains of Wyoming are hard. Winters so cold that you can't go outside without possibly freezing. Summer so hot you can barely stand it. There are some very mean men that live in Wallace also. Mean to their wives. Treat them as if they are nothing. Ellen's friend Ruth is one. I really liked Ruth very much. I kept thinking she should leave the monster but you do understand why she can't. Where would she go and how would she get there. Then you meet Julia who's husband kept her pregnant all the time with no time to even heal between babies. There was a lot of death during this time. A lot of children who died. It's quite heartbreaking to read. The life of a woman during this time is almost unbearable. Some survive and others just don't. Some actually lost their minds it was so bad. Seems the men faired pretty good which I found unbelievable in parts. I know men are tougher but it's still a hard life.

This book is very well written and some of the characters are likable. Some are not. There are two men you would detest deeply. At least one woman you will root for to survive. As for the big love story between the main two characters.. I have no doubt they loved each other deeply but there was just nothing written to indicate that their love was any deeper or stronger than, say, the Gurleys. Yes they did love each other and other characters constantly reminded Ellen how much Charlie basically worshipped her but I didn't see it as any stronger than other couples. It could have been written in I think. I'm not saying this book is not excellent because it is. It's very good. You'll want Ellen and Charlie to be the loving couple that you read about. Deeply in love. I suppose it could be a given without writing all the mushy parts. They did love each other deeply but they were also very typical. Charlie did love Ellen and helped her in many ways. But she did him also.

The two characters that I really liked were Hattie and Miss Ferguson. Miss Ferguson's story was good. It was sad but she was a tough woman and survived.

This is a very heartbreaking story with a lot of loss. It might should have a trigger warning about all the children who die but alas back then it happened so often. It's a sad story but also has some happy things in it too. It's told by one of the characters and in the epilogue you'll find out which. I did guess who right before I got there. It had to be that one... Again, I didn't like the very ending. To me it was just not right. It didn't fit.

Thank you #NetGalley, #SandraDallas, #StMartinsPress for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

Four stars and I recommend it. It's very good and very well written. I just didn't like the end....

I so loved this book. My first official 5 star and not a 4.5 star that I rounded up for Goodreads. An adult version of Little House with all the hardships from an adult perspective and not a child's. I read an ARC, which was provided to mw by NetGalley and, which is an uncorrected proof, so I overlooked the errors and inconsistencies, which I hope were caught and corrected before the final version came out. I also liked how they included two mentally disabled children into the story. Trigger warnings: for spousal abuse and child deaths.

Wow - what a pleasant surprise this book turned out to be. I went in with zero expectations and did not read any reviews and it was AMAZING! The story was incredible, the characters were heartbreaking, strong and amazing. The research into the West during the early 20th century was well done - i could picture the challenges of life for people living during that time. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in historical fiction.
Ellen accepts a teaching position in Wyoming - and falls in love with Charlie, a cowboy. Very quickly, Ellen discovers the difficulty of living in the West, however the strength of her relationship grows despite the tragedies they face. 
Thank you netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

I couldn’t put this down. I read it in one day. It’s an addictive comfort read that is so easy to get lost in. I loved it so much. I need more books just like this.

Heartbreaking story of the hard life of ranch life. Ellen is a city girl who came to the Wyoming prairie to teach schoolchildren. She falls in love and marries Charlie the handsome rancher. The story was filled with too much sadness for me. The writing made the events very vivid.

Thank you#NetGalley, #StMartinsPress, #SandraDallas and #WherCoyotesHowl for the advance readers copy for my honest review.

Where Coyotes Howl is a beautifully told story about the trials of living on a ranch in 1916 Wyoming. The story surrounds Ellen, the new school teacher in town and her battle to find her way to fit in and thrive. 

This book is hard on the heart, there are parts that are so incredibly sad, but this story is told elegantly. 
Some days were very bleak on the ranch, but Ellen found comfort in the women in the community. She sees these women suffering from the treatment by their husbands, and Ellen tries to be there for them. This story is truly heartbreaking, especially when we learn of the children that are in violent, neglectful households. Ellen and Charlie's relationship was so beautiful. He loved Ellen and backed her up in any way he could. He knew that she needed a true partner and he was there for her. 

This story left me in tears but this raw novel will be unforgettable. 

I will need to check out Dallas' backlist because I know I want to read more by her.

Sandra Dallas and historical fiction go together like two peas in a pod. Reading her acknowledgements at the end of her books is always enlightening in the amount of research she puts into a book to make the story authentic. Where Coyotes Howl is just that in its depiction of the lifestyles of early 1900s Wyoming and the hardships encountered while trying to settle and live in the sparse land. The main characters of Ellen, a young school teacher who left Iowa to explore a new life, and Charlie, a self-described cowboy smitten by Ellen at first look, take the reader into their lives as they try to build a family and home surrounded by their love. The people of Wallace Wyoming bring characters into the story that further detail the living style of the time that made it especially difficult for women to make it without the help of other women as both friends and conspirators that protect each other when needed. The heartbreak of their stories is amplified by the knowledge that sometimes there is just no help to be had, and to go on means to make the best of whatever life brings. There are characters in this story that bring a smile and others that bring rage, making a story well-told and making the reader keep turning the pages to find out how their stories end. Definitely will recommend this book to other readers. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this advance reader copy. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #NetGalley #StMartinsPress #WhereCoyotesHowl #SandraDallas

***Book Review***

This story falls along the lines of Little House on the Prairie and Where the Lost Wander. Tales of ordinary people working hard and doing the best they can amidst hardships and tragedies, and reads like a family history story. If you’re looking for a fluffy western story, this is not it.

We begin and end at the home of Charlie and Ellen, long abandoned, and a woman reminiscing and sharing their story. Having grown up amongst ranchers myself, and knowing many amazing ranching women (even still!), this story felt like sitting around the sewing table sharing life experiences. Especially the heartaches.

“Ellen and Charlie were ordinary, just like everybody else. There was nothing different about them, except for the way they loved each other.”

The neighborliness among everyone no matter their background or circumstance was captured well, and the need to help one another. It is NOT a Happily Ever After western romance, yet feelings run deep.

CW: Death (child, sibling, parent, animals), Domestic Abuse, Sexism, Brothels

*Thanks @netgalley for the eARC and opportunity to review this story.*

Title: Where Coyotes Howl
Author: Sandra Dallas
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3.75, rounded up!)
Spice: 3/10
Kindle Unlimited: No
Deseret Bookshelf: No

#eARCbook #bookreview #bookstagram #wherecoyoteshowl

I really enjoyed this well written historical fiction novel. Life in early 1900 Wyoming is not quite what Ellen Webster had in mind when she took a teaching job in the small town of Wallace. Meeting and creating a home with cowboy Charlie Bacon presents a challenging life on the prairies.

‘Where Coyotes Howl’ is the immersive story by Sandra Dallas of Ellen Webster, a 23-year-old woman in Iowa accepting the teaching position in Wallace, Wyoming in 1916. Ellen’s romantic daydreams turn into a much different reality once she sees the town, the land, and the people. Teachers do not last more than their one-year contract, but Ellen is stalwart and open to her new life and work. Rancher-cowboy Charlie Bacon and Ellen fall in love, marry, set up married life on a small ranch, and begin a family. Despite hardscrabble living with blinding blizzards, scorching summer heat, rough land to tend, and spartan ways by necessity, their story is also a gentle love story. Ellen makes friends with other women nearby who also weather the hard life in Wyoming, and she enjoys and becomes part of this small community. Charlie and Ellen thrive on their steadfast love and their life together. But time and again, Ellen’s fears of the howling coyotes arise. Disease, increasing drought, As the writer imparts, Wyoming was proud that it was the first territory where women could vote, a woman’s rural life rarely held any accepted safety net when it came to domestic violence. As one character says, “Wyoming’s a man’s place. That’s for sure.” Like others there, Ellen and Charlie suffer losses, but they hold onto each other as long as they can.

The story is perfectly told in an unadorned style – telling a straight-forward, enthralling story with succinct descriptions of people and surroundings which works beautifully. However, once Ellen becomes enamored with Wyoming, the land, and its people, her thoughts blossom with what she sees such as of Russian thistle and rabbit bushes with yellow flowers “as gold coins.” The writer remarkably tells this tale with compassion, superb timing, and discipline - and conveys the ruggedness and vulnerability of the people and the necessity to accept life and death as part of their lives. The unseen howling coyotes are harbingers of just how fragile life is.

While I have not read other books by this writer, that will change. I will long remember this book, Ellen and Charlie, rural Wyoming in 1916, and what these women and men endured. I am grateful to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and Sandra Dallas for the early access to this memorable book. This opinion is all my own.