Coyote Dream is labeled Fiction, but it tells a love story satisfying enough for any romance reader. At the risk of making a comparison the book can’t live up to, it reminded me somewhat of Kathleen Gilles Seidel’s books: quiet, insightful and character rich. It’s that type of book.

Sarah Friedman is in her early thirties and starting to wonder why her life didn’t turn out the way she thought it would. She works at her father’s furniture and art store, a far cry from the career she’d imagined when she graduated with her art history degree a decade earlier. She’s dating a handsome, successful, Jewish businessman, a prime catch in anyone’s book, even as she senses he isn’t as interested in their relationship as she is. When he tells her he thinks they should give each other some space to think about where the relationship is going, she decides the time is right to get away for a while.

Every year her father takes a trip to the Southwest to meet with some artists he knows and acquire pieces for the store. For the first time, he won’t be able to make the trip because of his declining health. Sarah offers to go for him. At the Indian Market in Santa Fe, she discovers some jewelry that piques her interest in the artist. This leads her to Ben Lonefeather, a Navajo who lives on the reservation in Arizona.

Ben is an artist, primarily a sculptor, who works on the jewelry solely for the income it provides. He used to be a heavy drinker, one who drove away most of his friends because of his behavior when he was drunk. Now on the wagon for several years, he keeps to himself, living alone with the three coyotes he saved after their mother was killed. When Sarah arrives, he isn’t particularly friendly. But after her car breaks down and she’s stuck there without transportation for several days, he reluctantly offers her a place to stay. Feelings soon develop between them, but they’re two very different people from different worlds, and neither is sure a relationship could work.

Even if the label didn’t say it, it would be obvious that this isn’t a romance novel. There’s more to the story than the romance, with a large cast of characters both in New York and Arizona. There’s a period of separation where the main characters each become involved with and have sex with other people, though they still have feelings for each other. But at its core, it is a love story, a quiet and effective tale of two people from different cultures coming together.

The author’s prose is plain and spare, which fits this particular story well. It’s a gentle story, as Sarah is slowly introduced to Ben’s world, meets his friends and neighbors and is drawn into his life. Stein really communicates the beauty of the desert setting and gives a sense of the community Sarah finds there. Ben’s world in Arizona and Sarah’s life in New York are completely different, but the author captures each of them perfectly. Both the close-knit Native American society and the insular Jewish community feel vivid and real.

Ben and Sarah are realistic characters, two flawed, complex people who are more full-bodied than those we see in most traditional romance novels these days. The author’s bio says she’s a licensed family therapist, which may explain the insight she has into these people. The characters are developed in subtle ways, with small moments and gestures that are all the more compelling because of their simplicity. This isn’t a story of high drama or grand passion. Ben and Sarah’s attraction is more low key and believable. That makes those small moments that do flare with emotion even more effective. There was at least one moment involving Ben’s coyotes that put a lump in my throat.

This is a character-driven book, which isn’t limited to the main ones. There are also glimpses into the secret hearts of the secondary characters, like Sarah’s father, who was the only member of his immediate family to survive the Holocaust and continues to live with the guilt. Through these characters, we see other perspectives on love and relationships, the choices people make because of love, the sacrifices made out of a sense of responsibility. It’s an interesting counterpoint to the main story and deepens the book’s themes.

The story does become somewhat rushed in its latter chapters, as a plot that had been moving at a leisurely pace suddenly races through the final events. Issues are raised and dismissed with such speed that really undermines how important they might be to these characters. Some of the storylines are also less developed than they might have been, such as a thread involving Ben’s cousin that feels unnecessary.

Coyote Dream is a lovely story about two people from different worlds struggling to come together. It may not be a romance novel in the traditional sense, but readers hungry for a story about real people and relationships should find this is one love story that delivers.