Books Set in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming
Whether you’re participating in our Read Around the USA Challenge, or simply found your way to our website researching books set in your home state or your next travel destination, you’ve come to the right place! Below, you’ll find a list of highly-rated books set in the American Southwest, including Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. If you’re looking for another state, check our comprehensive list of books set in every state.
Our curated recommendations strike a good balance between historical fiction, contemporary novels, and non-fiction books about the American Southwest. We’ve grouped the books by state and also indicated the time setting of each.
Books Set in Arizona
Half Broke Horses
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Lily Casey was born in Texas in 1901 and learned about ranching from her father. By the age of 6, she was helping to break horses. And at the age of just 15, she left home and rode over 500 miles alone on her pony to take a job as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in Arizona.
Lily married and raised two children on a vast Arizona ranch, but she never lost her adventurous spirit. She learned to repair cars and how to fly a plane. She survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and great personal tragedy. She pushed back against any kind of prejudice – whether it be against women, Native Americans, or anyone else who didn’t fit the expected mold.
The Book Girls Say…
Author Jeannette Walls is most well-known for her memoir, The Glass Castle. Half Broke Horses is a novelistic re-creation of her maternal grandmother’s life. Although she wrote The Glass Castle first, if you haven’t already read it, we recommend reading Half Broke Horses first because it provides so much context for how Jeannette’s mother, Rosemary, came to be the woman she was.
Readers have noted specifically enjoying the author’s narration.
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Epitaph: A Novel of the O.K. Corral
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Since the region we’re reading this month includes a large part of what was considered the “Wild West,” we wanted a book with a true Western feel. In Epitaph, we travel back in time and meet Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday in Tombstone, Arizona.
By 1881, tensions bubbling across the country culminated in a now-fabled 30-second gunfight at the OK Corral. What should have been a quick arrest led to the death of three citizens and the wounding of three officers. The only man standing at the end was Wyatt Earp.
Rumors about the battle began spreading immediately, and many continue to this day. In this well-researched historical fiction novel, Mary Doria Russell tells the real story of the region.
The Book Girls Say…
Epitaph was a Goodreads Nominee for Best Historical Fiction in 2015. For an earlier look at Doc Holliday in his Texas years, try Doc by the same author.
One of our readers said, that Epitaph is “The story behind Tombstone, the Earp brothers, the women that loved them and the battle at the O.K. Corral. Arizona Territory comes to life as people try to make a new life here….some want to enforce the laws and others want the freedom to exploit the riches of all types to be found there.”
The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon
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In the winter of 1983, superstorms battered the west, followed by a massive snowmelt that threatened the Glen Canyon Dam at the head of the Grand Canyon. While engineers and federal officials scrambled to prevent a catastrophic dam failure, rescuers scrambled to evacuate rafters by helicopter, and future launches were forbidden until the waters were under control.
However, Kenton Grua saw an opportunity. The floodwaters could work as a hydraulic slingshot, assuring his place as a new record-holder for the fastest trip down 277 miles of whitewater through the canyon. He was already known as being fearless, but this was unlike anything anyone had ever attempted.
The Book Girls Say…
This thrilling non-fiction tale was written by a river guide intimately familiar with the setting. The Emerald Mile won the National Outdoor Book Award for History/Biography in 2013. If you prefer a fiction title with characters traversing the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, try In the Heart of the Canyon.
Strictly Business
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CEO Izabelle is preparing for the most important presentation of her career at a Sedona resort. She’s known for being independent and doing everything without assistance, but then she runs into a handsome, yet awkward, stranger who has the expertise she needs.
Jake has been sent for mandatory time away from the office, and they won’t even let him log in to the company network. He’s going stir-crazy until he runs into his dream woman, twice. When she asks for his help, he can’t find the words to explain why that’s a bad idea.
Izabelle and Jake both do their best to resist the urge to mix business and pleasure, but how long can they keep things strictly business?
The Book Girls Say…
This rom com is said to be as steamy as the Arizona sun, so avoid it if you prefer a clean read. For another Arizona rom com, try Wait for It by Jenn McKinlay, which is set in Phoenix.
The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint
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When a half-Apache boy named Edgar is run over by a mail truck, he miraculously survives, but the incident changes the path of his life. When authorities discover that he’s mostly orphaned, he’s sent to a boarding school for Native American orphans, which is not a nice place to be.
Eventually, he’s sent to foster care with a dysfunctional Mormon family. Despite his difficulties and lack of consistent family, Edgar’s goodness remains. He’s determined to find and forgive the man driving the mail truck.
The Book Girls Say…
Reviews say this author’s writing style is similar to John Irving’s, and you’ll enjoy it if you love The World According to Garp or A Prayer for Owen Meany. Also, like Irving, the author is not particularly kind to his main character.
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The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West
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This riveting non-fiction takes you to the American West during the Civil War. While plenty has been written about the South during this period, it wasn’t the only region of conflict. In the territory that later became Arizona & New Mexico, there was a three-sided fight between the Union, the Confederacy, and several tribes, including the Navajo and Apache.
The book shares the history of nine individuals, including a Texas legislator, a Union Army wife, a Navajo weaver, and a gold miner. Each of the nine demonstrates the difference individual actions can make amid a larger battle. The book is based on their letters, diaries, military records, photographs, and more.
The Book Girls Say…
This book was a Pulitzer Prize Nominee for History in 2021. We learned a lot about the region just while researching the book, so it’s a great one if you want to add to your knowledge of US history. For a more modern non-fiction look at Arizona, consider reading The Devil’s Highway, the 2005 Pulitzer Prize nominee about 26 men attempting to cross the border.
Books Set in Colorado
Go As a River
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This novel transports you to 1940s rural Colorado and the home of teenager Victoria Nash. Despite her young age, she runs the household as the sole female in a family of troubled men. One day, she meets Wilson Moon, a mysterious young drifter who has been displaced from his tribal land. Their sudden and passionate connection is full of danger and secrets.
Victoria ends up fleeing to the harsh mountain wilderness in a small hut, where she struggles against impossible conditions. As the Gunnison River rises and threatens her homeland, she begins a quest to fight for all she has lost.
The Book Girls Say…
This is a great pick if you enjoy deep and descriptive, character-driven reads. While much of the book is slower-paced, the final chapters are said to be the best.
Don’t miss our entire book club guide for Go As a River, which includes discussion questions, food ideas, and so much more!
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The Gifted School
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This juicy contemporary drama focuses on four families that have been friends since their children were born. However, secrets and resentments were buried along the way.
Early in the book, we are introduced to each of these families as they discuss a new, exclusive school that will be opening in the town of Crystal, Colorado (which many readers will recognize as a slightly fictionalized version of Boulder, CO). What starts as good intentions is quickly derailed by very questionable actions as they each fight to get their kids into the new school. These ambitious parents will go to any length to secure a spot for their children. Along the way, secrets and lies will resurface in explosive ways.
This novel explores issues of talent versus privilege, achievement versus potential, and the pursuit of prestige at any cost.
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Author Bruce Holsinger once taught English literature at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He has confirmed in interviews that the town of Crystal, where he set his story, is a “reimagined Boulder.” Boulder, located about 30 miles outside of Denver, sits in the shadow of the Flatirons – the striking, reddish sandstone formations that make up a portion of the foothills. In addition to being a popular college town, Boulder is also a major tech hub. It was recently named the seventh most expensive real estate market in the country.
This book is on the longer side at 560 pages, and it may take several chapters to keep the large cast of characters straight, but it’s worth sticking with it! We highly recommend the audio version of the book, as the narrator did an excellent job.
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Little Souls
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While the first world war raged in 1918, the world was also fighting a second battle against the Spanish Flu. In Denver, schools were turned into hospitals, and horse-drawn wagons must continually collect corpses from the streets. Sisters Helen and Lutie are new Denver residents, moving after the death of their parents in Iowa.
Nurse Helen has found a new beau who is a doctor, and Lutie works in advertising at a chic store. To help make ends meet, they have a tenant in the basement of their tidy home. However, when she passes from the flu, they find themselves unexpected caretakers for her young daughter, Dorothy. Their lives take another turn when Lutie arrives home from work to see Dorothy’s father dead in their kitchen. Worse, Helen is standing over him with an ice pick.
The sisters devise a plan to leave him in the street and hope he’s mistaken for yet another flu victim.
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Reviewers say the author transports you directly to 1918 Denver and the constant challenges women of the time endured. This historical fiction also has threads of mystery and romance.
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Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
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Looking for an eerie mystery that’s perfect for book lovers wanting to read something a bit haunting around Halloween?
This highly-rated debut novel follows a bookshop employee named Lydia, who ends up investigating the suicide of one of her bookshop regulars. As Lydia delves into his past, she also uncovers a buried memory from her own violent childhood.
This is a twisty crime thriller with a very creative puzzle element that will keep readers guessing.
The Book Girls Say…
Colorado-based readers will recognize the Bright Ideas bookstore as The Tattered Cover. In the mid-1990s, the area of downtown Denver known as LoDo, which would become very trendy by the next decade, was still primarily a warehouse district and was very rough around the edges. One of LoDo’s main draws at that time was a newly opened bookstore, known as the Tattered Cover, that boasted 20,000 square feet of space over four floors of a historic warehouse building.
Author Mark Sullivan was a bookseller at this Denver book institution during the 1990s and used the store as his inspiration. His novel does an excellent job of capturing what Denver was like during this decade.
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Plainsong
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Set in the fictional eastern high plains town of Holt, Colorado, this novel centers around several different characters that span four generations in a small town. A high school teacher is raising his two sons alone after their mother leaves. A pregnant teenage girl has been evicted by her mother. And two elderly bachelor brothers live together out in the country, continuing to work their family homestead.
The Book Girls Say…
A decade ago, at the Denver Center Theater Company, Angela saw the premier of the very moving play that was developed from this novel, and she’s wanted to read the book ever since. However, some people are turned off by the lack of quotation marks. Others note there are some explicit scenes and language.
This is the first in a series of three, so keep in mind that not every issue in the book is resolved in this book.
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Gilded Mountain
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The Padgett family’s marble-mining company dominates the fictional town of Moonstone. Sylvie’s father works for them, and she knows the workers are discontent with how they are treated. When she leaves her mountain cabin to work for the Padgetts in their manor, she’s in awe of the luxury they live in.
While the Padgetts express lofty philosophical ideals, Sylvie notices the contrast between the talk and the real-life labor practices that created the Padgett fortune. Their servants, the Gradys, are formerly enslaved people who are also aware of the hypocrisy. The Gradys plan to leave the Padgetts and form a new utopian community on the Colorado prairie.
Outside the manor, labor leader Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, is stirring up the quarry workers. The newspaper editor is also involved and regularly publishes unflattering accounts of the Padgett Company. Sylvie is stuck in the middle, with conflicting loyalties, until she is forced to choose sides.
The Book Girls Say…
This historical fiction is filled with true stories of Colorado in the early 1900s, including tales of the real labor activist “Mother Jones.” The Financial Panic of 1907 is also covered.
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Books Set in New Mexico
The Atomic Weight of Love
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Meridian is smart and ambitious, which isn’t the expectation of young women in her time. She’s obsessed with birds and is pursuing her PhD to become an ornithologist. However, her brilliant physics professor, Allen, becomes quite a distraction from her plans when they fall in love.
When Allen is recruited to Los Alamos for a secret wartime project, Meridian reluctantly gives up her goals to join him. Before long, she’s unwillingly taken on the role of traditional housewife. Years later, Meridian meets a Vietnam Vet who opens her eyes to how much she has given up. But is it too late to pursue her dreams now?
The Book Girls Say…
Our readers who selected this book as their New Mexico title for the Read Around the USA Challenge call it beautifully written and thought-provoking. They also say you’ll need to keep the tissues within reach.
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The Five Wounds
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Thirty-three-year-old unemployed Amadeo is preparing to play the role of Jesus in the Good Friday procession. While he practices and hopes for personal redemption, his fifteen-year-old daughter Angel shows up on his doorstep pregnant. She only has a few weeks to go before her baby is born, and has fled her mother’s turbulent home.
The book shows the baby’s first year through five members of the Padilla family, which also includes Amadeo’s mother, Angel’s mother, and a disapproving uncle. Each person has expectations that Amadeo fears he cannot live up to.
The Book Girls Say…
Kirsten Valdez Quade also has a short story collection set in New Mexico called Night at the Fiesta.
Gateway to the Moon
Book Summary
The small New Mexico town of Entrada de la Luna has a lot of challenges, from poverty and poor healthcare to broken marriages. It’s the kind of town that kids strive to leave when they grow up. Which is why Miguel Torres jumps at the chance when he sees an ad for a position caring for two small boys in a different town. But he never expected to end up working for a woman like Rachel Rothstein.
Rachel is a frustrated artist from New York. She was hoping that New Mexico would give her a fresh start, but it has yet to solve any of her problems. As he learns about the Jewish faith from Rachel’s family, Miguel recognizes many of the traditions from his own Catholic community.
Through historical vignettes dating back to the Spanish Inquisition, a story unfolds about a community of “Crypto Jews” – Catholics who, in the 1990s present-day setting of the novel, observe these Jewish traditions without knowing anything about the origin of the traditions or their own Jewish ancestry.
A Bad Day for Sunshine
Book Summary
The small town of Del Sol, New Mexico has always been known for its fry-an-egg-on-cement summers and strong cups of coffee. Newly elected Sheriff Sunshine Vicram, recently returned to town after her parents nominated her for the role. Historically the biggest crime wave in town involved an elderly flasher named, Doug, so Sunshine certainly never expected the town to suddenly become the focal point of a nationwide manhunt.
A teenage girl is missing and a kidnapper is on the loose. In addition to a major crime to solve, there is also trouble at Sunshine’s daughter’s new school, not to mention a kidnapped prized rooster named Puff Daddy. And now the manhunt has brought a sexy US Marshall named Levi to town, making it even harder for Sunshine to keep her cool.
The Book Girls Say…
Reviewers describe A Bad Day for Sunshine as a fast-paced and laugh-out-loud cozy mystery. This is the first in a series that currently includes three titles, but readers hope that more will be coming from author Darynda Jones.
Hollow Beasts
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After spending years in academia, Jodi Luna left Boston and returned home to New Mexico to take a position as a game warden. Determined to protect the land her family has called home for generations, she nabs poachers in her first week on the job.
Things quickly take a dangerous turn when the poacher retaliates by stalking Jodi and her teenage daughter. The cat-and-mouse game through rugged New Mexico leads Jodi to a terrorist group of white supremacists. Their new recruits are kidnapping women of color to prove their mettle to the leader of the organization.
When she can’t get any cooperation from the local sheriff, Jodi teams up with a young deputy named Ashley. Together they are determined to use their knowledge of the land, and their commitment to its people, to take down the terrorist network.
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The second book in this series is anticipated to be published later in 2024.
Too Soon for Adiós
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Gabby’s dad abandoned her and her mother when she was just a baby. Twenty-nine years later, the last thing she expects is to meet him the day of her mother’s funeral. Not only does he show up wanting to get to know her – he also wants to give her a house. Gabby is not ready to forgive him, but she really needs the money, so she accepts the house under two conditions. The first is that she can sell it whenever she wants. The second is that accepting the house doesn’t mean she accepts him.
Gabby hires a contractor to help her prepare the house for a quick sale, but things quickly get more complicated. As she becomes acquainted with the town and with these two new men in her life, she begins to learn more about herself than she thought possible.
The Book Girls Say…
This is a novel about life and love. Gabby is navigating all the typical ups and downs of life in your late twenties, and the book addresses some difficult themes in addition to romance. Reviewers loved seeing Gabby connect with her Mexican-American roots.
Books Set in Utah
The Fire and the Ore
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This novel tells the story of three women who go from strangers to wives of the same man. Following the call of their newfound Mormon faith, Tamar and her family undertake a brutal pilgrimage from England to Utah. When they arrive, she is united with her destined husband, only to learn that he is already married to one woman (Tabitha) and betrothed to yet another. Jane is not a member of the Mormon migration, but as an orphan struggling to care for her younger sister, she agrees to marry Thomas for the security the marriage will provide.
In 1857, President James Buchanan ordered the US Army to march on the Utah Territory, where Brigham Young had been governing a theocracy. When the troops arrive, Tamar, Tabitha, and Jane are forced to retreat into the hostile desert wilderness with one common goal – to keep themselves and their children alive.
The Book Girls Say…
Reviewers praise this new novel as well-researched with compelling characters, and say that you’ll be able to feel the desert sun beating down on you and the snow biting your skin. Don’t miss the author’s note that provides additional insights that add a great deal to the story.
If you’re interested in reading another novel set in Utah in the second half of the 19th century, consider The 19th Wife. This book tells the story of Ann Eliza Young who is separated from her powerful husband, Brigham Young, and embarks on a crusade to end polygamy in the United States. Keep in mind, however, that the historical documents referenced in this novel are also fictional.
For a non-fiction book, consider Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer, which dives deep into the often secretive Mormon Fundamentalist communities across the west.
The Mountain Between Us
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When a blizzard strands them in Salt Lake City, two strangers agree to charter a plane to Denver. Ben is a surgeon returning home from a conference, and Ashley is a magazine writer heading to her own wedding. But when tragedy strikes, the two find themselves stranded in the unforgiving wilderness in Utah’s rugged mountains. With no food or shelter, the two will have to rely on each other if they have any hope of survival.
As days become weeks, hope of rescue begins to dwindle. At the same time, the initial spark between Ben and Ashley evolves into more.
The Book Girls Say…
This novel is a cross between a survival story and contemporary romance (although fans of true-life survival stories may find it hard to overlook some of the “conveniences” in this fiction read).
This book was adapted into a 2017 movie of the same name. While reviewers describe the book as a “clean read,” some feel that the movie should have been rated R (rather than PG-13) due to a sex scene and strong language that are absent in the book.
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Lily Wilder’s father was a notorious treasure hunter – a profession that drained their bank accounts and caused him to sell their beloved family ranch in Wyoming. Lily, however, has finally found a way to turn her father’s passion into something that pays the bills. She uses his hand-drawn maps to guide tourists on fake treasure hunts through the red rock canyons of southern Utah. The last thing she expects is for Leo Grady – the man she once loved – to show up on one of her tours with his crazy crew of friends.
Leo is equally surprised to see Lily, but his feelings on the matter differ from hers. While she’d like to get him lost in the wilderness and leave him there, he’d love nothing more than to reconnect with Lily and finally make things right between them.
But when the trip deep into the isolated and dangerous mazes of Canyonlands goes terribly wrong, Lily starts to question whether her father might have been right all along – maybe there really is hidden treasure out there. But is it worth risking their lives for?
The Book Girls Say…
We initially hesitated to put two books by Christina Lauren on the Utah list, but Hobbs lives in Utah and writes her home state so well. Unlike Autoboyography, Something Wilder is an adult rom-com meets western mystery.
For another romantic comedy read that will transport you to the wild outdoors of Utah, check out On Location by Sarah Echavarre Smith, which is a steamy workplace enemies-to-lovers rom-com about a woman hired to produce a series about Utah’s national parks for an outdoor travel channel. And if you enjoy Christmas books, we also highly recommend Christina Lauren’s In a Holidaze, which is set in snowy Park City, Utah.
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Root, Petal, Thorn
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Ivy and her husband are raising their two children in a bungalow in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Salt Lake City, tucked right at the base of the massive Wasatch Mountains. She loves everything about her quaint home, from the old porch swing to the ornate tiles and the heirloom rose bushes. Ivy believes that this home will be the place where her family enjoys their “happily ever after.” But when her husband dies unexpectedly, she’s left tackling home improvement projects alone while striving to be strong for her kids.
As she works to rebuild her home and her life, she begins uncovering clues about five of its former female owners, including a young Mormon who was torn between her heart and her anti-polygamist beliefs, a Greek immigrant during WWII, and a single mother in the 1960s.
The Book Girls Say…
Author Ella Joy Olsen lives in Sugar House, the same historic Salt Lake City neighborhood in which she set her debut novel. She did extensive research about life in this neighborhood throughout the 20th century, and Sugar House is very much a character in the book. Book Girl Angela spent the first decade of her childhood living in Salt Lake City (her mom grew up in Sugar House) and recognized lots of familiar places.
Reviewers applaud Olsen, who is not a member of the Church of Latter-day Saints, for providing a very balanced portrayal of the Mormon beliefs that are integral to Salt Lake culture. She is also the author of another Salt Lake based novel titled Where the Sweet Bird Sings.
Autoboyography
Book Summary
We are huge fans of writing duo Christina Lauren, so we were surprised to discover this YA title from them that we hadn’t heard of before.
Tanner Scott’s family relocated from progressive California to conservative Utah three years ago. Life in Provo (home to BYU) is complicated enough as a half-Jewish, half-lapsed Mormon teenager, so Tanner – who was openly bisexual at his previous school, decides to go back into the closet at Provo High. Now, in his senior year, he is looking forward to attending an out-of-state college next year, where he can once again feel free to be himself.
He fully intends to coast through his final semester of high school classes, until his best friend, Autumn, dares him to take a prestigious honors seminar where students draft an entire book in just four months. And his final semester plans are pushed even further off track when Tanner finds himself falling in love with Sebastian Brother, the class mentor who sold his seminar novel to a major publishing house the year before. He’s also the son of an LDS Bishop.
The Book Girls Say…
This young adult novel is a mostly closed-door romance. Some reviewers say this book felt too much like a predictable romance in the initial chapters, but as the plot moves forward, multiple points of conflict make it a very engaging read.
Christina Lauren is the pen name for long-time writing partners Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings. Christina is a former middle school counselor in her home state of Utah, and Lauren, a Ph.D. and mother of two in California, identifies as bisexual. In an interview, the authors described doing extensive research for Autoboyography, including reading the diaries of a friend who came out as gay after his LDS mission.
Books Set in Wyoming
One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow
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With no other settlers around for more than twenty miles, the Benis and Webber families have always relied on one another. All of that comes to an end when Ernest Bemis finds his wife in a compromising situation with the neighbor. With survival on the frontier the last thing on his mind, Ernest makes an impulsive decision that lands him in prison.
The women left behind – Cora and Nettie Mae – have no choice but to set aside their rage and remorse and come together as a means of survival. They share the duties of working the land and raising their children, including Nettie Mae’s son, Clyde, and Cora’s daughter, Beulah. When love blossoms between Clyde and Beulah, their mothers’ bond will once again be tested.
The Book Girls Say…
The lyrical prose in this novel will whisk you away to the Wyoming Prairie, with all its beauty and hardships.
Note: Reviewers warn that this book includes a lot of animal death, including chickens, sheep, and coyotes. While this might be expected during life on the prairie, it could be difficult for some to read.
Happiness for Beginners
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Helen is recovering from two unfortunately common losses that so many women deal with in their 30s – miscarriage, followed by divorce. Her younger brother wants to help her heal, so he convinces her to attend a wilderness survival course in the Absaroka Mountains of Wyoming (pronounced “Ab-soar-kas”). She’s ready to take the time out to pull herself together, but then she finds out that her brother’s annoying best friend will also be on the trip.
In a period of three weeks, she’ll have to face both fears and annoyances, but through those experiences, she also learns more about herself and how to be brave.
The Book Girls Say…
This novel includes an element of contemporary romance mixed with a story of personal growth and discovery. Readers describe this book as an uplifting read. Author Katherine Center based this book (including the mid-summer blizzard) on her experience doing a month-long survival course in Wyoming while she was a college student at Vassar (in upstate New York). The novel was adapted into a 2023 Netflix film of the same name, although the movie version is not set in Wyoming.
Note: A few of our readers reported what they thought was a geographical error in this book, but after reading the book ourselves, we’ve realized it’s actually not an error at all. The novel references the distance between Boston and Evanston as 1,001. Some readers thought this was a mistake because there is a town in Wyoming named Evanston that is 2,284 miles away from Boston. However, the characters are instead discussing the distance of the first leg of their road trip from Boston to their hometown of Evanston, Illinois, where they stop for the night at Helen’s grandmother’s house before driving another full day and a half to finally arrive in Wyoming.
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Celine
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Celine is a 68-year-old private investigator and artist who works out of her apartment at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge. She’s elegant and aristocratic, and she’s made a career of tracking down missing persons and reuniting families.
A young woman named Gabriela seeks Celine’s help to discover the truth about her father, Paul, a famed wildlife photographer who went missing decades ago near the Montana-Wyoming border. It’s been assumed that Paul died from a grizzly attack, but his body was never found. Gabriela wants answers. When Celine and her husband, Pete, head to Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park to investigate, it soon becomes clear that they are being followed and that someone does not want them to reopen this case.
The Book Girls Say…
Celine has been described as a cross between Katherine Hepburn and James Bond. While some complain that this makes her an unrealistic protagonist, author Peter Heller closely based the character of Celine on his mother, who was both a detective and an artist in NYC. This book is much more character-driven than a typical mystery & has a non-linear timeline. In addition to the mystery, reviewers enjoy this book’s subtle but snarky humor and the atmospheric descriptions of Yellowstone.
For those who enjoy audiobooks, Heller’s character-driven prose is said to make this book especially enjoyable to listen to.
Heller also has a new book set in Yellowstone, titled The Last Ranger, which was published in August of 2023.
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The Cold Dish
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Published in 2004, this is the first in a series of 19 books in the Walt Longmire Mysteries series. Sheriff Walt Longmire thinks his 25-year tenure in Wyoming is winding down when a young man is found at the edge of the Cheyenne reservation. Was his death payback for the assault of a young Cheyenne girl two years earlier? Throughout the series, you’ll see Longmire’s investigations and relationships with lifelong friend Henry Standing Bear and Deputy Victoria Moretti.
This is a sequential series of modern westerns, with each book building on the others and filling in gaps, so it’s ideal to read this series in order. However, each book is also a standalone mystery, and the author provides enough character background to make every installment work as a standalone if necessary.
The Book Girls Say…
Our readers voted this one of the best book series for adults, saying that the books are filled with humor, suspense, and sorrow, as well as great descriptions of small town Wyoming.
This popular book series was also adapted into a Netflix series called Longmire. All six seasons are currently available for streaming.
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The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History
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Book Summary
This biographical non-fiction brings rich detail to the life of Crazy Horse, the Lakota chief who led the stand at the Battle of Little Big Horn. Most historical accounts of these battles and others are written from the side of the US soldiers, making this a worthy read as we experience the events from the point of view of the Lakota.
Instead of focusing on the actual combat of individual battles, the book digs into the bigger picture and consequences of the battles. Overall, it presents a balanced view of a man who had many strengths, but some faults as well.
The Book Girls Say…
The author of this book is a descendant of the Lakota community that raised Crazy Horse and he speaks Lakota. This brings additional authenticity and detail to the biography.
GEOGRAPHY NOTE: Crazy Horse lived in the Lakota territory that spanned across the present-day states of Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska. Some portions of the book take place in the Big Horn Mountains of north-central Wyoming (in the region the Lakota called the Powder River country. The Fetterman Battle discussed in the book also took place in what is now Wyoming. Other portions of the book take place in the area that is now South Dakota, but overall we feel that this book will give readers a good understanding of this general region during the mid-1800s.
Brokeback Mountain
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
Book Summary
Originally published in The New Yorker in 1997, and later adapted into an award winning movie of the same title, this 55-page short-story can be read as a stand-alone, or you may want to read Annie Proulx’s entire 1999 Wyoming short-story collection, titled Close Range.
Brokeback Mountain tells the story of two ranch hands who first meet while working on a range one summer. Their attraction to one another is casual at first, but eventually grows deeper. Both marry and have kids – “because that’s what cowboys do” – but as they reunite time and again over the years, their relationship becomes the most important thing in their lives. This is a dangerous affair for two cowboys in a violent and intolerant world.
The Book Girls Say…
Close Range is the first in a series of three short-story collections. Wyoming Stories #2, titled Bad Dirt, was published in 2004, and Wyoming Stories #3, Fine Just the Way it Is, was published in 2008.
We hope you enjoyed this book list and found several books to add to your TBR (to be read list). If you’re choosing a book for our reading challenge, you are also welcome to read any other book that meets the challenge prompt.
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Book Recommendations for Other Regions of the USA
If you’re participating in our 2024 Read Around the USA Challenge and reading one book per region, you can find links to every region below. If you’re doing the Challenge and reading books from every state and territory, you can get an alphabetical index here.
- Books Set in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming
- Books Set in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin
- Books Set in Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington DC
- Books Set in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota
- Books About Traveling Across America
- Books Set in California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington
- Books Set in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas
- Books Set in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware
- Books Set in Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and Nebraska
- Books Set in the U.S. Territories
- Books Set in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and Tennessee
- Books Set in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont