The Open Road

After four years of adventure in the frontier, Win Avery returns to his hometown on the edge of the prairie and tracks down his childhood friend, Jeb Dawson. Jeb has just lost his parents, and, in his efforts to console him, Win convinces his friend to travel west with him--to see the frontier before it is settled, while it is still unspoiled wilderness. They embark on a free-spirited adventure, but their journey sidetracks when they befriend Meg Jameson, an accomplished horsewoman, lost on the Nebraska prairie. Traveling together through the Rocky Mountain foothills, they run into Gray Wolf, an Arapaho determined to live on his own terms off the reservation. As their paths and purposes converge, the course of each of their lives changes forever. Although the open road continues to call to Win, and Meg moves forward with her plans to ranch with the aged liveryman who raised her, the bonds between the four friends tie their fates together through the decades that follow, as they fight the forces striving to close the frontier and as they witness a way of life disappear.

M. M. Holaday is a former reference and rare-book librarian. She loves books for their power to educate, influence, and entertain. She also loves the tall grass prairie. She and her husband are restoring the native ecosystem on their farm in Missouri. This is her first novel.