DREAM COUNTRY

Rice (Follow the Stars Home, 1999, etc.) returns with yet another saccharine celebration of the family ties that hold—even through a child’s disappearance, a teenager’s pregnancy, and a disturbed man’s vengeance.

Beneath all the sentimental effusions on nature, love, and Native Americans, remnants of Rice’s original writing talent remains—her descriptions of place can be excellent, though too often lost in the numerous clunkers and clichés: “Being scared of everything makes some people brave”; “she wished she could fly herself, lower than any plane, looking in every corner for her missing daughter.” Thirteen years ago, when her son Jake disappeared, Daisy Tucker fled east with his twin sister Sage, leaving behind husband James and a ranch in Wyoming. Time passes. Fearful of losing Sage, Daisy has forbidden her to visit her father, but when the girl, now 16 and pregnant, runs away, her mother realizes she must go back and face James, the ranch, and their long-ago history. As Sage heads west, she’s saved from a sexual assault by a strange, gentle boy covered with unusual tattoos who drives a car filled with dogs and cats he’s rescued. He calls himself David, but Sage becomes convinced that he could be her long-lost brother. Back on the ranch, cattle are being cruelly slaughtered, their heads left as ominous warnings, and James learns that someone is hiding out in one of the caves lining the canyon wall. Though long divorced, Daisy and James still find themselves mutually attracted; waiting together as they do for Sage to arrive, fearful of losing their only remaining child, they grow closer. Protected by the spirits of the ancients and imbued with loving hearts, the Tucker family will be strong for the ensuing heartbreaks, revelations, and obligatory soft-focus fade into happiness.

Too warm, too fuzzy, and way too sweet.