Sunday's Oldies but Goodies...

Good Morning!

This week's Oldie but Goodie is....

Stargazer

by Laura Baker

First Released January, 1998

Willow Becenti is a half-Navajo police officer of the Navajo nation. As a police officer, she is automatically viewed with suspicion and contempt by her own people. As such, she often finds her views about what is best for her people at odds with the views of the elders of the tribe. Where she sees a people clinging to the old ways out of habit and fear, the elders see a people struggling to maintain their pride and unity while trying to pass on centuries-old traditions that would die otherwise.

The day Lonewolf appears out of thin air right before her eyes changes everything.

Working a crime scene in one of the many sacred caves on the reservation, Willow is shaken when a figure appears out of the shadows of the cave - a Navajo warrior of old, complete with leggings, medicine pouch and bow and arrows.

Lonewolf is a Starway Shaman, a Stargazer, with the power to heal and the power to guide his people. He has been sent by the stars 130 years into the future to save the next Starway Shaman, a dying little boy under Willow's guardianship.

Immediately, Willow and Lonewolf clash - Willow unbelieving that Lonewolf had the power to heal little Manuelito, Lonewolf desperate to convince Willow the old ways are valuable and can heal the boy. Along the way, they discover they are the other half to each other's soul, destined to show their people a balance between old and new, destined to save the next Starway Shaman.

Ms. Baker's ability to blend romance, suspense and Native American mysticism into a compelling story is amazing. You can picture the Arizona desert and the colors of the sand and sky as if you were looking right at them. Ms. Baker does a fine job with the development of Willow and Lonewolf into two characters you will find yourself silently rooting for by the end of the story, and woven throughout the novel is the unspoken admonishment that balance is the key to happiness and harmony - balance in life, balance in love, balance in everything we do. Ms. Baker keeps the heat level at sensual, and it definitely serves to further the story along.

You can learn more about Laura Baker and her stories on her website - http://members.aol.com/lbaker10/index.htm

Happy reading!