"Dreams for Stones" by Ann Warner

Kathy Jamison is a children’s book editor in Denver who loves her work. Her work has gone well; her romantic relationships have not. She’s engaged to be married when her fiancé tells her he’s in love with someone else. After that, she’s not interested in any kind of relationship. 

Alan Francini is a professor of English, dealing with a new department chair who thinks everyone should be writing – and publishing – fiction. Alan has a manuscript, but it’s stuffed at the back of his closet, much the same way he’s stuffed his feelings after the death of his wife.

 

Alan’s told that Kathy will be teaching as an adjunct and he needs to share his office with her for a semester. Their first meeting doesn’t go well. They meet again at the ranch owned by Alan’s parents, where Kathy is taking riding lessons to help with a story she’s working on. 

 

Alan and Kathy are attracted to each other but manage to regularly push themselves away. Alan’s best friend, Charles, enters the picture and begins to date Kathy. But that’s not where Kathy finds her heart pointing. 

 

Ann Warner

Dream for Stones by Ann Warner is the story of Kathy, Alan, and Charles. It resembles a romance novel, but it actually goes deeper than romance novels usually do. It’s an engaging, with a solid depiction of the range of emotions, feelings, and pain that people can experience, pain sometimes so great that it stops and chance of healing.

 

Warner has published numerous short stories, novels, and non-fiction works. This novel is the first in the Dreams Series, the second of which is Persistence of Dreams. Dreams for Stones was originally published in 2007 and then re-issued in 2015. 

 

It’s a fine story, with appealing and believable characters (except for the rotten fiancé), a solid narrative, and an underlying theme of hope and love overcoming personals pasts of pain and rejection.