The Road to Enchantment

By: Kaya McLaren

Narrated by: Amy McFadden

Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

As a young girl, Willow watched her mother leave their home in Washington State in a literal blaze of glory: she set the mattress of her cheating husband on fire in her driveway, roasting marshmallow peeps and hot dogs before the fire department arrived.

And with that, she and Willow set off to New Mexico, to a new life, to a world of arroyos and canyons bordering an Apache reservation. Willow was devastated. Her eccentric mother believed in this new life and set about starting a winery and goat ranch. But for Willow, it meant initially being bullied and feeling like an outsider. Today, as a grown woman, Willow much prefers Los Angeles and her job as a studio musician. But things tend to happen in threes: her mother dies, her boyfriend dumps her, and Willow discovers she is pregnant.

The DeVine Winery and Goat Ranch is all she has left, even if it is in financial straits and unmanageable back taxes. There is something, though, about the call of “home.” She's surprised to find that her Apache best friend Darrel along with the rest of the community seems to think she belongs far more than she ever thought she did. Can Willow redefine what home means for her, and can she make a go of the legacy her mother left behind?

Told with Kaya McLaren’s humor and heart, The Road to Enchantment is a story about discovering that the last thing you want is sometimes the one thing you need.

©2017 Kaya McLaren (P)2022 Vibrance Press

Critic reviews

"This touching novel of homecoming will draw apt comparisons to early Barbara Kingsolver."―Booklist

“I loved every single thing about this book… A captivating and enchanting story full of mystical awareness―a novel not to be missed.”―Patti Callahan Henry

“This is a potent coming of true age novel. One that gently leads us to leave behind all we imagined as lost, encourages us to embrace what adventure of the simple day lies ahead. The Road to Enchantment carries us into that place beyond the dark hour where the power of story reigns, truth will not be denied, and all the magic of this life will be remembered.”–River Jordan

Loved the story but problems with pronunciation

I love the story. However I cringed every time I heard the narrator pronounce the surname of the neighbors. As a resident of northern New Mexico I know how Spanish is pronounced. Vigil Is pronounced. Vi-hil. Pronouncing it like the English word vigil is disrespectful of the people who live here.