Scarborough adapts Native American tales to her use here, as she's done previously with Grimm's Fairy Tales in Godmother, and with Irish tales in the Godmother's Apprentice. Grandmother Spider takes top billing here, rather than Felicity Fortune, and Cindy Ellis, a prominent character from the Godmother, is the main narrator. The events take place simultaneously with the Godmother's Apprentice. The book can be read as a stand-alone, although some minor details may be less than clear without the backstory.

Cindy, stable manager to famous rock star Rayder, is less than thrilled to find herself taking a backseat to Rayder's career, and the snobby and spiteful comments of his multiple hangers-on aren't helping matters any. Deciding she needs to clear her head and deal with some stuff of her own, she accepts the offer to condition a long-distance event horse by riding alone across the Hopi/Navaho reservations in New Mexico. Almost immediately she encounters an old woman whose behavior suggests mild dementia. Concerned, Cindy allows herself to be sidetracked into a bit more adventure than she'd planned.

Scarborough's winding plot successfully and sensitively handles such many and varied issues as Native American land ownership, forced relocation, AIM, horse theft, addiction, entrepreneurship, Coyote, and Kokopelli, winding them all together as deftly as Grandmother Webster spins her puffs of wool. ( )

Though I did not enjoy this one as much as The Godmother, it was still a good read. I didn't connect to it as much because rather than using the fairy tales I'm most familiar with, it blends Southwestern Native American legends with their modern culture. It was fascinating nonetheless learning more about modern Native American culture, and, of course, I loved seeing how the characters from the previous stories' lives came together. ( )