Desert of the Heart
Jane Rule
 Evelyn Hall is an English professor from the University of California. She arrives in Reno to establish a six-week residency to attain a divorce. After being married for 15 years, she is overwhelmed with guilt for feeling as if she is ruining her husband's mental health. While in Reno, she stays in the guest home of Frances Packer with other women who are also awaiting their divorces. Frances also lives with Walter, her 18-year-old son and her late lover's 25-year-old daughter, Ann Childs. Evelyn and Ann are startled at how alike they are in appearance, despite their 15-year age difference. Ann works as a change operator at a local casino and a relatively successful cartoonist. Ann is revealed to reject significant relationships in her life and although is romantic with both men and women, refuses to become attached to anyone. She is ending a relationship with her boss named Bill, that was significant enough to make her friends believe they were to be married. Ann's best friend is Silver who works with her at the casino as a dealer, and is also a sometime lover. Evelyn and Ann begin a friendship that evolves into a romantic relationship in which Evelyn must deal with her guilt after being asked by her husband's doctor to divorce him for his own good. Despite the symptoms of his deep and chronic depression, Evelyn takes the responsibility for the failure of the marriage and his depression upon herself, but after divulging how caustic she is to Ann, she is relieved to realize that the responsibility is not hers to take. And Ann must deal with committing to a relationship wholeheartedly. Being employed by the casino, she is rather well-paid, but is stifled within the atmosphere there, though she continues to work despite her abilities. Ann is fired from the casino after a slot machine is stolen on her shift when she is distracted by Evelyn being at the casino. Her previous split with Bill is not amicable, despite Bill beginning to date another of his employees. There is some suspicion that Bill is spying on Ann and Evelyn, and he threatens to contact Evelyn's husband's lawyer to notify him of Ann and Evelyn's lesbian relationship, but the divorce is finalized without his interference. Immediately after the final hearing, Evelyn and Ann decide to live together "for a while."