I bought this book at Amazon while looking for a fantasy novel by Gayle Greeno. It sounded interesting so I bought it with a little reservation. But it turned out to be pretty good stuff. I had never heard of the writer, but the book reveals that this writer may soon enter the ranks of those we know well. The story opens with some pretty harsh scenes of a struggling young woman who is trying desperately to survive but has been driven pretty far away from society by a motorcycle gang. An unusual situation occurs(and this is where I would normally say 'here comes the cute little fantasy furballs scene', but after reading the book, I realized it was simply a relevant part)in which a strange animal is caught in a big ball of thistle and brambles thathas been struck by lightening(or magic)and will kill the poor animal. The girl is hungry, but her compassion wells up when she looks into its eyes and then of course, she must release the poor thing. She finally manages to release the part of the burning brush in which it is tangled. but the pile of brush rolls off and disappears into the darkness. She discovers its body(or what she assumes is its body)the next morning, cooked and seemingly clean of the usual remains that should have been there. But she really doesn't discover that for a little while. It all makes sense when she runs into the creature again, but standing by a small opening in the side of the hill that leads into a misterious vapor within.(This part of the story seems to be in this world) She follows the animal's advice and after meeting a long lost relative, decides to enter the hole and take a chance on what her future will hold in a new place(never dreaming that such a place would be a magical world). She runs into trouble right away, since the old man (the rest of the review is missing, if you are the reviewer, please contact me per email)