Memory of Fire (2002)

A most excellent beginning to a new series by this exciting author. She draws believable characters, grows believable relationships between unlikely individuals and makes one root for their success and happiness. It is wonderful to find an author who knows how to write equally strong women heroes that do not have to be "super" as she does strong male characters who know how to show vulnerability. This is an excellent and well-written series I come back to again and again.

This is quite an interesting story. A story that deals with something not often tackled with in fantasy, that of the price of magic.

Lauren Dane is dealing with the sudden loss of her husband, a small child and moving back to her childhood home, in Cat Creek, North Carolina. She's not dealing well with her husband - Brian's - death but Jake, her son, is helping to keep her sane. But there's a mirror in the house that is making her uneasy, she's seeing things in it, is it her imagination or something else? When she finds herself on the other side of the mirror in a different world she begins to wonder about life. That trip sends up alarms with some other people in her first world.

Meanwhile, in Cat Creek, another woman has gone missing - Molly McColl - she finds herself in another realm and finds that she can heal.

However everything has a consequence and nothing is always as it seems. It's an interesting story and kept me reading, I wonder what will happen with this story and really want to read the next installment. ( )