Vet school students go to the Crossroads, where they treat unicorns and other magical creatures (and get caught up in an invasion of the place by the murderous Morgan). While the Morgan plot was truncated and awkward, and the magical healing worked a little too neatly for my tastes, I ended up liking this fantasy because the students quickly became recognizable people rather than collections of traits; not unrelatedly, the women outnumbered the men and spent a lot of time dealing with each other. ( )

Wonderful book! BJ Vaughan, a fourth year veterinary student, is dealing with the suicide of her terminally ill mother and the prospect of her own developement of the same degenerative hereditary condition when she fails her small animal rotation. We meet BJ as she packs her locker beleiving she is abandoning school, only to be offered a mysterious, secretive ambulatory block which will transport her and three other students to a strange world where they will be expected to treat the extraordinary. This book has all the components of well written fantasy: mythical beasts, well-developed and growing charachters, interspecies romance, and a few political overtones. The average reader should thoroughly enjoy this, and although the veterinary practicioner will relate to certain jokes and charachters on an advanced level, the jokes aren't so private as to be completely lost on the average person. For those practicioners however, there will be several aside moments added to by your own quirky knowledge of the field.

As an RVT and aspiring student dealing with heavy decisions concerning my future because of the clinical appearence of a degenerative diagnosis, this series of books is not only becoming a favorite read and escapist adventure, but also an adjuct therapist/career counselor (Although I hold little hope of treating any Hippoi any day soon). ( )