Gateway to Fourline by Pamela Brondos

Natalie Banks is your typical college student, stressed about not only classes and social calendar, but also finances and paying for tuition for another semester.  When she is offered an opportunity at a costume shop, she jumps at the chance.  But she now works with a combination of weird personalities that she doesn't know what to make of.  On a particularly stormy night, she stays with the costume shop family, and has a strange dream of Estos asking her to deliver a message into another world.

The story starts out with Annin and Barba meeting at a specific place then they witness Mudug’s men speaking with a group of Nala, a Nala attacking Barba and Annin, and then finally the two embarking to another meeting place.  Then the story shifts planes to Natalie on her college campus.  While I do not have a huge issue with the way the story began, I would have put the first chapter as the prologue.  It would have made the jump to Natalie a little less confusing.

Natalie spends her time worried about her finances, and jumps to take this task.  She doesn't really think about it and ask questions like the most glaring one...What is Fourline, Why are Estos and the others in this world, and What dangers will she face.  She doesn't consider this an odd thing, but accepts it easily with Estos' assurances.  It was a good idea and a good story, but there were things that just didn't mesh well for me.  Granted I will probably read other books in the series to see what happens next.

The story really begins to pick up once Natalie enters into Fourline and Nataline begins to learn what is really at stake.  Though I wanted to see more of some of the characters in the costume shop.  They basically send Natalie into an unknown world with no one to guide her.  I would have thought one of the guards would have gone with her to help her adjust to the customs.  Since they didn't she was consistently covering up moments when she almost revealed herself.  

I would recommend this novel to those who enjoy fantasy novels.  As a rating I would give it  a 3 out of 5.