A beautiful cover of a snarling Husky by Tetro Design highlights this female coming-of-age novel set in the Yukon. In the process of moving from Ontario to the Yukon, 21-year-old Connie hitches a ride toward Whitehorse, only to intervene in a domestic brawl when her ride insists on visiting friends. She stabs Dale, the brutish husband, not seriously, but he lets it be known that he seeks revenge and Connie tries to escape him by moving further into the wilderness. She becomes friends with a woman trapper named Rowan who happens to be gay, and learns about hardscrabble living in winter in the wilds of the Yukon. When Rowan suffers injury at the hands of the violent Dale, the greenhorn Connie must take charge, learn how to shoot, handle a team of Huskies (easier said than done) and survive a long journey to save Rowan's life, while being stalked by Dale, who outwits some particularly stupid RCMPs. The action in extremely melodramatic on occasion, while the peripheral characters seem to have little purpose in the narrative. Some of the questions raised about Connie's sexuality seem contrived. The yawping yahoos of the politically correct would have a field day with Pope writing from the perspective of a lesbian. However, I think he generally handles that part of the novel successfully. An enjoyable page turner.