The Menagerie by J.S. Frankel

How would you like to be kidnapped and informed by a floating ball that you were the new zookeeper of exotic and sometimes dangerous animals?  I wouldn't!

Finch Books has published this book so you can get a copy at Amazon now.  I found it to be a very good read.

When Karen wakes up in the hospital, she's alone.  She's badly injured but that doesn't hurt as much as finding out her parents are dead.  All her friends have faded away.  All she can focus on is getting well and making her limbs work again.  There's nothing else left.

When she hears an animal crying in the woods, she leaves the hospital for a minute to check on it.  In that minute she finds an alien spaceship and knows that where the animal belongs.  Once she takes it inside, the ship takes off!  This is when she finds she's to replace the former zookeeper and take care of the menagerie.

There are more weird animals on here than you could imagine.  It seems other worlds are having wars, too, so they are sending their rare animals away for safekeeping.  This ship is picking them all up to take them to their safe world and protect them.  Unfortunately, there are poachers who want them for the bounty being paid.  Karen is scared enough of the animals, but she needs to be worrying about those poachers. When she has a physical confrontation with the poachers and one of them is killed by the animal they are trying to steal, his brother vows to get even.

There is lots of action, a variety of animals with odd habits to get used to, and more bad guys than there are good guys.  This kept me reading and I enjoyed the story.  I hated to see one character die but the rest of the good guys survived.  And Karen has new life with new goals.  That's not a bad ending.