Waterfall

Author: Lisa Tawn Bergen

Series: River of Time # 1

Genres: Time Travel, Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Romance

Publisher: David C. Cook

Released: 1 February 2011

Summary: courtesy of goodreads.com What do you do when your knight in shining armor lives, literally, in a different world? Most American teenagers want a vacation in Italy, but the Betarrini sisters have spent every summer of their lives among the romantic hills with their archaelogist parents. Stuck among the rubble of the medieval castles in rural Tuscany, on yet another hot, dusty archaeological site, Gabi and Lia are bored out of their minds...until Gabi places her hand atop a handprint in an ancient tomb and finds herself in fourteenth-century Italy. And worse yet, in the middle of a fierce battle between knights of two opposing forces.  Suddenly Gabi's summer in Italy is much, much more interesting.

For Fans Of: Timeline, Saving Juliet, Half-Blood, and Romeo and Juliet

My Review: I love time travel books.  Really really love them.  Basically, I think that time travel is the coolest thing ever.  And Lisa T. Bergen does an excellent job with these time travel books.  Waterfall is one of those books that is just fun.  Time travel books are hard, because the actual act of time traveling can either be over or under explained.  Some become too science-fiction-y and then they are boring, whereas others are more of a dream-like state.  I loved that this book (series) made time travel seem real and simple. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

Onto the good stuff: Gabi and Marcello have that smoldering look, forbidden love about them.  It’s awesome, but kind of predictable.  Gabi and Lia is the relationship that I liked best.  Coming from a family with a lot of sisters I feel that sometimes authors have a hard time getting the sister dynamic right.  They either love each other or hate each other, but with Gabi and Lia you get a deep sense of affection, and you feel that they would go through anything for the other.

There are so many colorful characters in this and the rest of the River of Time series, and they read really quickly.  If you’re a guy there is a lot of hand to hand combat and action sequences (old school action sequences with medieval weaponry) and you can skim the lovey dovey stuff, and if you’re a girl there is a lot of lovey dovey and you can skim the action sequences.  Bergen sticks close to the time period, and puts her characters through a lot of things that are appropriate and accurate which I also admired.  1350’s Italy was not the gorgeous lovely place that the world today imagines it to be and Bergen addresses that in a really subtle way.  I definitely recommend if your looking for a fun, time travel read that has just about everything in it.