River of Time Series

"What do You do When Your Knight in Shining Armor Lives, Literally, in a Different World?" - Waterfall

"What if You not Only Fell Back Through Time... But Fell in Love, Too?" - Cascade

Bookworm's Ranking - 4 Worms

Storyline -  Book 1 - Waterfall - Gabi, her sister Lia, and their mom are going to be spending the summer in Italy. Unfortunately, it will be on a dig site and majorly laking in cute guys. But when Gabi accidentally gets transferred to the 14th century, she will have to figure out the customs of the time and find her sister who seems to have not been transferred with her. As battles are fought and politics flare, she will have to find a way to stay alive and get home. And not fall for the handsome, unavailable, prince, Marcello.
Book 2 - Cascade - The girls are back, with their mother in tow, but it hasn't gotten any easier in Italy. There are still land struggles and widows trying to make it on their own. When the Plague potentially hits, things spiral out of control and it will take everything the girls, and guys, got to fight off the Firenze. Will they make it through this again? Will the idea of trying to save their father from death make the girls leave the 14th century one more time?

Author - Lisa T. Bergren

Age Group - 15 and up

Content - Marcello wants to protect and honor his family. The men (at least the good ones) are very respectful of women and have many other admirable qualities such as defending those under their protection, assisting those who need a helping hand, and ready to sacrifice themselves for others. The girls also display good morals such as supporting and defending others and resisting the bad guys. Gabi wants Marcello to do the right thing by his betrothed but, for a while, kept wanting him to notice her. Eventually, he was ready to break his promises to his betrothed because he loved Gabi. There were also some intense scenes with the bad guys leering at the girls.

Personal Opinion - It was good. I liked the story and adventure . It was really exciting and I thought it was well put together but there were a couple of things that got to me while reading. I felt like Gabi changed her mind too much, going back and forth between wanting Marcello to see her and wanting him to do the right thing by his betrothed, and the constant use of the word "hot" to describe him got annoying. By the second book, I was thinking there were too many fight scenes. Actions scenes are good but reading the books back to back made it a bit much for me. Perhaps, if I had more of a brake between the two, it might have been okay but I still think it was a lot. It is always nice to have God and someones relationship with him brought into a book. Gabi and her family are not really strong Christians but she starts to turn to God as she spends time in the 14th century. Her journey to God isn't complete yet but she is praying more and asking for guidance which is a wonderful example for today's generation where religion and God are mostly not taught as the number one thing in our life. I don't know how much the average teen prays but it is great when you have a good role model who shows faith and guides readers down that path. I look forward to seeing more development in the girls' faith in God and the continuing adventure with their "knights in shinning armor". The books were well written and had good character development with different personalities among them and many good laughs from the character, Luca. I can't wait to read the last book, Torrent, and see how it all goes together. Definitely a series I will be recommending when someone asks about a good teen novel.

Video - Waterfall -

Video 2 - Cascade -

Links - Lean more about the books and the author here. I wrote a review for one of this author's children's books, which you can read here.

Special Notes - Book 3, Torrent, Review

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Updated - May 13, 2012