Publisher: David C. Cook
Published:
May 24, 2011/September 1, 2011
Pages:
399/388
Source:
Bought ebooks
Rating:
3 Stars
Cascade:
Gabi knows she’s left her heart in the fourteenth century and she persuades Lia to help her to return, even though they know doing so will risk their very lives. When they arrive, weeks have passed and all of Siena longs to celebrate the heroines who turned the tide in the battle against Florence—while the Florentines will go to great lengths to see them dead. But Marcello patiently awaits, and Gabi must decide if she’s willing to leave her family behind for good in order to give her heart to him forever.
Torrent:
Gabi and Lia Betarrini have learned to control their time travel, and they return from medieval Italy to save their father from his tragic death in modern times. But love calls across the centuries, and the girls are determined to return forever—even though they know the Black Plague is advancing across Europe, claiming the lives of one-third of the population. In the suspenseful conclusion of the River of Time series, every decision is about life … and death.
In short: Though I needed more depth than the River of Time series by Lisa T. Bergren was able to give me, I do actually recommend this series if you're looking for a fun, fast-paced read.
At times, however, I felt the series was actually a bit too fast-paced for me - and this was ultimately the major factor in every little problem I had with the series. Plot points could have been better developed, characters and character relationships could have been further explored, and the time travel aspect could have been better explained, if only the series had slowed up the pace a bit more and included these things. Action scene after action scene is really fun, but I needed some filler to fully flesh out the story. And I really needed to know why Gabi and fam thought it was okay to completely mess with world history.
Something that really bothered me about the series, which I believe stemmed from the extremely fast pacing and not enough time spent developing the characters, is that Gabi and Lia kill A LOT of people and feel no remorse for it. We see them experiencing some grief after their first human kills in Waterfall, and then NOTHING in Cascade and Torrent. I realize that they're in a war situation and killing in defense is inevitable and I'm not asking for an all out Angst Fest here, but I needed for these young girls who grew up in the 21st century to feel something about these countless people they were killing, especially in a series where there are several passages where Gabi reflects on the value of human life. And though this has nothing to do with this series being considered Christian Fiction - because if you are a GOOD person, you will feel remorse for killing someone no matter what your religion - I was kind of under the impression that God wasn't down with killing humans.
Am I taking this series too seriously? Probably. But if that isn't an indication that what is supposed to be a light, fun read isn't the type of read for me, then I don't know what is. I needed more depth than the River of Time series was able to give me. This all being said however, I do actually recommend this series. All my complaints are obviously highly subjective and I think the vast majority of people would actually really enjoy spending an action-filled time with a cast of fun characters in Lisa T. Bergren's River of Time series.
Previously, my review of Waterfall.
Other Reviews:
Alison Can Read: Cascade, Torrent
The Bookworm is Here!: Cascade, Torrent
A Girl, Books, and Other Things: Cascade, Torrent
Logan E. Turner: Cascade, Torrent
Musings of a YA Reader: Cascade, Torrent
Poetry to Prose: Cascade, Torrent
Small Review: Cascade, Torrent
Supernatural Snark (complete series)
The Unread Reader (complete series)
Author Links:
Website
Goodreads
