Review: Waterfall (River of Time #1) by Lisa T. Bergren

Publisher: David C. Cook

Published: February 1, 2011

Pages: 352

Source: Free ebook from Amazon

Rating: 4 Stars - I Loved It!

American teenager Gabi Betarrini accidently finds herself in Fourteenth-Century Italy . . . Knights. Swords. Horses. Armor. And Italian hotties. Most American teens want an Italian vacation, but the Betarrini sisters have spent every summer of their lives there with their archaeologist parents. Stuck on yet another hot, dusty dig, they are bored out of their minds... until they place their hands atop handprints in an ancient tomb and find themselves catapulted into the Fourteenth Century and in the middle of a fierce battle between knights bent on killing one another.

In short: Waterfall by Lisa T. Bergren is entertainment at its best - complete with non-stop action and swoon-worthy boys.

I participated in a month long Read-Along for Waterfall in which I got to share in my reading experience of Waterfall with a whole bunch of lovely book bloggers. It was excellent fun but also terribly hard to stay within the allotted chapters for each week. Why? Because Waterfall is just so darn fast paced and exciting; I was never even remotely bored at any point. Lisa T. Bergren keeps the action coming page after page. Waterfall is entertainment at its best.

And how could you not be entertained by the events that take place in Waterfall? Getting mistaken for a lady in a past time period, meeting some swoon-worthy and gallant boys men and falling in love with one of them, getting to impart your modern knowledge and save a life, getting to wear pretty dresses and go to balls, taking part in the action even though you're a lady - this is all stuff of escapist fantasies. It was like Lisa T. Bergren knew exactly what her audience was looking for in a dream book and then delivered exactly that and more.

Gabi makes for a feisty and determined heroine, though I did find that she was a little too good to be true as a character. It seems awfully convenient to me that she would be fluent in Italian, basic in Latin and French, have experience in riding bareback, have a knowledge of various herbs and remedies, and be an experienced fencer (and somehow have this experience translate into wielding an extremely heavy broadsword). I guess I just would've liked to have seen Gabi struggle a bit more with her new and strange surroundings - not that I hate her or anything. I just think that would be more realistic.

I also think the pacing was a bit too fast at times (because I'm weird like that); I would've liked to have read a bit more detail about the plan that was put into place to save Gabi's sister, for instance, because I found it a bit hard to follow. But besides these minor quibbles, I had tons of fun reading Waterfall and I can't imagine a person not enjoying themselves while reading it either. I can't wait to check out the sequels, Cascade and Torrent, which also came out this year!

Other Reviews:
Logan E. Turner
Poetry to Prose
Small Review

Author Links:
Website
Twitter
Goodreads

*Read as part of the 2011 Debut Author Challenge
*Read as part of the YA Series Challenge

Winner!

It's time to announce the winner of my Dark Mirror and Choker giveaway! There were a total of 113 people who entered and 263 entries. And the winner, according to random.org, is:

Missie @ The Unread Reader!

Okay, I swear I didn't rig this. I don't know whether to congratulate you or to apologize, Missie. This is totes karma for the time you tried to force a book you disliked onto me. If you are still interested in taking these books off my hands, then shoot me an email with your address at ayleejaine(at)gmail(dot)com. I wholeheartedly hope you enjoy these books more than I did.

Review: Dark Mirror by M.J. Putney

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Published: March 1, 2011

Pages: 304

Source: Won from Books Are A Girl's Best Friend (Thanks!)

Rating: 2 Stars

Lady Victoria Mansfield, youngest daughter of the earl and countess of Fairmount, is destined for a charmed life. Soon she will be presented during the London season, where she can choose a mate worthy of her status. 

Yet Tory has a shameful secret—a secret so powerful that, if exposed, itcould strip her of her position and disgrace her family forever. Tory’s blood is tainted . . . by magic.

When a shocking accident forces Tory to demonstrate her despised skill, the secret she’s fought so hard to hide is revealed for all to see. She is immediately exiled to Lackland Abbey, a reform school for young men and women in her position. There she will learn to suppress her deplorable talents and maybe, if she’s one of the lucky ones, be able to return to society.

But Tory’s life is about to change forever. All that she’s ever known or considered important will be challenged. What lies ahead is only the beginning of a strange and wonderful journey into a world where destiny and magic come together, where true love and friendship find her, and where courage and strength of character are the only things that determine a young girl’s worth.

In short: Unfortunately, Dark Mirror by M.J. Putney was unable to capture my interest and somehow managed to make even magic lame and boring.

Magic plus time travel. Can't go wrong, right? Unfortunately, much to my surprise and dismay, Dark Mirror by M.J. Putney didn't work for me. It was an amalgamation of things that didn't work but ultimately, I was bored. I couldn't bring myself to care about any of the characters or the plot. Nothing inspired any stirrings of interest; if I was the type to DNF books, I would've done so within the first 50 pages of Dark Mirror.

The magical abilities that Tory and her friends have weren't even interesting, which I didn't think was possible. Talk about some of the lamest magical powers ever. One guy is an expert at moving clouds around; one girl specializes in heating things; one guy is particularly good at finding things. LAME. And they seriously thought they were going to be able to take on Napoleon's army with these powers? Don't get me wrong, it's noble and all that they want to fight for England, but they were clearly delusional.

I disliked the writing as well but I'm not sure I could put into words exactly what didn't work for me. It seemed a bit amateurish, though I know that's not true because M.J. Putney is a fairly experienced author. I guess I thought the writing was too simple and bare. I'm not saying I need writing to be extremely flowery and detailed all the time, but I like to be able to experience more fully the surroundings, the plot elements, and the characters' personalities than Dark Mirror allowed me.

One thing that I was impressed by was the setting: not one, but two historical settings were involved, 1803 and WWII. M.J. Putney demonstrates a great amount of knowledge of the eras, though I would've preferred had she not stated this knowledge so matter of factly in the novel. If she had interwoven the historical information more seamlessly into the plot (something that Rick Yancey, author of The Monstrumologist Series, does very well), then I would've been truly impressed.

Think you might want to give this one a try yourself? Enter my giveaway to win Dark Mirror and Choker (Hmm? What's that? You no longer have any interest in entering my giveaway now that I've trashed the book? Well, for what it's worth, other bloggers seemed to enjoy Dark Mirror more than I did.)

Other Reviews:
Books Are A Girl's Best Friend
Small Review
Tales of Whimsy

Author Links:
Website

*Read as part of the 2011 Debut Author Challenge

Waterfall Wednesday: Chapters 24-28

It's the final week of the Waterfall Read-Along, this week hosted by Nic from Irresistible Reads, talking about Chapters 24-28!

Also, if you haven't yet heard, Small Review is hosting a River of Time Series Giveaway! All you have to do is help promote The River of Time Series and you could win some amazing prizes!

1. After Gabi is injured, the doctor gives her a tonic. Gabi questions the doctor several times what is in it but he refuses to tell. Would you have taken the tonic in Gabi’s situation?

Hard to say. Common sense says no but mayhap if I was in as much pain as Gabi, I would’ve been desperate for anything to help.

2. Before the games Gabi asks Lia to let Lord Forabosch win in the archery event as people, especially Lord Forabosch, are becoming suspicious of them. But during the games, Lord Forabosch upsets Lia trying to throw her off her game. So Lia decides to win. Do you think she did the right thing by not letting Lord Forabosch bully her or do you think she took an unnecessary risk?

It was a risk, sure, but I was cheering her on! I’m not even a competitive person myself, but I loved the idea of Lia sticking it to Lord Forabosch.

3. Gabi is dying and she and Lia decide to return to the tombs so they can get the cure at home but they have to tell Marcello the truth. Even though Marcello thinks that it is madness that they are from the future, he believes in Gabi because he loves her. Do you think this is believable? What would you have done if you were Marcello?

I do think it is believable that Marcello would believe Gabi’s claim, only because I feel people from the medieval period were more gullible and more likely to believe in things like witchcraft and time travel. I’m not saying that people from this time period were dumb, they just weren’t as knowledgeable as people are in our time period, obviously.

4. In the end, Gabi and Lia return home. Do you think Gabi will return to Marcello? Would you go back?

Heh, well I can’t imagine what the sequels would be about if Gabi didn’t return to Marcello. But even if I wasn’t aware of the sequels, the last few lines of Waterfall indicated to me that Gabi is going to do everything she can to get back. As she should! I totally think she should go for it if she thinks Marcello is “the one”.

5. Looking back at Waterfall, what was your favourite moment?

As in all time travel novels, one of my favourite parts is when the protagonist reacts and has to deal with their new surroundings, which are completely unfamiliar to them. It’s amusing to read about Gabi having trouble putting on the dress, learning how to ride sidesaddle, and coming up with a story to explain who she is and why she is there. Also, I loved the myriad of action scenes, obviously!

Aw, I'm sad to see this Read-Along end! It was good while it lasted though. Great job to everyone who put this together; the questions each week were either challenging or fun, and always a pleasure!

Giveaway: Dark Mirror and Choker

Wotcher! I'm not celebrating any milestone or anniversary on the blog or anything... just thought I would have a giveaway. I'll be giving away Dark Mirror by M.J. Putney and Choker by Elizabeth Woods. I won both of these books in giveaways and don't plan on ever rereading them again so I thought I would give them to someone else to read and free some room on my bookshelf at the same time.

Rules
1. To enter, fill out the form below
2. Open Internationally
3. Ends October 2 at 11:59 PM EST
4. Entrants must be at least 13 years old
5. The winner will be announced on the blog and will have 48 hours to send me an email with their address.
Note: These are not new books; I have read them before. They are, however, in very good condition.