Review: Waterfall

Title: Waterfall
Author: Lisa T. Bergren
Date Released: February 1st, 2011
Pages: 352
Rating: 4 out of 5

Description:
Gabriella has never spent a summer in Italy like this one. Remaining means giving up all she’s known and loved… and leaving means forfeiting what she’s come to know…and love itself.   Most American teenagers want a vacation in Italy, but the Bentarrini sisters have spent every summer of their lives with their parents, famed Etruscan scholars, among the romantic hills. Stuck among the rubble of medieval castles in rural Tuscany on yet another hot, dusty archeological 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.            

And thus does she come to be rescued by the knight-prince Marcello Falassi, who takes her back to his father’s castle—a castle Gabi has seen in ruins in another life. Suddenly Gabi’s summer in Italy is much, much more interesting. But what do you do when your knight in shining armor lives, literally, in a different world?

Review:
Waterfall was pretty cool!  I liked the whole time travel concept, and instead of going into the future, they're going deep into the history of Italy.  I haven't read a whole lot of books that deal with this, but I always find it fascinating when I do because usually you're just concentrating on a specific era, rather than everything.

I really liked Gabi's character, and her strong personality.  One thing I found a little bit unclear is how Gabi is fluent in Italian.  It was kind of like, "Whoa... How does she know that much Italian, and all those old words??"  That part just didn't really make sense in the book.  But when considering the dialogue, I thought it was cool how Bergren really brought in the old English mixed in with modern English to really distinct the two periods.

Marcello was pretty cool.  He seemed like a very chivalrous shining knight in armor and I really liked him.  Although, I'm not so sure that I would be able to get passed his longish hair (it is my pet peeve when it's on guys :/ ). 

Another thing that was excellent was the plot.  It really sucked me in, especially towards the end where all the action starts taking the place.  The middle actually dragged on a bit, but it focused more on the romantic tension between Gabi and her Italian knight in shining armor, Marcello.  Bergren really twists it up in the end, making it very suspenseful.  The whole romance aspect was actually pretty clever because you know that Gabi and Marcello have to end up together, but how, since they're from totally different time periods?

Bergren's writing was also very smooth, for lack of a better word.  It adds to a calm-ish vibe that made it really relaxing, even when sometimes you were on edge because of something really astonishing that happens.  Her writing really flowed, too.

Overall, I really liked Waterfall.  It was thoroughly entertaining and after reading so many good things about it, I was glad that I was finally able to read it :)  It's also really great how all of the books in the series have already come out this year, so I won't have to wait a year for the next one!  It's definitely a really cool historical fiction with a little bit of science fiction added to it :D

Cover Review:
I really like this cover.  I love the effects in the middle, and how there's the castle in the background and who I would presume to be Gabi, in the middle.  It has this very calming affect overall.

Cleo :)