Review: Cascade

Title: Cascade
Author: Lisa T. Bergren
Published: 2011 by David C. Cook
Obtained: Library

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.

First Sentence:
"Mom freaked out when she saw us, of course."

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WARNING, IF YOU HAVEN’T READ WATERFALL YET, DON’T READ THIS, AS THIS IS A REVIEW OF A SECOND BOOK IN A SERIES!!
Here is my review of the first book: Waterfall Review

This series just keeps getting better and better.
I have yet to read the last book, Torrent, but if this one is any indication, the third one should be stunningly amazing.

Continuing exactly where the first one left off, Gabi and Lia convince their mother to return to the past with them. Showing up months later, they realize the battles are still far from over, and there is betrayal in the ranks. Also, Gabi and Marcello work out their relationship, which has some issues that should be obvious: they are from completely different time periods.

If I could pick one aspect of this series that I adore, it would be the “epic” adventures. They start so innocently. “Let’s go watch a soldier get reunited with his family!” Complications arise, they rush off to one place, more complications, leave that place, split up, run away, hide out, get caught, run away, split up, get caught, rescued, fight to escape, run back . . . and what? MORE COMPLICATIONS! Before you realize it, almost the entire book has gone by and the entire adventure was based off of one little expedition. IT’S CRAZY! But completely awesome. This chain reaction style adventure is addicting, you can’t stop reading because from that one moment, everything changes and everything is at stake.

My one issue with this series is the Lia-Luca thread. I love her. I love Luca. I love her and Luca together. I probably love them more than Gabi and Marcello. The author is obviously trying to continue their relationship and make it’s developments of interest to the reader, but it’s difficult with the first-person narrative of Gabi. As a reader, I want to enjoy the moments in Luca and Lia’s relationship, but it’s impossible when we’re just with Gabi. Gabi and Marcello step out on Lia and Luca “to give them some time alone.” WELL DARN. Because I wanted to see what happened there.
I’m thinking that the way to fix this little problem would have been to either have multiple narrators, both girls narrate alternating chapters, or have switched up the narrators each book. But at the same time, I wouldn’t have liked that too much because Gabi does all the interesting stuff.
If I’m remembering correctly, I do believe that Lia and Luca will have their own little book series soon, and that makes me extremely happy. Finish up this Marcello/Gabi thing and move on to the other couple.

All in all, this was a completely fantastic book, even better than the first one. I can’t wait to get the third one from the library.

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Content Warnings: Kissing

Rating: