Review: Torrent by Lisa T. Bergren

From Back Cover: Gabriella and Evangelia Betarrini are just two normal American teenagers. Normal - except for the fact that they time travel to fourteenth-century Italy, where they've lived in castles, become swept up in historic battles, and fallen in love with handsome knights willing to do anything to keep them alive. They've returned with their mother to the present to save their father before his tragic death, and now the family travels back to the place that holds the girls' hearts: medieval Italy. But remaining there means facing great risk as the battle for territory wages on and the Black Plague looms. Will the Betarrinis truly be willing to risk it all? Or in facing death head on, will they discover life as it was always meant to be lived? 

My Rating: 5 hearts 

Thoughts on the Novel: I originally planned to read Lisa T. Bergren’s Torrent over the winter holidays; but after reading some okay and slightly better than okay books, I needed a book that I knew I was guaranteed to love.

Torrent picks up where Cascade leaves off and brings back the action and adventure that has characterized the previous two novels in the series – this time with another Betarrini thrown into the mix. This of course changes things between some of the characters, but Bergren continues to make the importance of family and love a priority. I love how close the Betarrinis are and the fact that they consider each other before making huge decisions that will impact everybody in their family.

In my reviews of Waterfall and Cascade, I gushed about how awesome Bergren’s guys are so I obviously have to address them in this review. I was sad to see what happened to Fortino but it was hard to dwell on him for too long because other things kept happening – like Gabi being taken away by Lord Greco and the Fiorentini.

Lord Greco managed to capture my heart in Cascade so I was thrilled to see more of him in Torrent. Normally, I’m not a fan of love triangles, but Bergren managed to keep this one appealing because it wasn’t something that became serious. Rather, Lord Greco’s role really makes it clear to Gabi just how much she loves Marcello, and made me ridiculously happy because it led to something poor Marcello had been waiting a couple of years for. (The last few pages of Chapter 26 and the entire twenty-seventh chapter were my favourite part from the entire series.) And, it also freed up Lord Greco for me :)

Torrent was released by David C. Cook in September 2011.       

Comments About the Cover: I like that the covers of the series sort of match, but they need to be more visually appealing. I think Torrent’s cover does a better job though of showing the fantasy aspect of the series because knights and weapons are often associated with fantasies.