Kimberly's Review of Deluge by Lisa Tawn Bergren

Book: Deluge (River of Time #5)

Author: Lisa Tawn Bergren

Why I read it: Because it's a brilliant series.

Rating 5+ Stars

It's always very difficult to write a review for the final book in a series. I want to share how much I loved it, and tell everyone about it, but I don't want to spoil anything! So I will do my best to tell you about my reading experience without spoiling anything from the earlier books.

Here is the description from the first book in the series...

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. In Book One of the River of Time series, Gabi and Lia are stuck among the rubble of medieval castles in rural Tuscany on yet another hot, boring, and dusty archeological site … 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 she comes to be rescued by the knight-prince Marcello Forelli, 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?

An exciting premise, right? Let me also mention the extensive research the author has done to ensure that historical details are accurate. Right down to clothing, the way the country would have looked at that time, how they moved and spoke.

Not only that, the characters are wonderful. They are interesting, have unique strengths, distinct personalities and feel like people you know “in real life”. They also have flaws. But their flaws are real, and make sense. Their flaw isn't that they are clumsy. They also acknowledge their flaws and work through them.

Also, the relationships? Friendship, romance, family? You know when you read a book and you'd like to just smack one of the characters because they won't COMMUNICATE? These characters do! It is SO refreshing!

The entire series is that good. Five books can sound like a lot, but it's actually perfect. Each book is perfectly paced. It never drags, never feels rushed.

This last book.... Oh boy. I did NOT want this series to end. I knew I would miss the characters. I laughed with them, and cried tears of joy and grief with them. I felt proud of the characters by the end. My only “complaint”? I wanted more. But I felt satisfied with the ending as well, I didn't feel like things were left sloppily unresolved. It's not the perfect ending with a nice shiny bow on top (which I will admit, I love those as well). But this ending felt like the RIGHT ending.

Okay, I'll stop babbling about this so that you can go right now and get it! Check your library, the local bookstore. If you're having trouble finding it locally, check a Christen bookstore, the author is Christen and her novels are often sold there. (The books are not really “religious books”)

Has anyone else read this series? OR. What was your favorite conclusion to a book series?