There was a danger of Cascade being a bit of a let down after the superlative first book in the Rivers of Time series. Waterfall was my fave fantasy book of the year. Like many books, they get recommended to you, unless it's a really popular series like Twilight or the Mortal Instruments series, you may not have heard of it.
I think this is a shame because Cascade (and if the others in the series follow suit) deserves much more recognition than it gets. It may seem to some that this is written by a Cassandra Clare-lite, but Lisa Bergren has her own writing style. It was engaging from page one of Waterfall, and Cascade literally picks up from where the first book ended.
I think fantasy is a difficult genre to pull off, but this is no ordinary fantasy, but a time travelling one. For me, that's much harder to make work.
Within the first few pages of Waterfall, our heroine Gabi was in ancient Italy. Here in Cascade, we are mainly back in present time. I'm not so fussed about Gabi and her beau, Marcello, but I do like the interplay between Gabi and Lia (Gabi's younger sister) although I think their interactions were slightly better in Waterfall.
There's some real shocks in Cascade that, for young-adult, is pretty strong stuff. To reveal it here would be to reveal too much, but I was like 'oh my God' at some of the scenes.
The energy and pacy style I would say are as good as anything Cassandra Clare has written. I only mention her because these are similar stories in size and scope, but maybe CC is better with the humour.
Cascade is a rare thing - a brilliant 'second' book and I think will, in time, be recognised for the simply smashing adventure story that it is. I may have to re-read it, along with Waterfall, but it left me gasping for more. Bring on Torrent !!
