River of Time

What do you do when your knight in shining armor lives, literally, in a different world? Most American teenagers want a vacation in Italy, but the Betarrini sisters have spent every summer of their lives among the romantic hills with their archaeologist parents. Stuck among the rubble of medieval castles in rural Tuscany on yet another hot, dusty archaeological 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. Suddenly Gabis summer in Italy is much, much more interesting.

What if you not only fell back through time... but fell in love, too? 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, months have passed, and all of Siena longs to celebrate the heroines who turned the tide in the battle against Florence, while their enemies will go to great lengths to see them dead. Even in the midst of the battles, Gabi’s heart is increasingly drawn to Marcello, just as Lia’s is to Luca. In medieval Italy, the sisters discover things inside themselves that they couldn’t seem to find in the present connection with their mom, courage within, and the understanding that a life well lived often means encountering sacrifice. But in a world long past, many things still keep Gabi from giving Marcello her heart forever and one thing in particular calls all three of the Betarrini’s home.

Would you sacrifice your future... for an uncertain past? 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 Betarrini’s 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?