Waterfall: Lisa Tawn Bergren

I finally got my hands on this after waiting on a library hold!  The cover looks really cool with a pretty girl looking to the side in anticipation and a door with bright light on the bottom half.  I already knew I liked this author's way of writing, so I gave this book a go. 
The main character, Gabi, is bored with her mother's archaeology job dragging her to remote places with nothing to do and no boys in sight.  She enters her mother's excavation site with her sister in tow and is pulled into a completely different world of medieval Italy.  When she arrives in this strange world, her sister is not there and she hears the clangs of sword fight outside her cave.  Unsure of where she is, she wanders from the cave and is taken back to the Forelli keep by handsome Marcello, the castle's "lord" due to his older brother's affliction.  Marcello is handsome, courteous, regal, and caring; he becomes Gabi's love interest in the book, despite the fact that he already is engaged to Lady Rossi, a powerful daughter of one of the Nine (most powerful families of that time).  Gabi is impulsive, defensive, and protective of her family (desperate to find them) throughout the novel; she makes a great character with her mishaps and imperfections molding her to be a sympathetic, dynamic person the reader comes to know and love.
The other characters really help to set the scene and make the reader truly get the flavor of the book.  Will Gabi find her sister?  Will Marcello cancel his engagement and pursue Gabi?  Will castle Forelli remain safe?  The ending is satisfying, but leaves the reader on an unfortunate cliff-hanger as there will be a second book, Cascade, to this series. 
I enjoyed the novel, read it in two days easily.  The main characters are fun and spunky, the reader will feel as if he/she knows them at the end of the novel.  The language utilized for fourteenth-century Italy is amazing and must be well-researched on the part of the author, though I'm not entirely sure Italians of that era would know about words such as "lungs" at that time.  I would recommend this novel to young adult/teen females who enjoy books about medieval love, action, and intrigue.