Book Review of The Golden Spiral by Lisa Mangum

Title: The Golden Spiral

Author: Lisa Mangum

Release Date: May 10th, 2010

*If you have not read The Hourglass Door this will contain spoilers*

His eyes. His touch. His kiss. Dante was unlike anyone Abby had ever met. Now he’s gone, and Abby will do anything to get him back…

The hourglass door has closed behind Dante, sending him back in time to hunt down Zo, Tony, and V. Abby knows that Dante, as a Master of Time, is the only one who can stop them from destroying time itself. She also knows that he will need her help. But almost immediately, things start to change and Abby’s worst fears are realized when Zo begins targeting her past specifically.

With each new change that ripples into her present, Abby’s life continues to spiral out of control. Her relationships with Jason, Natalie, and even her family, are threatened to the breaking point – and beyond. Zo’s power is greater than Abby ever imagined, and as she struggles to free Dante, she receives help from an unexpected – and unlikely – ally.

As Abby’s world fractures around her, she must face a terrible truth: either Dante didn’t make it through the door, or he is lost forever. So with Dante’s blueprints in hand, she begins construction on a new door, a new time machine that will either save Dante – or doom him.

The river of time is running wild, churning up secrets and betrayals, revelations and promises. With each new turn of the river, Abby faces a new challenge. Who can she trust? And how many more changes can she survive?

The bank is eroding, the barriers are thinning. And time is running out.

Summary by Goodreads.com

My Review: This is the second book in The Hourglass Door trilogy so if you have not read The Hourglass Door you need to read that first.  One of the things I have really enjoyed about this series is the back story of Leonardo da Vinci’s life and how it is intertwined and connected with the character’s in this story.  Da Vinci was a brilliant man and since Dante got to learn from him, he in turn is quite brilliant and it shows in the work that he he does and in the plans he left behind for Abby to build another door.  After letting Dante go to follow Zo through time, Abby has been left with the task of building a new door to try and get Dante back, while also fighting Zo and all the changes he is making in her life.  And he is making quite a few changes, the only upside is that Abby gets a little warning before anything happens, but there is not much she can do to change anything.  I think I underestimated how cruel Zo could really be, there was a point in the book when I though he was done messing with her life, yeah, I was wrong, he took his meddling to the extreme and shatters Abby’s world.  My heart broke for Abby because it was a lot for one person to deal with and she essentially has no one left to help her cope with it all.

A surprising character in this book was Valerie, she almost became like an oracle for Abby.  Throughout the novel she is telling tales that almost seem to be nonsense until they actually happen in Abby’s life.  The intent of Valerie is still not clear to me, she seems to be on Abby’s side at some points in the book and then at other points she flips a switch a Zo becomes her world and the only thing that is important to her.  I think her role in this series is very significant and even when her words seem to be nonsense, they turn out to be crucial later in the book.

Lisa does a great job of answering some lingering questions that I had from The Hourglass Door, especially from the prologue which I had forgotten about.  I was happily surprised by the way some of the loose ends began to weave together and make one full story.  The best part of the story for me still though is Abby and Dante.  Dante is such a great male lead and he loves Abby so fiercely it really makes you want to see them have a happy ending to this story.  Both of them have been through so much and I like how neither of them is the “damsel in distress”  they both have skills that help in their adventure and they compliment each other very well.

Overall, this book is awesome and I think Lisa has done a great job of coming up with a fresh story to tell.  The only downside for me is that the final book The Forgotten Locket, does not come out until the summer of 2011!  That makes me sad, I hope maybe that date will be pushed up because I am not sure I can wait that long to see what happens!