Book Review: The Forgotten Locket by Lisa Mangum

Lisa Mangum burst onto the young adult contemporary fantasy scene like a firework with the release of The Hourglass Door, and continued to burn brightly through The Golden Spiral. With The Forgotten Locket, she puts on an entire fireworks show, dazzling the reader with burst after burst of excitement and drama until the story (and the trilogy) come to a very satisfying conclusion.

Whoa, I’m starting to sound like Bruno Tonioli. Sorry about that.

My Synopsis: Abby’s family no longer exists in her reality; only her memory of them proves they were ever real. The river of time is splitting off into hundreds of little streamlets, and each split is decaying and destroying those she loves. Dante has the power to read the river and know what it needs, and it needs a special gift that only Abby has. Zo knows this too, and he is determined to get her into his clutches so he can be the only true master of time. As Abby, Dante, and Zo leap into the river at certain key points in history to make things flow the way they believe they should, they come up against each other over and over again until it seems there is no way to heal time and put things right again. But love, determination, and passion for doing the right thing will always prevail in the end.

My Thoughts: Lisa Mangum is a superlative author. There are spots in the book where the pacing is tight and you want to read faster because the action is compelling your eyes to race, but you are forced to stop and savor each word, pulled in by the beauty of her craft. If I didn’t like Lisa so dang much as a person and respect her so dang much as an editor, I’d probably be jealous and hate her forever because she’s such an amazing craftsman. Thank goodness for that liking and respect, right?

I received this book from the author, but this did not influence my review. I can’t be bought with books. Chocolate, maybe, but not books.