McEntire-ly Lustrous

Hourglass
By: Myra McEntire
Reported by: Juli Helms

One hour to rewrite the past . . .

For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn’t there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She’s tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.

So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson’s willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.

Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he’s around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?

Full of atmosphere, mystery, and romance, Hourglass merges the very best of the paranormal and science-fiction genres in a seductive, remarkable young adult debut. 

-Summary from Goodreads

Time Travel. Can I just say that's one of my favorite concepts of all time? The ability to go back to the past and change the outcome of the future, of going to the future and warning the past of impending catastrophes...


And Myra McEntire does it brilliantly. She takes a used concept and puts a new twist to it, giving time travel a new appeal I never could have thought of. And you know what I really, really loved about this book? How everything ties together. Absorb every word, from the beginning to the end. I'm serious. Because from the things in the beginning, pretty much every loose thread ties back in the end, and I continuously find myself gawking because I had forgotten so-and-so event had happened and the way it ties together in the end amazes me. I don't think I've ever read a book with such beginning-to-end ties as Hourglass.


But Hourglass has strong characters that filled me with wonder, too. Emerson absolutely lives up to her sassy name--who doesn't love a heroine who's not afraid to chase after what she wants, and who is totally extraordinary in her very ordinary way? And Michael? Don't even get me started. He can be at times a little overprotective, but it makes him absolutely adorable as well. The other guys, like Kaleb? Oh my, can I just say Jace's bad boy, "player" attitude has a second-in-command? And it's not just the main characters who left an imprint on me. Every. Single. Character. was multidimensional. Even those that just appear in one scene or two (more than that, really, since the book ties everything together) has a distinct and unique personality that I could easily distinguish. Again. Brilliant.


Then there is the romance. This is one sizzling hot (literally) relationship, guys! I kept finding myself leaning over the book, tapping my finger on a passage and urging, come on, kiss! Kiss! Kiss already! But this was also refreshing, in a way, because there was no instant love here (well, there sort of was, but they weren't completely, head-over-heels, blindly in love at first sight). And the ending... let me just say, there was a twist I never expected. And while I didn't find that twist completely believable, it managed to surprise me, and that deserves its own applause (in case you don't know, I don't get surprised by plot twists really often. Think Sebastian in City of Glass. I knew his role and the plot of the book the second his character popped up. No lie). 


Go get this book. Now.