REVIEW: Hourglass

Book: Hourglass by Myra McEntire
Release Date: June 14th, 201 by Egmont USA
Pages: 390 Pages
Source: Library Copy

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 also 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?

It's pretty hard to rate Hourglass. There's a part of me that loves the idea of time travel and the fresh supernatural element, but there's also the harsh critic side that doesn't completely love everything about this book. In the end, I took both sides into account, weighted it on my rating scale and gave it a 3 stars. What that means is: Hourglass is a pretty good read, but it's almost ordinary, should I say. The 3 stars give credit to its plot and main character (which I loved), but the missing 2 stars reflect on the secondary characters, the love interest Michael, and the boring-ness of the last half of the book.

Nicole's Review:

Before I jump into all the flaws of Hourglass, there were a lot of things I liked about this book. The main character, Emerson, was witty and funny in her own sense of humor. A lot of times, she made me smile. I also found her realistic, in the way that she deals with the "rips" (ghosts from the past/future). She had told her legal guardian, which is her brother, about these rips. I thought that telling her brother was an incredibly smart way to deal with it. It's completely reasonable too.

It's much more refreshing this way. I've read books where the main character just complains on and on about her magical powers and the pressure of keeping it a secret, so she wouldn't seem like "a freak" when she clearly could tell someone she trusts about it. Like seriously. Get help if you need. Ahem.

Anyways, that wasn't the case in Hourglass and I'm grateful for it.

Next, I also liked the plot. In most paranormal books, they usually are about vampires, werewolves, and angels, so the time-traveling ghost thing was a surprise. I also liked the aspect of how Emerson could travel to the past, Michael can travel to the future, and together, they can travel anywhere in time. I don't know about you, but silly details like these just makes me grin really wide and marvel at the cleverness.

So basically, the first half of the story was absolutely fantastic, along with many great details. I though it was very stunning the way McEntire weaved all of Emerson's family in.

But then I reach the second half. And that is when things begin to fall apart.
 
By now, we know of the mysterious Michael, who sees ghosts, like Emerson. We also know that he flirts with her even though he knows he's not supposed to. He also made it pretty clear he wouldn't date her.

So why does he date her later?

The romance between Michael and Emerson didn't really radiate sparks. I mean, it wasn't like they were bad together; they just didn't have that kind of chemistry. Michael was kind of a dull love interest. I didn't like him a lot. And like I mentioned earlier, he made it pretty clear he can't date her, yet they have a relationship later on in the book. 

We also get tricked into believing that Michael has a girlfriend named Ava. But that turns out to be a misunderstanding. So there was some unnecessary minor drama there.

To be honest, things fell from there. I didn't like any of the new characters (Ava, Kaleb, etc..) and the adventure got really boring. I started skimming pages. Later on, as I reach the supposedly climax of the story (traveling back into time), it didn't even seem interesting.

So yup, I skimmed through the last half, feeling oddly like doing a chore. When I got to the ending, the book seemed like a boring blur. I sincerely enjoyed the first half; I only wished the last was as good.

 

The Summary:

The Good Points: Emerson's personality, Emerson's family

The Bad Points: Boring last half of the story, Michael, undeveloped secondary characters

Final Rank:

 1     2     3     4     5

On my rating scale, a three stars mean that a book is average. In this case, Hourglass was pretty average for me. The first half was fantastic, amazing, and all those awesome synonyms but then the last half was horrible. I didn't enjoy it at all. To average it up, I'd give it a score of 3, five stars for the first half and 1 star for the last half. And the last half technically isn't "horrible." It just bored me out and wasn't my cup of tea. So I would recommend to this book to people who have more patience.