review: Hourglass by Myra McEntire

pub date: May 24, 2011
publisher: EgmontUSA
pages: 397
challenges: Debut author, 350 page challenge
appeals: supernatural, science fiction, time-travel, romance,
content: swears once or twice, thats it

thoughts:
Fun, awesome, exciting, and surprising. I liked this book a lot.

So, it starts out pretty straight forward--Myra can see ghosts. Michael is going to help her deal. There's some romantic chemistry. But then...there's more to the story. A whole new level of plot and intrigue. Which is cool, so I think that the story is going to go in this new direction when a little later there's revealed another aspect of the story, which changes where it is actually going. And then another surprise and another. All the way up until the very end McEntire kept me guessing about what else she hadn't told me yet. Which is so COOL.

There were a lot of characters but they were all developed and interesting. Well, some of the others at the Hourglass are barely seen, so they aren't so well developed, but they are interesting! It's very well written. There weren't awkward places, or even slow parts, which I love, especially in long books. I loved it all.

This is the kind of book that should be discussed. There are a lot of unexplained aspects of the story (still!) that will (hopefully!) come out in later books. I want to talk to someone about them! I want to make guesses at what it all means! So my advice is to read this book with some friends.

Seriously, this is an awesome book.

goodreads:
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.