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Book Review of Hourglass (Hourglass, Bk 1)

Hourglass (Hourglass, Bk 1)
skywriter319 avatar reviewed on + 784 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


Emerson has been seeing visions of times past since just before her parents death. These visions have affected Emersons day-to-day functioning, and nothing shes tried has helped her. When Michael Weaver arrives at her brothers recommendation from an organization called the Hourglass, Emerson reluctantly decides to give the Hourglass a try.

Neither Emerson nor Michael can deny their seemingly fated attraction to one another, but as they unravel the mystery behind Emersons visions, and what the other people in the Hourglass can do, it becomes clearer to them that something life-threatening is at work

HOURGLASS is an atmospheric and witty debut that combines bad-ass female attitude with time travel and mystery. While sometimes the plot felt a little rough, I was thoroughly engrossed by the characters and their predicaments.

I like Emerson, the protagonist. She has the kind of snarky narrative voice that always attracts me, and which in this case actually helps her a lot through her ordeals. Emerson has built up this armor of snark because of all thats happened to her: we see that, and understand it, and empathize with her for itnot to mention it made her a fun protagonist to follow.

HOURGLASS feels a little like sci-fi lite: we dont get much explanation into the time travel and other concepts that the Hourglass deals with, which didnt detract from the plot but will probably make a science nerd like me raise an eyebrow in dissatisfaction. The pacing is a little on the slow side, and it took a long time for the story to finally get around to talking about the secrets behind the Hourglass. The slow pacing didnt bother me in the beginningprobably because I was too busy being distracted by Emersons shininess to noticebut more than once I did find myself beginning to wish that the book could be shortened.

The climax and resolution of HOURGLASS happened so cleanly, so unambiguously, that I couldnt help but feel a little let down, especially after I had grown to like Emerson so much. The villains are caricatures, and the romance is a lot of I like you but we can never be together due to circumstancesnot really my cup of tea.

Myra McEntires sci-fi lite offering deserves to be read, however. It defies traditional genre lines and offers readers, particularly paranormal lovers, their beloved romance type set in a world with different enemies.