Saturday, December 31, 2011

Review: Hourglass

Title Hourglass
By Myra McEntire
For Fun
Pages 400
Recommended by Melissa

First sentence My small Southern hometown is beautiful in the haunting way an aging debutante is beautiful.

Synopsis
Emerson has been seeing figments of the past since her parents tragic death. But when her brother hires a mysterious and handsome guy to help her, and he actually believes her, things start getting much stranger.

General thoughts
I'm going to have to break this one into things I liked and things I didn't cause I felt equally strong about both feelings. So, the things I like about this one......First off, I love the cover, it's one of the first things that drew me to the book. I liked the writing and was so happy it was in past tense; I'm getting so freaking sick of present tense books. The writing was good and witty. I liked Emerson's voice, and as things started picking up I found myself finally wanting to read again after a huge reading slump. I also liked the way the author handled Emerson accepting the things Michael was telling her. Paranormal abilities and how characters accept them is often ridiculously unbelievable. Not so, in this one.

And now for what I didn't like....The editing in this one felt lazy. At one point Michael opens a drink and slides it across the counter to Emerson but then, in the next sentence, she's popping open the can. Sure, sure it's something easily overlooked but it just bothers me when things like that are in books. Could they really not catch that before publishing? But my biggest problem with the book was the time travel. Time travel always confuses me and gives me a headache but, in the end, I usually feel like I understand what happened and why it all made sense. Yeah, not in this book. Sure, it's fiction you can make up what ever rules of time travel you want but I like stories to be well crafted. It makes me feel like the author cared enough about their book to make sure that things made sense, but I didn't feel that and it just makes me sad.  Plus I hate, HATE when the "bad guy" starts giving a big speech at the end to explain their motives. It's incredibly amateurish writing and makes me feel like I'm watching old Saturday morning cartoons.

So, yeah I'll probably read the rest of the series but I hope the next books are slightly better crafted.

Characters
I know, I'm going on and on, but I had to mention three characters. Clary...er I mean Emerson....Need I say more?  Michael is NOT my type. I hate that kind and I hated him! Kaleb on the other hand... *long dreamy sigh* He's what's making me continue this series even though I know he'll never end up with Emerson. Stupid love triangles that AREN'T love triangles!

Would I recommend it?
Yeah, I guess, just don't expect the time travel thing to make sense.

5 comments:

  1. This book sounds really fun regardless of the time travel. I hate time travel too it's really confusing for me and the end up not liking the book. :( Great review!

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  2. I probably will not read this book, but I do love the cover. Every time I see it, I am drawn to it.

    By the way - time travel must make sense to me in some way and the author must stick to rules made. If those don't happen then my reading interest is lost. I love time travel stories and read many of them probably is why I am rather harsh - by my easy going reading standards - on this area.

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  3. Roxy, I'd still say it's worth the read.

    ibeeeg, I'm strangely picky about time travel and all it's rules too. But I'm picky about everything. ;)

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  4. I've been avoiding this one for the time travel aspect as well. I adore the cover as well though. there's nothing worse than a love triangle that utterly fails.

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  5. Lan, Yeah, and this one does fail. :( If time travel isn't your thing I'm not sure you'll like this one.

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