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.
Where should I begin? With the crappy romance? With the really high stakes that Emerson faced? With the horrible romantic interest? With the MC herself?
It seems that all paranormal romance today is a hot guy, an instant connection, obsession, and electricity. Yeah, you read that right, electricity. And this book was no exception. Every time, every single time they touched, Emerson went on and on about how sparks flew and all that. And that was only the touching. I'm betting if/when they have sex, a bomb or something's going to go off, they create so much electricity. Or lightning will strike and kill someone. And then there was the whole stalking/obsession thing that every paranormal has. It's getting so old.
Michael was the stupidest character you can imagine. He also ranked quite high on the possessive boyfriend list and the crappy romantic interest list. For reasons I can't remember (and I read the book yesterday), Michael didn't want Emerson to know about the Hourglass. But then he leaves business cards with the address on them in his room. Emerson goes stalking (because, you know, it hurts so much to be away from him for even a second) and finds them. And because he never told her why it was so dangerous, she goes.
One of the biggest complaints that I have about this book is that the stakes that Emerson faces just aren't that high. If she decided to walk away, there wouldn't be any plot. There wasn't anything - besides her unfailing goodness, of course - that kept her in and made her try to prevent the death.
Which brings me to Emerson herself. She was obsessed with Michael to the point where she snuck into his room and lay on his bed, just so she could get his scent. This is disturbing, to say the very least. The number of times that she mentioned a part of some guy (abs, muscles, lips, whatever) was astounding. The first time is fine. When you're breaking up a fight, it's not. Seriously, the book would be a chapter or two shorter if all that was taken out. And this is backed up by the fact that there is no diversity WHATSOEVER. Lily was the most diverse, being Hispanic. But there wasn't an ugly or even average-looking person in sight. They were all super gorgeous and SPESHUL.
But on the upside, Dru was a pleasant surprise. I expected her character to be bitchy and Emerson-hating, almost like an evil stepmom, but it wasn't. She played the mom role far better than many real mothers in YA today.
The whole time-travel thing was so complicated that I don't even want to get into it. My brain's still spinning from all of the information. My two main questions: 1) Why did Emerson stop seeing rips after Michael came? 2) How is the ability to control water something to do with time? I thought the Hourglass people all had abilities just relating to time.
One star for Dru, and another for Kaleb and Lily.
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