The Hourglass Series: Mini Reviews of Hourglass + Timepiece

HOURGLASS
Hourglass #1
Myra McEntire
Paranormal Young Adult
390 pages
Egmont USA
Available Now
Source: Bought

THE STORY (from 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 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've happened?

MY THOUGHTS
Hourglass is a story we enter into with no small amount of trepidation, time travel a subject matter that can often be extraordinarily confusing when trying to understand the how’s of it all and the ramifications of any minuscule change in the past, but Hourglass luckily focuses predominantly on Emerson’s ability to see people from other times rather than on the science (so to speak) of the travel itself. There are moments when the focus being elsewhere is both a blessing and a curse however, the ease with which Emerson is able to make her first trip to the past with neither any previous experience nor the knowledge she was even capable of doing so causing us to itch slightly with the desire for a tad more explanation, but such a desire is certainly nitpicky at best.

Emerson is a highly enjoyable heroine, her obvious struggle with seeing things other people can’t creating an almost instant connection as we want nothing more for her than to feel comfortable in her own skin after all she’s been through, and aside from a few rash decisions here and there stemming from an unquenchable (but understandable) curiosity about the Hourglass and her abilities in general, she is easy to root for throughout. The tension between her and Michael is utterly delicious, a little push and pull present but in no way irritating, the obstacles between them and their few minor misunderstandings all adding a believability to their interactions given how very out of sorts first love can make us feel.

Rating: 4/5
 

TIMEPIECE
Hourglass #2
Myra McEntire
Paranormal Young Adult
325 pages
Egmont USA
Available Now
Source: Bought

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
A threat from the past could destroy the future. And the clock is ticking...

Kaleb Ballard was never supposed to be able to see ripples - cracks in time. Are his powers expanding, or is something very wrong? Before he can find out, Jonathan landers, the man who tried to murder is father, reappears. Why is he back, and what, or whom, does he want?

In the wake of Landers' return, the Hourglass organization is given an ultimatum. Either they find Jack and the research he's stolen on the people who might carry the time gene, or time will be altered - with devastating results for the people Kaleb loves most.

Now Kaleb, Emerson, Michael, and the other Hourglass recruits have no choice but to use their unusual powers to find Landers. But where do they even start? And when? And even if they succeed, it may not be enough...

MY THOUGHTS
Timepiece moves us from Emerson’s first person point of view to Kaleb’s, a switch that has us excited to crack the spine of this second installment given the hurt and pain we watched him attempt to numb with alcohol in book one, hoping against hope he finds solace somewhere other the bottle in this installment. Luckily for us, Kaleb’s mind, while battered and bruised thanks not only to his ability as an Empath but also to the events of the past several months, is still a fun place to be, his sense of humor and his status as an unrepentant flirt adding a touch of levity to what would otherwise be a darker tale than Hourglass.

While highly entertaining and thoroughly action-packed, Timepiece isn’t quite as strong as its predecessor merely from the standpoint that the disruptions in the space-time continuum are becoming greater and broader in scale, the confusion factor that accompanies time travel stories thus ratcheting up a few notches as we realize just how much Jack’s adjustments to various people’s timelines are affecting the current reality. There’s also a cliffhanger to contend with in this middle book, something that was blissfully absent from book one, but despite those drawbacks it’s still a story eagerly devoured with a strong set of characters that ensure we are invested in every aspect of their lives.

Rating: 3.5/5

Find Myra:

Website • Facebook • Twitter • Amazon • Goodreads 

As part of the countdown toward the August 6th release of the third and final book in this trilogy, Infinityglass, Myra has been releasing fun teaser quotes each week on an Hourglass series tumblr. I wanted to go ahead and share my favorite of the ones she's posted so far because I adored this last book. See the above link to view them all!

Gotta love Hallie! She's blunt. I like it.

Series Review: The Heist Society Novels

HEIST SOCIETY • UNCOMMON CRIMINALS • PERFECT SCOUNDRELS

Ally Carter

Contemporary Young Adult

Disney Hyperion

Available now

Bought/Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (Heist Society, book #1, from Goodreads)
When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her on a trip to the Louvre…to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie traveled to Austria…to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own—scamming her way into the best boarding school in the country, determined to leave the family business behind. Unfortunately, leaving “the life” for a normal life proves harder than she’d expected.

Soon, Kat's friend and former co-conspirator, Hale, appears out of nowhere to bring Kat back into the world she tried so hard to escape. But he has a good reason: a powerful mobster has been robbed of his priceless art collection and wants to retrieve it. Only a master thief could have pulled this job, and Kat's father isn't just on the suspect list, he is the list. Caught between Interpol and a far more deadly enemy, Kat’s dad needs her help.

For Kat, there is only one solution: track down the paintings and steal them back. So what if it's a spectacularly impossible job? She's got two weeks, a teenage crew, and hopefully just enough talent to pull off the biggest heist in her family's history--and, with any luck, steal her life back along the way.

MY THOUGHTS
Fun and flirty, the Heist Society novels are quick and entertaining reads, jetting us all around the world as we follow a teenage crew of thieves–characters in the truest sense of the word–who keep us laughing even as we wonder how they’re possibly going to pull off their next job. A certain level of disbelief must be suspended before picking these books up, as Kat and her team get in and out of terribly difficult situations with relative ease, making it clear that these books are meant simply to be enjoyed rather than read critically for their criminal believability. Reading any book in this series brings a smile to our faces, and we open the first page prepared to settle in for a little travel, a little moral ambiguity, and a whole lot of mischief.

Kat Bishop, teenage thief and leader of a crew that features a billionaire inside man, a pair of brothers with a penchant for explosives, a stunningly attractive young woman who excels at distraction, and a computer genius, isn’t someone we necessarily get to know all that well during the course of her exploits, but someone we look forward to reading about just the same. She does have a tendency to be completely and frustratingly self-reliant in the first two books, pushing best friend and love interest W.W. Hale the Fifth away again and again despite his blatantly obvious desire to be whatever she needs him to be, but by the time we reach Perfect Scoundrels, Kat’s hands no longer exert force to push him away and instead thankfully try to pull him closer.

Those looking for an epic romance will likely be left wanting with these books given the focus is always on the heist itself, leaving the various character relationships to simmer warmly in the background. The more subtle nature of Kat’s relationship with Hale fits these stories beautifully though, their friendship and occasional flirtation a refreshing departure from grand gestures and too-soon declarations of love, and we can’t help but revel in the levity of their interactions. Perfect Scoundrels is perhaps the most emotional of the three, the difference between Hale’s world and Kat’s world brought into sharp focus and stark contrast as their two separate upbringings collide in a very personal way, making our hearts beat a little faster as the depth of certain feelings tangle irreparably with the con itself.

Overall the Heist Society novels are perfect for a sunny afternoon in between dark dystopian or gut-wrenching contemporary reads, guaranteed to charm and delight readers with a myriad of playful and memorable characters.

Rating: 4/5

ALLY CARTER SIGNING

For those of you in the southern Ohio/Northern Kentucky area, Ally Carter will be signing books tonight at 7pm ET at the Joseph Beth Booksellers at Rookwood Pavilion. I'm hugely excited to be able to attend and will be making the trip from Columbus to do so. I plan to take lots of pictures and generally be an Ally fangirl, complete with moments of awkward social behavior because it's well known that I'm unable to be cool in the face of authors whose books I enjoy. *pats self on back for being awesome* Hope some of you who are nearby can make it!

Series Review: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

JESSICA'S GUIDE TO DATING ON THE DARK SIDE +
JESSICA RULES THE DARK SIDE
Beth Fantaskey
Paranormal Young Adult
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (Book one only - from Goodreads)
The undead can really screw up your senior year . . .

Marrying a vampire definitely doesn’t fit into Jessica Packwood’s senior year “get-a-life” plan. But then a bizarre (and incredibly hot) new exchange student named Lucius Vladescu shows up, claiming that Jessica is a Romanian vampire princess by birth—and he’s her long-lost fiancé. Armed with newfound confidence and a copy of Growing Up Undead: A Teen Vampire’s Guide to Dating, Health, and Emotions, Jessica makes a dramatic transition from average American teenager to glam European vampire princess. But when a devious cheerleader sets her sights on Lucius, Jess finds herself fighting to win back her wayward prince, stop a global vampire war — and save Lucius’s soul from eternal destruction.

MY THOUGHTS
Quick and fun reads, Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side and Jessica Rules the Dark Side don’t necessarily bring anything new or innovative to the world of vampires, but they do give us characters who are vibrant and funny and who easily draw us into their world even if it is one we’ve experienced before. The first installment starts out a bit lighter in tone, Jessica vehemently rejecting Lucius’s presence in her home and his claims to her as his future bride, but as things progress the lighter humor gives way to more serious emotion, and we suddenly find our hearts in a vampiric vise-like grip we didn’t entirely see coming. Humor does persist throughout both books however, giving us a highly enjoyable combination of levity and heaviness as we watch Jess’s life change in ways she never thought possible.

While both books are entertaining, book one is definitely the stronger of the two, Jess and Lucius’s troubled courtship immensely more satisfying than we thought it might be based on the opening chapters. The beginning pages paint a rather familiar picture for us, a young woman suddenly becoming the object of complete and utter focus by the hot new student at school, but once Lucius moves into the apartment above her parent’s garage and more fully immerses himself in her life, the familiarity begins to wear off, replaced by genuine interest and increased emotional attachment. We watch with hearts a bit in our throats as Jess learns what it’s like to desperately want something she can’t have, feeling for her as she realizes she had the opportunity to reach out and grab him but she didn’t move quite fast enough and now he's danced seemingly out of her reach.

Book two introduces a new character in Lucius’s close friend Raniero, and gives us not only first person narration from Jess but also her best friend Mindy as well. The introduction of this new dual perspective in addition to the continuing presence of correspondence from Lucius and Raniero gives this second installment a different feel, detaching us slightly from Jess as we are now forced to split our attention between not only her and Lucius but Mindy and Raniero as well. Mindy also has a younger voice than Jess, her predilection for using the word “like” and her driving need for Raniero to be someone he doesn’t want to be to please her contrasting with the slightly more mature interactions prominent in the first book. Jess herself isn’t quite the same girl we met in the first book either, moping a bit around the castle and repeatedly telling herself she’s not cut out to be queen instead of focusing that energy on learning the rules and regulations governing her new life. It’s not until over halfway before Jess finally shakes loose of her uncharacteristic melancholy and begins to take charge of her own future instead of allowing it to be dictated for her.

Overall, this is an entertaining series, the first book highly recommended for those who enjoy paranormal young adult fiction that has a well-executed combination of humor and romance. The second book is slightly disappointing given our strong attachment to the first, but it’s still a quick read even though it lacks some of the elements that made its predecessor so strong.

Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side: 4/5
Jessica Rules the Dark Side: 3/5