Review: Hourglass, Myra McEntire

Title: Hourglass
Author: Myra McEntire
Publisher: Egmont USA
Publishing Date: June 14, 2011
Length: 390 pages
Summary: (From website) One hour to rewrite the past . . . 

 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? 

My Thoughts: First off, the cover is gorgeous. I was drawn to it immediately. I first saw this book when it came out, but didn't read it because it was filed under the paranormal genre. I stumbled across the book again on a book blog website and found out that it is a time slip book. Now, I confess, I have a soft spot for time travel books and love reading them. I figured that they were calling the time travel 'paranormal'  so I went and bought it yesterday and read it in an afternoon. 

Emerson, the female protagonist, is character with a very deep past and very independent. I admired her as a character and found her interesting.  She has a weird condition where she sees images. People think she's hallucinating, and it feels slightly paranormal as the images are people and mistaken for ghosts. I didn't like that part at all. But it turns out to be a pretty cool key to the whole time travel thing. 

Michael, the heart throb of the book, has a lot of history that I'm fascinated by and would love to learn more about. The plot line for the book was amazing, and the author (who looks just like Carrie Underwood) executed it beautifully. But there is always downside. I wish there was never a downside.

I try not to read a lot of YA; especially recently written, popular YA because of the content and I did research this book on a content review site to make sure it was clean before purchasing. I could handle the few swear words, nothing more than what you hear on TV, but the one main reason I hate YA fiction is because of the gag worthy, over the top, borderline uncomfortable, unrealistic romance. I mean, seriously.

Of course the first boy she meets is the one she falls in love with. Of course he totally loves her and has abs like Taylor Lautner. Because, heaven forbid he's built like a gawky, normal teenage guy. I have nothing wrong with romance, in fact, I am a sucker for well written love stories. But when two characters are defined as a couple not even half way though the book and kissing before the climax, I feel a lot of character development is lost.  Are all YA's this way?  And the emotion written into the scenes is way too intense. There are somethings I will never be old enough or want to read.  Granted, it wasn't too much detail, but it was like ignoring the elephant in the room. 

Michale's friend is an openly dirty person and has several remarks and scenes with Emerson that I found to be unnecessary and taking away from the beauty of the plot line. The sneak peek for the sequel in the back  of the book opens with a scene and this character and starts off dirty. Such writing has really made me lose all interest in ever reading the sequel to the book; which is a shame, considering how interesting the plotline.

Things To Be Cautious Of:  And this is the part where I wonder if the content review sight for literature is just blind or incredibly tolerant. Swearing. (several 'dang,' a few 'heck' one B_ and an unfinished Sh-)   Romance content: Feelings of physical tension between the two main characters, two kissing scenes, but without much detail. One of the characters has a shady life and hints suggestively at things to the female character.