Review Detail

So I splurged and hit Books-a-Million the other day. Please do not rat on me to DH that I bought more books without prior authorization. I had to, it is morally imperative to my sanity to keep a healthy supply of reading material.

Anyway, among the books bought was a copy of Hourglass from Myra McEntire. I had been following her on Twitter and heard a lot of rather boastful reviews of the book. I have to admit I was intrigued. It certainly did not hurt that she was a fellow Tennessean.

From the very beginning I was drawn in. Hourglass starts off with a slap in the face of weirdness and keeps slapping. You don't really know what is going on other than Emerson sees dead people, but let's keep the Sixth Sense goofball references to a minimum.

Myra is a fantastic debut author. I have heard the rigamarole about the greatness of this novel and I was not disappointed. As I said the book had me from the beginning. By the time I reached mid-story I had fallen, quite willingly, for Michael and totally wanted Emerson as my BFF. Hourglass was absolutely hilarious with Emerson's wit and general semi-cynical outlook on life, which I am a huge fan of.

I am not familiar with time-slip/time-travel novels, but I didn't feel that anyone had to be in order to follow the plot. Miss Myra unravels this idea slowly through Emerson's discovery of what she can do and I never felt there was a data drop of crazy time travel philosophies that one would need a PhD to understand. Hourglass was perfectly balanced for amateur time related novel readers.

The main characters, Michael and Emerson, were fantastically written. Michael plays the part of the 'I want to do what is right' sort of drive and Emerson is clever, although a bit closed off after a less than favorable childhood, and just all around cool chick. I have to admit I was mentally fist bumping Emerson after she threw Michael over her shoulder pseudo-mini-ninja style. WOOT! But I digress...

Hourglass was a fast-paced read (finished in three days of obsessive cannot-put-it-down while making dinner bouts) and I was thoroughly entertained. The chemistry between Michael and Emerson was very pant worthy and I often giggled in true girly-girl fashion. The humor kept things sort of edgy when it could very well become oppressive with Emerson's tragic past. The concept may not be completely original, but I like the subtle twists Miss Myra plugs in. She just make me a Dr. Who fan after all...

The only thing remotely negative I can say about Hourglass is I felt sort of teased by Lily, Emerson's long-standing and patient best friend. We are given a super quick peek at some other twisting happening with Lily, but Miss Myra never indulges on this in Hourglass. It just makes me wonder what Miss Myra has in store for the next installment.

So do yourself a favor and pick up this read from Myra McEntire. She has a great voice and clever wit that translates well into her characters. Hourglass was fun, flirty, and a truly great read.

Did it rock my world? Yes, I give Hourglass an 8.5 on my Richter scale.