Hourglass
I came across this book and the cover drew me in. Pretty interesting cover right? Well I proceeded to check it out of the library via my kindle so the cover no longer held a role (perhaps it would have made it more enjoyable). Overall, Hourglass had a lot of potential but was wasted with ho-hum writing and lusty antics.The character development in Hourglass was poor. The surroundings, at least in the beginning, were continually well described (to the point of being annoying at times), but not necessarily the people. Characters remained flat throughout, even the love interest/mentor Michael. Michael only seems to have beauty and brawn on his side. He also makes a lot of torn expressions and says that they cannot be together a lot, which is apparently the mating call for Emerson (main character).
Emerson herself is shallow, lusty, not terribly bright and very annoying. She never asks the right questions or seems overly interested in what is going on beyond what some hot boy is doing. She has moments of awareness but they are often ruined by staring at Michael's lips etc.. She generally is given information, sits quietly while assessing some physical attribute and then asks later why she was not given some sort of information (although she does not ask for it initially) and then proceeds to pout. She also takes much too much in stride but then concerns herself over little things, perhaps she is too distracted by boys' lips?
I question the role of Emerson's friend Lily. Why was she included? Some connection to Emerson's past? Then why does Lily come to have an ability and it is never used or featured in any way? Why the uselessness of it?
Oh, and everyone is attractive and has great teeth. *eye roll*
The time travel aspect is not well explained or logical and left me scratching my head. I eventually chose not to bother analyzing it further because I knew that would just frustrate me. This book was clearly not based on any science but some logic would have been nice. Sure, we can say the author has free reign to create a world possible of anything she wants--but why can't there be logic?
Love triangle. Oh how these have become old. Why does everyone choose to write love triangles? How many people out there are currently involved in a love triangle?!?! Am I missing out? Nah, seems too angsty for my taste. Speaking of angst, there were many Twilight-esque aspects to Hourglass. Nothing terribly blatant but you do wonder if it was a conscious decision.
Overall the book was very frustrating and left you wishing there had been less filler and more girth to the novel. Had the characters been more fleshed out it would have counterbalanced the lack of logic in terms of the time travel and such, but unfortunately the overall novel fell flat. Not a terribly written book but it certainly could have been substantially better, if only the potential was met.