Timepiece

Timepiece by Myra McEntire
3/5 stars
Egmont, 2012
325 pages
YA Paranormal Time Travel
Hourglass #2

Source: Received an e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Last year I read McEntire's debut Hourglass and was fascinated by the time travel aspect in particular as well as liking heroine Emerson who was going through some difficulties. I thought the secondary characters were lackluster and the romance unpalatable but I had a lot of questions left over so I picked up this sequel.

Unfortunately instead of continuing in Emerson's voice, this time our narrator is Kaleb, someone I didn't particularly like the first time as I found him too overbearing and grossly possessive while also being a giant man-whore. Plus he's tattooed and is an alcoholic. So not my dream guy at all. He lusted after Emerson from the get-go but she was already heads over heels for Michael, his best friend. While he still thinks about Em, he still has time for other girls and becomes involved in his own romance this go-around.

That romance is with Em's best friend Lily, who I liked in the first book although she didn't make enough appearances for me and I liked her again here. What I didn't like was the lack of chemistry I felt between the two. Neither this romance nor Em and Michael's really works for me, probably due to the insta-love or at least lust felt by three of the four people (Lily seems to be a bit of a holdout).

Another problem was my inability to remember some of what had happened in Hourglass. If possible, I would highly recommend reading these back to back. While most events came back to me, there is probably still stuff I missed. Therefore I spent some time in the beginning not only adjusting to the shift in narrator (it was very disorienting to read Kaleb's perspective on what Em was doing instead of her own) but also trying to feel my way back into the world.

Then there are the paranormal elements, something I really loved in the first book. Besides everything that occurred then, there is a lot of new information thrown at the reader. I appreciated every little tidbit we got but I still myself a little convinced, largely due to the time jumping nature of one of the villains. Turns out this character can remove memories from people, leaving them empty and confused while also not telling the audience

Overall: Characters I couldn't connect with, aggravating romance, and confusing timeline; just not the book for me. However I can see that a lot of other readers love Kaleb so don't let my distaste put you off.

Cover: Trying to figure out if this is supposed to be Em or someone else? I did prefer the black dress of the first book but I think the shadow is really cool here.

Hourglass

Hourglass by Myra McEntire
Egmont, 2011
397 pages
YA; Time-Travel; Paranormal; Romance
4/5 stars

Source: Received an ARC through Amazon's Vine Program.

I was intrigued to receive this book as I hadn't heard much about it beforehand.  The mention of "time-slips" caught my attention because I love time travel and it's my not-so-secret dream to someday travel back in time (that's why I'm a history major and I read a good deal of historical fiction). And I loved those aspects, even if the time-travel was significantly different than I had anticipated.

See, Emerson has long been seeing people who no one else can see.  This combined with the death of her parents resulted in her institutionalization for a period of time.  However she feels that she maybe has a grip on the visions.  Until she meets Michael who has the same ability except he sees people from the future while Em sees them from the past.  Together they have extraordinary power that enables them to move through time (to my disappointment they only go back in time about six months rather than to the late nineteenth-century).

And in fact, I really enjoyed all of these paranormal aspects.  Michael was hired by her brother from an organization called Hourglass, which has been involved in exploring and researching such abilities that deal with manipulating time.  Everything about this was fascinating from the other characters introduced including the villainous Jonathan Landers and his associates to the only barely glimpsed powers of the other people.  I'll admit that sometimes the explanations confused me but re-reading them cut through the fog.  I still have questions but I'm content to wait for the next book.

However while the paranormal aspect was great, I was less thrilled with the personal aspects.  Emerson has basically one friend who has stuck by her even through her psychotic periods.  Lily and Emerson are supposed to be close but Lily barely appears as Emerson quickly becomes absorbed in Michael and Hourglass.  I would have liked this friendship developed more especially as Lily seems to have her own paranormal ability.

The other aspect is the romance, of course.  Emerson and Michael seem to fall for each other right away, which is too bad as they are not supposed to get involved: her brother doesn't want his employee with his sister and Michael knows they shouldn't fall for each other.  Additionally Michael knows a lot more than he tells Emerson and she repeatedly has to call him out on that.  He keeps thinking she can't handle it and she keeps demanding the opportunity to know more.  There is also a bit of a love triangle with Kaleb, another Hourglass member.  I didn't really like either guy as I found them both too overbearing and alpha toward Emerson.

Overall: Fascinating creation of paranormal aspects and pretty good heroine.

Cover: Quite accurate; Emerson actually wears the exact dress in an early scene in the book.

Read for YA Debut Author Challenge.