Monday, June 6, 2011

Reading Rainbow: Hourglass by Myra McEntire



Chances are you've already heard about Hourglass by Myra McEntire. If you haven't, however, then I'm THRILLED to get to be the one to introduce you to it. (In fact, I'm SO THRILLED that I'm using a lot caps. I'm just gonna apologize right now, because I know there are more caps to come.) I was lucky enough to read it a few months ago and could barely contain my desire to shout at all of you to GO PREORDER IT!! RIGHT AWAY!! BECAUSE OMGWTFBBQ IT'S AWESOME!

Since we don't like to make y'all wait too long, I managed to rein in my excitement. I didn't want to be a tease. BUT, people! Hourglass releases June 14th! SO I CAN FINALLY TALK ABOUT MY LOVE FOR THIS BOOK.

There are plenty of reasons to love the main character, Emerson Cole. She's smart, funny, and strong. But we expect that in our MC's these days, right? What's new? Well, for starters, she's also tragic and fragile and not in the least bit weak. She's realistically complex. No one is strong all the time, and no one goes through major losses without bearing some scars. Losing your parents at a young age and seeing visions of dead people can do that to a girl.

The dead people is where Hourglass goes from standard YA Paranormal Romance to Awesome New Idea of Shiny Wonder: Emerson isn't seeing ghosts. She's seeing actual slips in time, viewing people and places that have somehow managed to bleed through from the past and into the present. My first thought was "Sci-Fi Time Travel Romance, minus Christopher Reeve? OH HECK YEAH!" (Pardon my Somewhere in Time reference. I feel old now.)

But what of the romance? I have a very well-known bias, and let's just say that there are two specimens of hotness in this book that keep the romance alive as well. First up, there's Michael. I like to imagine that Michael looks like this:


TeamMichaelFTW


Then, there's Kaleb. I like to imagine Kaleb looks like this:

I guess I understand why SOME people are TeamKaleb

Of course, when I imagine these things, I picture Emerson to look like this:

What? WHAT?

ANYWAY, moving on, please just trust me that Hourglass is an amazing read. It's unique, well-crafted, and filled with action and romance. It sucks you in and gets you really invested in Emerson's story. And Emerson has quite the story.

Now, as I mentioned above, I was lucky enough to read this book months ago. I loved it so much that I preordered it anyway! See?

I hear the cover is SHINY. OOOOOH, SHINY EMERSON IS SHINY.


I don't want to keep it to myself, however, so we're having a giveaway! Leave a comment telling me how you feel about time travel (Cool idea? Awful idea? We make our own destinies so it doesn't matter? Only advisable with a Time Lord?) and we'll enter you to win this pre-order! So, hurry up, because you have until June 12th to enter. We'll pick a winner on June 13th. Good luck!!


You can find Myra McEntire here: http://myramcentire.blogspot.com/ (She has some AWESOME giveaways going on, too!)



Photobucket

15 comments:

  1. What an absolutely fun review! Can't wait to pick up the book. Now, for your time travel question...

    What do I like about it? Hmmm... I think I'd LIKE to go back and tell John Hancock not to sign his name with a flippin' magic marker. He needs to know that the name his mama gave him will be his most remembered accomplishment. Bummer, right? ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think the idea of time travel is very tempting, but also scary. There are many things I'd like to go back and fix, but there's probably no way to predict all of the consequences.

    Thanks for the giveaway! I can't wait to read this.
    daniellesaunders1984(at)hotmail(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love the idea of time travel, even as it terrifies me. I get hung up on the fact that suddenly no choice is permanent. No matter what I do, someone can go back and ruin it for me. Sure I can go back and change my regrets, but what about the tough choices, will I still be able to stick by them when I know it takes so little effort to go back and choose differently?

    Obviously, I'm one of those people who would use it for my own selfish reasons constantly. And I doubt my own inner goodness, because I just KNOW I would abuse the power.

    I suddenly really want to read some time travel.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh time travel...I think I'd rather not to be honest. I can't think of a lot of things that have happened in history that haven't been completely disastrous or tragic (wars, famine, etc.)...and I'd personally rather live in the present. From anything that I have ever read/watched...going back in time or going into the future & tampering with anything NEVER leads to anything good. :) Just one of those morals you tend to learn. So, I'd say "no thanks" on time travel. Everything happens for a reason!

    Thanks for the giveaway! I love that ya'll got us involved with this question!

    ReplyDelete
  5. First of all, Somewhere in Time is a CLASSIC! Love that cornball movie and I think of it all the time!

    I'm always fascinated by time travel in books-it started with Lightning by Dean R. Koontz (before he got all snooty and dropped the "R"). He wrote this crazy concept that time travel was created in WWII and it was created through our brains, essentially-that if someone could completely imagine a cat eating itself from tail to its own head-then they could figure out time travel. The science and philosophy of it fascinated me. BUT, that book made me scared of time travel because of how strongly it points out how paradox fits in. One action could negate everything--which, could ultimately negate the fact that you time travelled in the first place. It's a great brain teasing activity-to figure out if something would cause the reason for time travel to be negated which would then cancel out that the time travel ever happened, so the original problem is back-AHHH! I love it for entertainment purposes, but the idea about paradox in the real world scares me too much. I'd rather just move forward.

    Ooh-and this little tidbit from a scientist I saw on The Colbert Report in response to Stephen Colbert's comment, "I know time travel doesn't exist because I've never met someone from the future" he says, "Well, we're much closer to inventing invisibility cloaks (a la Harry Potter) than time travel-so it's quite likely there are time travellers all around us in hiding." That creeped me out some.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've always thought that time travel sounded like such a cool idea, being able to go back in to change a specific event or witness something from years past.

    But there's always the chance of changing things drastically. You never really know what you could be in for.

    Thanks for the contest!

    My email is megan.qualls@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. I would love to travel back in time! I'd leave myself a note to invest all my allowance in a little company called "Apple."

    And I can't wait to read Myra's book!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oooh, I love a giveaway! I've been hearing about this book a lot lately, and it sounds like something I'm really going to love.

    As for the time travel question, I love reading about it and the different ways it can change things. However, I don't think I would like it to be real - too tempting and scary at the same time!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Time traveling would be the coolest thing ever!! I could back to the days where I embrassed my self which is practically everyday.
    Thanks for the giveaway!
    Pokadots1121@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for the giveaway! Hourglass looks awesome! :)

    I wish I could time travel, though I'd have problems with choosing where to go, because I'd want to go everywhere, especially Victorian London! (I think it would be super cool if Time Lords existed, as I'm a huge Doctor Who fan then it would awesome to travel around in a TARDIS for months on end :D) Although, I think if time travel ever happened it should be moderated, and you could only travel in time if it was essential, because otherwise you could mess with time and space and change the future/present/past and you wouldn't even notice :L

    Bella
    cheezyfeetbooks@rocketmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for the giveaway! I can't wait for Hourglass!

    I love the idea of time travel! It's so great, though I don't really like the idea of travelling into the future. I don't really want to know about how the world, or I, for that matter, is going to end up. BUT, travelling through time and space with a Time Lord, that changes things ;) Who DOESN'T want to travel with the Doctor?!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I think it would be so cool to time travel. Being able to see the past and how people lived would be an awesome experience!

    spicedice45@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  13. You *know* how I feel about Time Lords. I will go with the Doctor to the ends of the universe and the end of time. He just needs to show up in my backyard with the blue box.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Sounds like a fun read. I'm not so sure about time travel. I think it would be cool, but how would you know changing something might work out worse in the end than what your life is now? Maybe if you could go just to observe events to see a different perspective or get a better understanding. Not just of your own life but other major events in time.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Only you guys can make me literally LAUGH OUT LOUD (okay, maybe it was more of a laugh-choke) at 7 a.m. with all three of my kids wide awake and only one cup of coffee consumed. Loved the pics. Now, stop using my Manny as your fictional daydream. LOL. (((HUGS)))

    ReplyDelete

Tell us what you think!