The Blurb:
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 also 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’ve happened?

My review:
I’ve been very into time travel books lately. And I think it’s because time travel books tend to be good reads. Ruby Red, Timebound, and now Hourglass, all very enjoyable reads with well developed characters, interesting world building, and good plot lines, even if they all suffered from a bit of instalove.
I actually don’t even mind instalove, I dislike instalove obstacles because they tend to be superfluous. The characters are going to end up together, it’s a given. And unless the romance IS the story, all the obstacles tend to do is lengthen the books, distract from the plot, and add clunky scenes. If an author is going to write instalove, embrace it, get the characters together from the get go. It’s not like love becomes drama free the moment two characters hook up.

That being said, I enjoyed the characters a lot. Emerson was interesting, Michael was kind of bland, but Kaleb and Lily were fun. My absolute favorite characters were Thomas and Dru. It’s so rare for plots about kids with special abilities to include supportive family members that this book was very refreshing. However with the exception of Thomas and Dru, who were both actually pretty young, not of the adults seemed very adult. Everyone seemed to be right around the same intellect and conversation level, which given that the other adults weren’t just older, but held PhD’s in very difficult subjects seemed odd. Still, I prefer mature, intelligent characters to whiny immature teens. I didn’t get the bad guy or his motivation much. But there’s more books in the series, so I’m sure it’ll clarify. Very promising start.

The time travel element started very strong but got a bit convoluted at the end. But that convolutedness seems to be the impetus for the rest of the series. Time is getting screwed up and needs to be fixed so all the rules kind of get thrown out the window. I loved the addition of seeing “ghosts” of time in rips. This was just such a neat concept. Can’t wait to read the rest.