Timepiece: An Hourglass Novel

Actual rating 3.5 starsAt first I felt duped – this wasn’t the continued story from Emmeron’s POV. I’d fallen in love with her in ‘Hourglass,’ and was really looking forward to more. Instead what I got was the story being picked up right where the last book ended, but with Kaleb’s narrative.It is an easy read though. I was able to fly through this, and thank goodness, because it took the first half of the novel to get over my disappointment and get into Kaleb’s head. We still get the goodness of Em and Michael, but from a different perspective.I have grown to like Kaleb, and was rooting for him by the end of the novel. A tattooed and pierced bad boy with a marshmallow heart.Lily was a breath of fresh air as far as a love interest and heroines go. She wasn’t the reactionary teen we see a lot of in YA. She was level headed and sarcastic in a dark way, not in the exaggerated obvious pun sort of way. She really stole my heart and I was cheering for her and Kaleb from early on.It’s not oversaturated on the love and heavy petting either. McEntire really builds her relationships and characters in a realistic and organic way; which is impressive given the landscape being warped from rips and alternate versions of time and space which kept changing. Em and Michael, Lily and Kaleb were fixed points amongst the chaos.I’ve deducted a few marks for the slow pacing at the beginning, and the lack of story. There could have been more action or conflict packed into ‘Timepiece’ – it was easy and pleasant to read, but did not live up to the likes of ‘Hourglass.’Although the writing isn’t fancy, it does allow you to speed through the book; but the way McEntire weaves a story is masterful. So many threads to keep track of… brilliant imagination come to life on the written page. Really makes me want to grab everything she’s ever written to add it to my library.A thoroughly entertaining read, not as dark as ‘Hourglass,’ more of the timey-wimey things and a couple of plot twists I did not see coming, but leading us towards what should be a very interesting conclusion in ‘Infinityglass.’ (Which I must read asap!)

This was a great sequel to Hourglass, but I have to say, I was totally thrown off by the fact that it was told in Kaleb's POV. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but I felt like I was missing things when looking through his eyes. For example, we spent all of Hourglass waiting for Em and Michael to get together, but we don't even really get to see it now, all we see are Kaleb's thoughts about them tinged with jealousy. I felt like that was how it was through most of the book. We couldn't get a clear image of what was really going on because everything was seen through Kaleb's depressed viewpoint. This lessened toward the end of the book, but I still felt like he didn't necessarily see things clearly.On the other hand, I liked getting a better understanding of his power and of what it feels like being in a constant sea of emotion. My understanding of Kaleb has gone way up after this book.This book progressed quickly. I never felt like there was a lag in the action or like I was forcing myself to keep reading in the hopes of getting back to the excitement. This book was well-paced on the action was well dispersed throughout the entire story instead of everything just blowing up at the end of the book - which seems to be how way too many are written.I will admit that the time-thing is still kind of confusing. Trying to wrap my mind around all of the different time-lines and the space-time continuum problems would give me a serious headache if I spent too long trying to figure everything out. I think that while reading this series, it is important to take the time events and their timeline at face-value for what it says and not try to read to far into it or you won't be able to follow the story.Overall, I liked this book and am eagerly awaiting Infinityglass. As an aside, I am interested to see whose POV that book will be told from and would love to see it told from multiple.4.5 stars

I loved the first book in this series, Hourglass, so much and I was really glad that I had ordered both books at the same time. I was dying to know what was going to happen next and it only took me a few days to pick up this one after finishing Hourglass.Something I said in my review of Hourglass was that I wanted to see more of Kaleb and Lily. Well, that's exactly what I got in this book. Not having read the synopsis for this one, I didn't realise that the story was actually going to be told from Kaleb's point of view. I thought that this was going to be a straight sequel and it is kind of but not from Emerson's point of view. As much as I loved Emerson, switching up narrators was something different and it made the book even more interesting.Kaleb was such an interesting character in Hourglass and I desperately wanted to know more about him. Kaleb is such a messed up character with so much going on around him and in this book, we get to learn all about how he copes, what he feels and much more. I really enjoyed getting to learn about Kaleb's background and to realise that he isn't just a womanising guy like he is portrayed in Hourglass. There is so much more to Kaleb than first meets the eye which is partly what made him such a good character.Then there is Lily, Emerson's best friend. She popped up now and again in Hourglass and I really liked her then. Much like Kaleb, as Lily is the main female character of this book, we get to learn a lot more about her. Lily is a really strong female character who knows exactly who she is and what she wants and this is partly what made me like her so much. She was fiery and feisty and wasn't afraid to speak up when she had an opinion. She was also a great opposing character as she was so different to Kaleb.Quite like Emerson and Michael's relationship in Hourglass, Kaleb and Lily take things slowly before anything happens. The tension between the two characters was electric and I couldn't wait for things to finally happen between them. Not only was the chemistry good but they did extremely well as friends. Due to certain abilities, the pair were able to trust each other after some time and really get to know one another without anything else getting in the way.Timepiece's plot begins exactly where Hourglass finishes, with Jack on the run and everything going a bit crazy. Although this is a separate book in the way that it is told, it is a traditional sequel plot wise. The story was very exciting with many characters travelling all over the place to find the answers that they need. The world of the Hourglass and the abilities written about are explored and explained in great detail. Some past abilities are revisited while the abilities of other characters definitely are put into the forefront of the story. While not totally concentrating on time travel, this is still a large theme of the book and one that I enjoyed thoroughly.Timepiece is a fantastic sequel and I love the world and characters that Myra McEntire has created.

Since her parents's death Emerson has been seeing things others can't. Apparitions from old days are crossing her way and she can't make them go away. Her brother Thomas is set on finding a cure, but nothing has helped so far. Until he calls the Hourglass organisation on the plan, and with it super smart and hot agent Michael. Thank you, Thomas! His task is to help Emerson find a way to get rid of her ghosts from the past. And of course all scruples aside he's there to provide us with a swoon-worthy romance. What a lucky providence that he's staying in the same housing complex as Emerson and her brother. Offers room for a lot of flustering encounters and much time for their feelings of attraction to grow into something stronger and more sustainable.Only the love story would have been enough to name HOURGLASS an awesome read. A conspiracy, mysterious organisations, insane antagonists, explosions, very short windows of time to act and turn the ending into a happy one and time travelling - loved the time travelling components in HOURGLASS just as much as in recent favourites such as TEMPEST by Julie Cross- complete HOURGLASS to a well-balanced and absolutely gripping read.In TIMEPIECE the hunt for antagonist Landers continues. Now from the perspective of Michael's best friend Kaleb. It took some getting used to Kaleb's narration. He's a character with so much sorrow and anger sitting on his heart that the emotional level of this sequel was stepped up a few notches.The story's main focus was on Kaleb and Lily's love story (yes, he gets a shot with Emerson's best friend) than the part where they actually work on saving the world. Completely fine with me. Lily and him are like fire and ice, so absoring in their elements. Theirs is a stormy and fierce love, with space for gentleness and understanding. Reaching PERFECT CHEMISTRY intensity of romance goodness, their attraction is smoldering.4,5/5 ****/* HOURGLASS series - An action-packed time travel extraverganza with flair and three infectious love stories.One minute you are totally relaxed and laid-back, that jazzy feeling of old days bewitching you, the next you are on the run from your past and your future. Trust me, you want to have all three books in your reach when you turn the first page of HOURGLASS.