So you want to know my absolute favorite thing about this blog? Not only has blogging helped me discover oodles of fantastic books, but it’s helped me become aware of the large and thriving book community right around where I live. A community that includes published authors, soon-to-be-published writers, agented writers, non-agented writers, bloggers, and everything in between. A little over a year ago, I had never heard of Myra McEntire. Since then, I’ve discovered her fabulous books, but more importantly, I’ve gotten to know her, and she’s become a wonderful friend.
Next week, the last book in Myra’s Hourglass trilogy, Infinityglass, will hit shelves, and I’m so, so excited for you to read it.
This review is going to be a little different from my usual, because I actually had the privilege of beta reading Infinityglass. So I can’t review it with complete objectivity, since I was so involved in the writing process. (Really, I just want to write READ IT READ IT NOW IT’S SO GOOD YOU’LL LOVE IT READ IT NOWWWWWW!) But I’m going to try my best.
The Plot (from Goodreads):
The stakes have risen even higher in this third book in the Hourglass series.
The Hourglass is a secret organization focused on the study of manipulating time, and its members — many of them teenagers -have uncanny abilities to make time work for them in mysterious ways. Inherent in these powers is a responsibility to take great care, because altering one small moment can have devastating consequences for the past, present, and future. But some time travelers are not exactly honorable, and sometimes unsavory deals must be struck to maintain order.
With the Infinityglass (central to understanding and harnessing the time gene) at large, the hunt is on to find it before someone else does.
But the Hourglass has an advantage. Lily, who has the ability to locate anything lost, has determined that the Infinityglass isn’t an object. It’s a person. And the Hourglass must find him or her first. But where do you start searching for the very key to time when every second could be the last?
My Thoughts:
From the first few moments of Infinityglass, it’s clear that this is going to be a different sort of story from the first two books in the series. For one thing, as with Timepiece, we have a new narrator — but this time, there’s two of them, and one of them is someone we’ve never met. And for another thing, it moves out of Ivy Springs, Tennessee, to the bustling streets of New Orleans, Louisiana.
The first voice we’re treated to in Infinityglass is the titular character herself, Hallie. Hallie’s different from the other female characters in the series; she’s bold, reckless, assertive, and a bit on the dangerous side. She also, like the other members of the Hourglass, has the time gene, giving her unique and uncanny abilities. However, Hallie’s grown up in a very different environment from the Hourglass folks we know and love, and her attitude about time genes, time rips, and her role in it all does not necessarily jive with what all the characters have believed and discovered in the first two books.
Enter the second narrator, Dune. Unlike Hallie, Dune is a character first introduced in Hourglass, but he’s always remained a secondary character, his powers explained, but not explored. In Infinityglass, Dune finally gets his chance to shine. He goes to New Orleans as an expert on the Infinityglass, tasked with figuring out the best way to handle “it” now that they know “it” is a “her.” Now, I liked Michael, and I loved Kaleb — and I know many of you did too — but Dune is not either of them. He’s his own person, strong and quiet, intelligent, analytical, and haunted by a few demons of his own.
One of my favorite things about this series is the diverse cast of characters (both in personality and heritage), and all the different ways a person can be strong and complex. And of course, in true Hourglass series style, there are swoons and kisses galore throughout the book, both from our favorite established couples, and from a sizzling new pairing.
Together, Dune and Hallie try to puzzle out what it means for Hallie to be the Infinityglass, both for her personally, and for the world as a whole, which is still being flooded with ever-intensifying time rips. Meanwhile, the nefarious Jack Landers is still at large, along with Teague, the head of the anti-Hourglass organization Chronos, who wishes to use the Infinityglass for her own, undoubtedly villainous, purposes. The more Dune and Hallie learn about the Infinityglass and Chronos, and Hallie discovers about her frightening abilities, the more it becomes clear that they’re going to need help from the rest of the Hourglass team.
The book builds to an action-packed conclusion, allowing the key players from the first two books to return while keeping the spotlight firmly on this book’s two protagonists, Dune and Hallie. Questions posed throughout the series are answered, action is abundant, and it ends on a satisfying note full of promise for the future. Just like the first two books, it’s chock full of action, kissing, superpowers, witty banter, and pop culture references (including several Doctor Who nods — of course). I loved it, and I hope you do too.
Or I could do as my husband suggests and try to worm my way into her personal life since we live in the same city (His logic: “Don’t famous people have normal friends sometimes?”) but as I don’t actually want to be a crazy psycho-stalker, I’ll just continue to read her books and attend her events and bug her on Twitter.
Ivy Springs is based on Franklin, TN (which is where I live! Woohoo!)
