Review: Hourglass

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: EgmontUSA (June 14, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1606841440

Summary: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 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 have happened? 

Review: This was a book that I heard of around the same time I had heard of Imaginary Girls, so I kind of lumped them together. Which is no problem because I really enjoyed them both. I really liked this book, I like reading about people who can see the dead and how it affects their lives, their families and their friends. Throw in a romance and an almost sort of kinda love triangle and I'm in! I immediately felt a likeness to the main character in this book: Emerson. I felt for her considering the rough past few years she's had, losing her parents in a violent bus crash, and gaining the ability to see people from the past "rips" as they are called in the book. If I had one thing that was ehh about the book, it would be who turned out to be the "bad guy" it's always the same in every book, the one person you thought was on your side actually wasn't and they were behind every bad thing happening, and the person you hated turns out to be the good one. It's happened in sooo many books that I saw it right away in this one, I was just waiting for the *gasp* revealing moment. That's all I'll say about the to keep from any kind of spoiler. Anyway aside from that predictability, I really did enjoy this book. Even though they weren't in it much I took a liking to Emerson's brother and sister in law, Thomas and Dru. The characters really did that to me in this book, even the most trivial of characters held a spot for me. I liked them all, especially the guys of course! Handsome and endearing. *sigh* the world of YA love interests. I honestly don't know who I like more, Michael or Kaleb...guess I'll find out in book 2! I really loved the cover to this book as well. Definitely a must read...

 4/5 stars!