Hourglass by Myra McEntire

For the past 4 years, Emerson has been able to see apparitions - people who are obviously from the past with the hoop skirts and old fashioned hair do's, when no one else has seen them.

She's also had a rough time with it because right after she started to see things that weren't there, both her parents died in a vehicle accident. The grief was too much for her, on top of the abnormality that was introduced to her, and had to be medicated to cope.

Now, at 17, Emerson has been weening herself off of her meds without telling her brother. The "ghosts" are starting to come back, but Emerson tired of feeling like a zombie.

After telling her brother, Thomas, that she is seeing them again, he found a "counselor" for Emerson to talk to.

And that counselor happened to be Michael, a college student who understood more about Emerson than she did herself.

It just so happens that Michael has a very similar ability. He sees apparitions as well. And, he can travel to the future.

Emerson found out that she's his other half. While he can travel to the future, Emerson can travel to the past. Together, they make a complete time traveling package where they can go anywhere through time.

And Michael needs Emerson's help to change one little event that happened 6 months ago - to save someone who died in order to protect other people who have abilities.

But changing history is never a thing to mess with, because who knows what can happen and what will be changed in the future...

My Thoughts/Reflections
Time-travel seems to be the next big thing in Young Adult literature. I thought this was refreshing with new information and contexts about time travel, but there was something that kept me from loving this novel like most other time travel novels.

I admire Emerson. She lost so much and gained a scary and crazy ability to see apparitions from another time.

But at the same time, I can't help but compare her to Bella from Twilight in the sense that she's all about Michael. Since they are two halves of a power, they have this strong connection with each other. Every time they touch, heat and sparks literally channel through each other.

So when she felt that she lost him, she started to channel Bella when she lost Edward in the second novel/movie... And I didn't enjoy that Emerson.

She's so strong willed and independent, but did a whole 360 degrees and became so dependent on Michael is was a little sickening.

And I didn't even mention Kaleb!! Kaleb is another "superpower" guy who seemed to fall hard for Emerson, even though Michael had the "she's mine" vibe from the beginning. (Yes, like Jacob in Twilight.) But I somehow liked Kaleb and Emerson more than Michael and Emerson.

This novel was alright. It definitely wasn't my favorite. I didn't even get into the Hourglass aspect - the organization where anyone who can manipulate time get together to learn more about their ability. Or Jack/Jonathan Landers - the evil villain in this story who used Emerson for his own purposes. There was just a lot going on in this novel - and not too much of it appealed to me, overall.

But apparently the next novel (which is already out) is through Kaleb's point of view... So I may have to take one more chance on this series since I liked Kaleb the most out of the characters.

For anyone who liked Twilight - this is a novel for you. For anyone who likes time travel, I would also recommend this novel to you. But if you don't like one or the other, I would suggest staying away from this book as those are the only two things I can think about after reading it.