Timepiece

Summary:
A threat from the past could destroy the future. And the clock is ticking...

Kaleb Ballard's relentless flirting is interrupted when Jack Landers, the man who tried to murder his father, timeslips in and attacks before disappearing just as quickly. But Kaleb has never before been able to see time travelers, unlike many of his friends associated with the mysterious Hourglass organization. Are Kaleb's powers expanding, or is something very wrong?

Then the Hourglass is issued an ultimatum. Either they find Jack and the research he's stolen on the time gene, or time will be altered with devastating results.

Now Kaleb, Emerson, Michael, and the other Hourglass recruits have no choice but to use their unusual powers to find Jack. But where do they even start? And when? And even if they succeed, it may not be enough...

The follow-up to Hourglass, Timepiece blends the paranormal, science fiction, mystery, and suspense genres into a nonstop thrill ride where every second counts.

My Rating: ***

Book two in the Hourglass series and the only word I can come up with is mediocre. It honestly wasn't awful, but nothing thrilled me and I wasn't really caught up in the story.

The good? Kaleb's first-person voice. I liked Kaleb in the first book (liked him much better than Michael, in fact, and it drove me crazy that Emerson stubbornly clung to Michael when he is soooo boring). Here in Timepiece, Kaleb's snarky, funny voice and multi-faceted personality were the things that kept me going. I think he's a fascinating and troubled character with a serious sweet side, and his brain was a lot of fun, even if he is a bit self-destructive at times.

The bad? Don't get me started. First off, it's probably been too long since I read the first book, because it took me forever to get back into the story and figure out what was going on. I felt so lost for the longest time. Too many names I couldn't remember and too much technical stuff. That's partially my own fault, and not Myra McEntire's, but still - in my opinion - a lot of that is world building. When world building is done right it's memorable (and I've certainly read series where I didn't have problems diving in after a year's hiatus). I had a hard time buying the Hourglass organization and the history and technicality of Myra McEntire's time travelling. Some of her logic felt pretty flimsy at times.

And seriously. A book about a time travel organization ought to have cool time travel scenes. This one didn't. NO TIME TRAVELLING! I feel ripped off. The first book delivered on that point, but this sequel didn't. I love time travel and I love it when timelines get all twisty and crazy paradoxes get involved. None of that here. Lame.

The plot is sort of interesting, but I kept wondering why. I couldn't figure out exactly why it was so important to find Jack or what the deal was. I just wasn't into the story at all. The urgency implied in the summary? Not there. The book felt very slow-paced to me.

Bottom-line? Kaleb kept me reading, but without him this book would have completely bombed.