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Monday, August 30, 2010

Review: Hourglass (Evernight #3) by Claudia Gray


Release Date: March 9, 2010
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genre: Vampires
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 339
Source: Bought

Blurb (from Goodreads)

Bestselling author Claudia Gray’s Evernight series continues. In Hourglass, Bianca and Lucas have found a way to be together. But it means lying to the people who care about them the most.

After escaping from Evernight Academy, the vampire boarding school, Bianca and Lucas seek refuge with Black Cross, the elite group of vampire hunters led by Lucas’s stepfather. When Bianca’s close friend—the vampire Balthazar—is captured by Black Cross, Bianca knows she has to do whatever it takes to save him. But at what cost?

Hourglass, the third book in this gripping vampire series by the author of the New York Times bestseller Stargazer, has all the romance, suspense, and page-turning drama that have made Claudia Gray’s books runaway successes.

The Quickie Review

Another edge of your seat, non stop thrill ride from Claudia Gray with an ending that will leave you begging for more, plus a little frustrated that we have to wait until March next year until Afterlife.

The Full Blown Review

* Note to my bloggy readers who haven’t read Stargazer and/or Evernight yet, in the off chance that your reading this review I wouldn’t suggest reading any further, so *STOP*, *HALT*, *NONE SHALL PASS*, as there are probably some spoilery details which you really don’t want to know just yet, trust me.

Okay so now I have warned you all I can get on with my review. Hourglass picks up soon after Stargazer, with Bianca, Lucas and Raquel hiding out (whilst also training to kick some vampire butt) with Black Cross. Unfortunately Lucas and Bianca’s plans of leaving Black Cross are put on hold as the cell is in lock down so they must wait it out until an opportunity arises for them to leave without being caught. However events conspire that place both Lucas and Bianca in danger and they must leave Black Cross sooner than they bargained for. Though once they finally do get away more problems ensue.

Once again I found the start to be a bit slow going, but then all of a sudden the pace picked up and I couldn’t put it down. I attribute this non-putdownableness (I know it’s not an actual word) to when Balthazar was captured, from that moment I was glued to each page, what can I say I have a bit of a soft spot for Balthazar.

Hourglass definitely gave us more Bianca and Lucas time (it’s basically Bianca and Lucas together throughout most of it) which I appreciated because we didn’t get too much in Stargazer. We really get a sense of how much Lucas is willing to sacrifice to be with Bianca and how much he cares for her, which is very adorable. Lucas also manages put his pride and feelings towards Balthazar aside when he decides to help him escape from Black Cross, something which he didn’t have to do but he did. Hourglass is also steamier than the previous two books.

I felt more for Bianca in this book, she was really struggling with leaving her family and her blood craving which was especially difficult living with a bunch of vampire hunters who would kill her if they discovered her secret. Bianca’s declining health issue was a bit of a mystery for me throughout the book, I kept on wondering what was wrong and what was going to happen because she wasn’t getting any better. Towards the end of the book we are given an answer to this conundrum, once I read this I was like ‘oh this makes sense to me now, clever’.

I also have to mention Raquel who settled in very well at Black Cross. I was not impressed with her actions at all, I don’t want to give it away but I’m just going to say ‘Oh Raquel why oh why, I’m very disappointed in you *wags finger*’, this will make perfect sense once you have read the book. Vic and Ranulf also make an appearance in the book which is always fun, I love them both, they always manage to lighten the mood. As I mentioned before Balthazar is in Hourglass too but it’s really only a minor appearance but it’s still Balthazar so I’ll take anything I can get.

Now I can get onto the ending, words cannot justify how ‘crap me did that just happen’ and frustrating it was. Don’t get me wrong I loved the ending but it’s so cruel we have to wait until 2011 until the next book when we were left hanging like we were. I’ll just say both Bianca and Lucas are in a pretty big pickle and I have no idea how they are going to overcome this pickle.

Random thought: I was thinking about the title of the book before and it dawned on me that it’s really clever, throughout the book Bianca’s time was running out, just like an hourglass, she had to make a choice because if she didn’t the choice would be made for her once the time ran out.

The Good

* The ending, wow!
* Bianca and Lucas’ relationship developing even more, so sweet.
* The second half of the book, it really picked up the pace.

The Not So Good

* Slow start (again)
* The ending, I can’t wait until 2011. Yes I know I’ve placed this in both, I loved the ending but was extremely frustrated with the ending hence it’s been placed in both.

Rating

4 out of 5

There’s Another Book?!?

Yes there is one more book in the series after Hourglass:

Afterlife – released March 8, 2011

Goodies

2 comments:

sarah darlington said...

I agree with you. I hate that we have to wait until March for the 3rd book. I think I liked this one better than Stargazer. Good review :)

Jeremy said...

Lots of people have told me that I need to start this series. I heard its awesome.

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Romy @ Lost.in.Stories
Greetings fellow blog readers, welcome to my blog and thank you for stopping by. Now you may be wondering who is lost.in.stories? Well lost.in.stories is also known as Romy, a 23 year old graduate student from Australia who loves to read. I read (maybe devour would be a more appropriate word) largely young adult novels, with a particular love of fantasy and paranormal novels, however I am also a sucker for a good romance.
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