Review: Hourglass (Evernight, Book 3) by Claudia Gray

Hourglass (Evernight, Book 3) by Claudia Gray

352 pages, Young Adult, series

HarperTeen (March 9, 2010)

$9.93 (Amazon, Hardcover)

Procurement

Purchased on Amazon.com.

My Grade

Plot: 3

Setting: 4

Writing: 3

Originality: 4

Characters: 4

Passion: 5

Overall: 23/30 = 76% C

Cover/Title Bonus: 3

Summary (Evernight, Book 1)(this is book 3!)

When the story begins in Evernight, Bianca has just left the small town where she's spent her whole life. She's a new student at Evernight Academy, a creepily Gothic boarding school where her classmates are somehow too perfect: smart, sleek and almost predatory. Bianca knows she doesn't fit in.

Then she meets Lucas, another loner, who seems fiercely determined not to be the "Evernight type." There's a connection between Bianca and Lucas that can't be denied. She would risk anything to be with him—but dark secrets are fated to tear them apart... and to make Bianca question everything she's ever believed to be true.

Sneak Peek (Prologue & Chapter 1)

First Line(s)

I GASPED FOR AIR SO HARD THAT MY CHEST ACHED.
My face felt hot, and strands of my hair stuck to the sweaty back of my neck. Every single muscle hurt.

Plot

I wasn’t a fan of the plot about half way through the book. I felt that a lot of the story was being drug out and I was ready to get to the point. Don’t get me wrong, every detail was important to the story but I wanted to go faster.

What ended up happening I still wasn’t a fan of. I honestly think what happened could have been more dramatic, it was dramatic, but not in an OMG! I’m going to bawl kind of way.

The ending is a cliffhanger but again, it’s not OMG! but more like, oh, well, awesome, not I have to wait for the next book to see how this plays out, not like I didn’t see this coming but I did and now I have to wait. So, I more annoyed than geeking out then what Claudia probably was expecting my reaction to be.

SPOILER! (skip this if you haven’t read Hourglass yet!)

The ending has NOTHING on Vampire Academy and what happens to Dimitri. I guess I just don’t feel the connection with Bianca and Lucas as I do with Rose and Dimitri.

Setting

Bianca and Lucas are on the run. They follow along with the Black Cross cell to different locations. My favorite was the subway location. They also end up in Philadelphia and that was good times. ;)

Writing

I wasn’t a fan of the pacing with the plot. This book reminded me of Evernight where it wasn’t clear what Claudia was trying to accomplish with this book.

Originality

This book picked up the originality a bit. Some things happen that I wasn’t expecting and that increased my interest a bit but as I’ve already mentioned I think it happened a little too late to keep me 100% interested.

I compare this series above in the "Spoiler” section to Vampire Academy and it is very similar but different. I don’t love this series as much as that one. :(

Characters

Lucas really steps up to the plate in this installment. I found his bravery and willingness to stand up for Bianca refreshing because I thought for sure he’d end up running away and leaving Bianca when things got rough.

Bianca has lots of changes going on. Lucas’s support is really the only thing that gets her through it all.

I wanted to see a bit more character growth with the other characters (Balthazar anyone?) but it’s minor and that made me sad. I hope we see more of him in Afterlife.

Passion

HOT. That is all.

Overall

Slow. Predictable, yet unpredictable. Lame ending but I’ll continue to see how it all ends.

Cover/Title Bonus

I’m not a fan of this series covers. They are boring. The title, however, is perfect.

Trailer

Connect with Claudia Gray

 

Series

Evernight (Book 1) by Claudia Gray

Stargazer (Book 2) by Claudia Gray

Hourglass (Book 3) by Claudia Gray

Afterlife – Coming December 8, 2010

So, what did you think? Did it leave you wanting more or mildly disappointed?

Disclosure:
Amazon.com Associate. If you click on my links and purchase anything a very small percentage of the purchase price will be awarded to Book Reviews by Jess.