The Hourglass Door by Lisa Mangum

Genre: YA Fiction

Author Website: www.lisamangum.com

One Word Review: Lackluster

First Line: “It is the counting that saves him.”

Synopsis: “His past. Her future. Can love bring them together in time? Abbys senior year of high school is going according to plan: good friends, cute boyfriend, and college applications in the mail. But when Dante Alexander, foreign-exchange student from Italy, steps into her life, he turns it upside down. He's mysterious, and interesting, and unlike anyone she's ever met before. Abby can't deny the growing attraction she feels for him. Nor can she deny the unusual things that seem to happen when Dante is around. Soon Abby finds herself drawn into a mystery whose roots reach into sixteenth-century Florence, and she uncovers a dangerous truth that threatens not only her future but the lives of those she loves” -GoodReads

Kathy’s Review: I’m definitely in the minority here when I say that I wasn’t that impressed with this one. For some reason it just fell a little flat for me. One reviewer compared it to an episode of Lost where you’re constantly questioning what is going on. I felt like that for the first 200+ pages. I had a general idea what the story was about, but I was still confused and had a hard time really taking to the characters. I did like Abby. I thought she was a good character. Dante was even okay (although, I lost track of how many times his eyes changed color…). He didn’t really come across as the “hero” type, he didn’t really do anything and by the end I wasn’t really feeling it between him and Abby. I was upset that he didn’t do anything to help Abby’s friend Valerie and his decisions at the end just didn’t really make sense to me. I thought the whole time travel idea was interesting, but was executed kind of weird. Overall, I thought it was okay. I had high expectations and have read a lot of great reviews so I’m sure I am one of the few that wasn’t blown away. I’ll probably still check out the sequel, maybe it’ll be better.

Hourglass Door Trilogy:
Book One: The Hourglass Door
Book Two: The Golden Spiral
Book Three: The Forgotten Locket (Summer 2011)