Blog Tour: Hourglass - Myra McEntire - This or That List

Myra McEntire is here today with a this or that list courtesy of the Teen Book Scene blog tour for her soon to be released, Hourglass. Thank you for being here, Myra! You can follow along with the tour here, or by clicking through the banner. Enjoy!

Romance or Mystery? A mysterious romance? See. I'm difficult.

Firemen or Policemen? Firemen. There are a few in my family.

Waffles or Pancakes? Pancakes. Blueberry, please.

Otter or Giraffe? Otter. SO CUTE.

Sunrise or Sunset? Sunset. The light is so perfect.

Truth or Dare? Truth.

Blow dryer or Straightener? Neither. I'm a scrunch and go kind of girl.

Pop Rocks or Nerds? POP ROCKS.

Country or City? Country.

Ocean or Mountain? Mountain.

Brawn or Brains? I mean ........... why can't I have both? (Difficult.) Brains.

Rap or Hip-hop? Hip hop!

Music or Solitude? (When writing) Music.

Paper or Computer? (When writing) Paper when brainstorming, computer when writing.

Unicorn or Zombie? I feel like this puts me distinctly on a side, and I'm not sure I want to pick sides. UNICORN WITH SPARKLES.

Thanks for that informative list, Myra! Definitely not difficult. I would have a hard time choosing between some of these myself! ;) 

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One hour to rewrite the past . . .

For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn’t there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She’s tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.

So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson’s willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.

Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he’s around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?

Full of atmosphere, mystery, and romance, Hourglass merges the very best of the paranormal and science-fiction genres in a seductive, remarkable young adult debut.

Synopsis taken from goodreads.

Across the Universe - Beth Revis

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

(Synosis taken from goodreads.)

Title: Across the Universe

Author: Beth Revis

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction

Publisher: Razorbill

Publication Date: January 11, 2011

Format: ARC

Source: Received from publicist. Many thanks goes to Vimala from Penguin Canada for sending me a copy of this book for review. I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review. 

Challenge: Debut Author Challenge

Look for it: Penguin, Amazon, Book Depository.

My rating: 4/5

Amy and Elder are from two very different walks of life. Amy was cryogenically frozen along with her parents, and placed on a spaceship headed for a new life on a new planet. Elder has only known life on the spaceship, Godspeed, and he is set to be the future leader of the crew and caretakers of the spaceship as they continue on the 300 year long journey to the new planet. Amy wakes up early from her slumber, 50 years too early, and realizes that she has been targeted by someone who wanted to murder her. Now it's a race against time before someone else is murdered. Amy and Elder must work together if they are going to find out who is responsible for nearly killing her. Hopefully they can find out who the attempted murderer is before he or she strikes again.

Across the Universe is aptly named as Amy and Elder are travelling literally across the universe to find an inhabitable planet to settle and colonize. Amy is a sight to behold as she is classified as the odd one out amongst the population on the ship. Things wouldn't be so jarring if she wasn't the only one with pale skin and flaming red hair. It also doesn't help that she questions the routines and the very fabric of life on the spaceship. Everything around her seems so foreign and alien. Elder doesn't quite know what to say or do, but he can't help feeling captivated by Amy. 

Amy is a headstrong character, questioning everything, and is understandably upset when she realizes that she woke up 50 years ahead of schedule. With her awakening though, she needs new accommodations, and while she is exploring her newfound home, she realizes how small and claustrophobic the ship feels. Given her penchant for running, and her vocalized thoughts, she even had me looking around to see if the walls were closing in as the writing was that vivid and descriptive. 

Both Amy's and Elder's voices were quite different, and it was refreshing to read them and the book from two different perspectives. What one character didn't think of, the other did, and it was nice to see them crossing barriers and helping each other out when they could. They questioned everything, and everyone's involvement on the ship to see who would have the capabilities to pull off a murder of that nature. I must say, I had an inkling as to who was going to be found guilty, but I also noticed that for the most part, several characters were pegged as possibilities, and their involvement, or lack of involvement, wasn't cleared up until the end. I'm looking forward to finding out what repercussions certain events have on the ship and where Revis is taking the story next.

I do want to mention that I liked Harley's inclusion in the book, as he added to the story and pulled our attention away from Amy and Elder when needed. He was an interesting, well-developed character and I really wished we had heard more from him than we did.

The world-building was well developed and the detail taken to describe the spaceship was meticulous. I can't believe how fully detailed this world was, and found that I was almost uneasy with some of the situations that arose, because I was so well-versed in not only the history and the inner workings of the ship, but also because I could commiserate somewhat with how Elder and Eldest felt. That, in itself, is scary. 

All in all, an excellent and impressive debut, one that crosses genres with ease. I'm looking forward to the second installment in this trilogy as I want to know what happens next, and I'm not quite sure what Revis has in store for her characters. This will definitely be a re-read!

The Prophecy - Gill James

Kaleem Malkendy is different--and, on Terrestra, different is no way to be.

Everything about Kaleem marks him out from the rest: the blond hair and dark skin, the humble cave where he lives and the fact that he doesn't know his father. He's used to unwelcome attention, but even so, he'd feel better if some strange old man didn't keep following him around.

Then the man introduces himself and begins to explain the Babel Prophecy--and everything in Kaleem's life changes forever.

Title: The Prophecy

Author: Gill James

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction

Publisher: The Red Telephone

My Rating: 3.5/5

This could be considered my first foray into the world of science fiction. I don't exactly know what to think about this book. I enjoyed it, but there were certain things that had me looking at the page funny, and re-reading certain passages. I really enjoyed the unique spin that James took with this story though pertaining to the "Tower of Babel".

I found the first part of the book flowed fluently through the chapters, but over the last third of the book I noticed that things became more sporadic. For instance, the one chapter would end off in one scene; and the next one would continue 3 weeks in the future, leaving the reader dangling. I found that seemed quite choppy, but then it evened out again later on. It was a bit confusing, but once you figured out what was going on you were set again.

I really enjoyed Kaleem's character, and I liked the mystery surrounding his parents, his birth, and his "occupation". The holoprogrammes were neat, and I loved how Kaleem (and we) were shown how other people lived on their respective planets. Learning what one "civilization" did as the norm was interesting, knowing that another one would have approached the matter or problem in an entirely different way. I found that the book was very easy to digest, but some of the inventions could have used a bit more fleshing out, instead of keeping the reader guessing as to what they were.

Overall, the book was enjoyable and I found that as I became more immersed in Kaleem's world, that I am left wondering what's going to happen next. I definitely will be picking up the next book in the trilogy when it comes out.

DISCLAIMER: This book was received free of charge in exchange for an honest review.