The Hourglass Door

Summary: Abby’s senior year is going according to plan: good friends, cute boyfriends, 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.

Review: So, The Hourglass Door is a lot like Twilight, only infinitely better. Abby is a bit like Bella. She drove me crazy for the first half of the book. She flirted with Dante, while she had a boyfriend, without feeling guilty at all for the fact that she was essentially cheating on her boyfriend and lifelong best friend. However, when her boyfriend finally dumps her, and Dante flirts with her after she begins to think “What audacity! I just broke up with my boyfriend!” Like it was okay when you had a boyfriend, but now that you don’t it is bad? So, Abby drove me crazy. She was indecisive, whiny, stupid and ridiculously over-described things. She is very much attracted to water metaphors and storms. They appear continually throughout the book. Towards the end of the book she finally grows a backbone, though still doesn’t do much.

Dante is so much better than Edward, as far as a love interest is concerned. He is Italian, memorizes poetry, is sincere, mysterious, and just overall the most attractive book character I have ever read about (and that is saying something). Dante is also from 15th century Italy so he is a lot older than Edward. (I will not divulge the secret to his age)So, that bit is a lot like Twilight and the romance is as well. Painstakingly ordinary girl falling for a supernatural hottie who thinks she hung the stars? Sound familiar to anyone?

That being said about the main characters; the plot is much better than Twilight. Mainly in the fact that there is a plot and it’s not predictable. For the longest time I was trying to figure out what Dante and his group of peers (I wouldn’t call them friends) were and why on earth they could do the things they did. Also, why he would disappear? I couldn’t figure it out and when it was finally revealed I was very pleased to see the originality of it. For that alone The Hourglass Door trumps the entire Twilight series. It also didn’t have a happy ending, not a complete happy ending anyways. It was the hope of a happy ending without actually wrapping up the ending. That is probably why there is a sequel, which I am pretty excited to read, actually.

Rating: 3.5/5 The main character drove me nuts, but the plot was original, the romance was great, and there was a hot Italian guy in it. It was very good brain candy, but besides that nothing special.

Reviews from the Pros:

“The perfect romance!”-Ally Condle, author of Being Sixteen

“What’s not to love? A mysterious, gorgeous, Italian who recites poetry? I’m so there.”-Becca Wilhite, author of My Ridiculous, Romantic Obsessions