Book Review: Infinity Glass

The stakes have risen even higher in this third book in the Hourglass series.

The Hourglass is a secret organization focused on the study of manipulating time, and its members — many of them teenagers -­have uncanny abilities to make time work for them in mysterious ways. Inherent in these powers is a responsibility to take great care, because altering one small moment can have devastating consequences for the past, present, and future. But some time travelers are not exactly honorable, and sometimes unsavory deals must be struck to maintain order.

With the Infinityglass (central to understanding and harnessing the time gene) at large, the hunt is on to find it before someone else does.
But the Hourglass has an advantage. Lily, who has the ability to locate anything lost, has determined that the Infinityglass isn't an object. It's a person. And the Hourglass must find him or her first. But where do you start searching for the very key to time when every second could be the last?  Quoted from Goodreads

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Expectations make a big difference.  For example, I didn't know quite what to expect with Hourglass, and ended up really enjoying it.  Then Timepiece came along.  I hadn't bothered to read the back of the book.  I trusted the author, so what was the point? Book two in the series, what else did I need to know? Suddenly it wasn't from Em's POV, which irritated me, and was definitely suffering from sophomore slump.  It wasn't that it was so bad, just not what I expected.  Kaleb's powers weren't nearly as cool as Em and Michael's, and after the ending of the first book, I was hoping for more time traveling.

I didn't quite know what to make of this third book.  From the blurb I couldn't tell who would be narrating, so I wasn't sure quite what to expect.  Honestly, this may be the best book in the series yet, or at least on par with the first one.

What we get is Hallie and Dune, duel POV, and I loved them both.  Dune always cracked me up as the body-building nerd with power over water.  Okay, he's more than that, but that was my impression from the first two books.  Hallie is our delightful new character and the titular infinityglass.  She's strong, sassy, and a strange mix of sheltered and jaded.  She goes after what she wants, and she's confident in herself.  It's an excellent mix, and I loved both of them.

This story is, in some ways, more action-packed than the first two books.  Most of the world-building has already been done (though we do move locations this time around), so there's less explaining and more happening. There were a few twists I wasn't expecting (and not all of them came at the end, either).  Plus, the ending was excellent, perfect even.

We also get to see all our favorite characters from the last two books show up. Everyone helps, though the final showdown is focused around Hallie and Dune (they are our main characters this time around). It's fun to see how everyone works together after their individual happily ever afters at the end of their respective books. Plus, we get the epilogue from Em's POV, bringing the story full circle.

The pacing is good, with plenty of internal and external conflict. There's Hallie's complex relationship with her parents, Dune's transition from thinking of the infinityglass as an object to a person.  Their budding romance, and Hallie's changing abilities.  This book kept me turning pages long after I should have been doing something else (like sleeping or something).

All in all, this is a must read for fans of the series, and if you haven't picked this up before, you really should now that it's over.  I love the way it wrapped everything up and the different ways their abilities came into play.  it's a strong 3.5 stars for me, 4 if I take into account the series as a whole.  Now I can't wait to see what the author comes out with next.