Timepiece

Timepiece
By Myra McEntire
Egmont, 2012. 325 pgs. Young Adult

Since his mother's memory was stolen, living her in a comatose state, and his father died (and then was brought back to life through a time-travel intervention), Kaleb Ballard's world has been rocked to the core, and he copes by losing himself temporarily in alcohol and one-night stands. But when everyone with a special ability begins seeing cracks in time and Jack Landers, the man who murdered Kaleb's dad, turns up, Kaleb has to pull it together if he's going to keep the world from falling apart. With Jack misusing time travel and trying to exploit those with the time gene for his own benefit, and organization known as Chronos out to find a special time-related artifact, the past, present and future are being blended in ways they never should have been. Unless Kaleb and his friends from the Hourglass organization, as well as new attractive sort-of enemy Lily, can stop Jack and Chronos, their world may very well cease to exist.

This second book in the Hourglass series took a change in the narrator, with bad-boy-with-a-soft-heart Kaleb narrating instead of feisty Emerson, the narrator of the first book. Teen girls will probably swoon over Kaleb, who, while rough around the edges, does have a good heart. Although the elements of mystery, time and space issues, and even family issues make this book more than just your average teen book, it's the romance angle that will have readers devouring it.

AE