Hourglass (Evernight, Book 3) by Claudia Gray (4/5 stars)

This is the third book in the Evernight series by Claudia Gray.  Last I heard this is planned to be a 4 book series with the fourth book "Afterlife" being released in December of 2010.  I got this book as an uncorrected proof, through the Amazon Vine program.  This was the best book in the series so far.

Bianca and Lucas are on the run with the Black Cross Brotherhood.  They want to take off on their own but have no means to do so.  Bianca is continuing to struggle to hide her living vampire status from the Black Cross Group, she is also struggling with continued bouts of unexplained weakness and illness.  Then the Black Cross is attacked by vampires and one of them (being Balthazar) is taken in for questioning.  Will Bianca be able to hide what she is?  What about the wraiths, is Bianca safe from them or will she finally fine out what they mean when they say that "She is theirs"?  Will Bianca and Lucas be able to rescue Balthazar while keeping their true loyalties hidden?  Lots of questions and this book give you lots of answers to those questions.

This was a great addition to this series.  It was interesting to see Bianca and Lucas on the run together.  This book had more action than the previous books, but I still wouldn't call it action-packed.  Some of the book is dedicated to Bianca an Lucus struggling to hide and just make a living.  I was a little frustrated with Bianca's helplessness in many of the situations, but it was understandable given how she was raised.  It was nice to see Bianca get some training in fighting and hunting while she was with the Black Cross.  Bianca becomes a more admirable character in this book, showing inner strength in certain instances where in the previous books she would have just whined.

There is a lot I can't say about this story without giving away spoilers.  So, let's just say that you learn a lot more about Bianca and how she was born, you also learn a lot more about how the wraiths interact with her. 

As with the last two books Gray's writing style is nothing spectacular, but it is very readable and engaging.  I think the writing is much better than The House of Night series.  The plot pulls you through the book making it a rapid read, there are a couple of huge surprises.  This book has much better pacing than the first two books; the action is spread out throughout the story and there aren't as many pages given to Bianca whining or other teenage angsting.  Although, like the previous two books, most of the excitement and surprises happen in the last third of the book. 

The only complaint I have is that the ending completely leaves you hanging.  So, expect to be extremely frustrated at the end of this book.  In fact if you can, I would wait to read this one until book 4 comes out...but given the cliffhanger of "Stargazer" (book 2) I know I was having trouble waiting for book 3...anyway just a suggestion.  You definitely do need to read the two books previous to this one to make sense of anything that happens in this book.

Overall this was the best book in the series so far.  More action and more surprises than the first two books.  Gray's writing style makes it all a pleasure to read.  I can't wait to get my hands on "Afterlife"!

This series went towards the following reading challenges:
- The Young Adult Reading Challenge
- The 100+ Book Reading Challenge