The Hourglass Door by Lisa Mangum

The Hourglass Door is the first book in a new trilogy by Lisa Mangum. Here is the plot line given from the book jacket:

Abby Edmunds’s senior year of high school is going according to plan: good friends, cute boyfriend, 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.

My first thought when I read this story was that it was a unique concept. The Hourglass Door is about time travel and involves inventions by Leonardo Da Vinci. This is not a story I had heard before and I was excited to see how the story evolved. I thought the story was well written and the plot made me keep reading throughout the book. I did find the love story between Abby and Dante to drag on a bit. Perhaps it was due to the fact that this is the first book in a trilogy, but the majority of the book consisted of setting up the love story when I wanted to hear more about the time travel. The love story was a bit forced and didn’t flow as well as I would have liked. Once you started to find out the specifics of the time travel, it became very interesting but it took a while to get there. I found the ending of the book to be very exciting and I was looking forward to reading the second book.

Overall, I found this book to be a good read and am looking forward to book two of the trilogy titled The Golden Spiral.