Review: Tempest by Julie Cross

Title: Tempest

Author: Julie Cross

Series: Tempest #1

Genre: YA

Format: ARC

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Release Date: January 17th 2012

Source: GoodReads First Reads

Pre-order the Book: Amazon

The year is 2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun. 

That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future. 

Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities. 

But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveler. Recruit… or kill him. 

Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he’s willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.

Before I had the opportunity to read this book, I had in my mind some ideas of how this book would be. I thought many things but more than the 80 percent were wrong. Tempest was a big surprise for me, with a plot much more developed and much more solid than others Young Adults books. And that was something that I wasn't expecting at all.  

First, the storyline is really good and a little bit different, and I think it's because the idea of time travel hasn't been developed enough in YA books. There are just a few books about this topic, and that is a big plus. In addition, the author has done an excellent job creating the world that surrounds the main character. All the things that happens to Jackson, that he can time travel, that he gets stuck in another time, that his girlfriend is in danger, that he is in danger, his relationship with his sister and his mysterious father. I found everything really well done. The author doesn't focus only in the time travel and the consequences, but also she adds an incredible touch full of emotions. 

The characters are really nice. Jackson Mayer is like any other main character of any other book. There is no difference at all. Main characters always want to save the person they love, or maybe the world. And this is the same case of Jackson. He finds himself immerse in a really big problem where he needs to do whatever is necessary to save his girlfriend Holly.  

Courtney was simply one of my favorite characters, her participation in the story is really short, but I believe that she will show up more in the future or so I hope. And Adam! OMG! I loved his character. He is so geek!

Holly was another thing. I liked her, but not so much. What I really liked is that we have the opportunity to watch her in two different moments of her life, and we can see two Hollys that are a little bit different. 

In conclusion. Tempest is something fresh and unique. A book that a lot of people will love, specially with the great development of the plot, but I'm sure other people won't know what to think about it. The complexity of the topic and the explanations can make the story a little big repetitive and slow. In my personal case, I really enjoyed Tempest, there were scenes that I loved, and some others that I wanted to skip. Overall this is a really good book, and I think it's worth reading it. 

Happy Reading!

I really liked it!

Julie lives in central Illinois with her husband and three children. She never considered writing professionally until May of 2009. Since then, she hasn't gone a day without writing. 

Visit her website.