Review: Tempest by Julie Cross

Publication Date: 1-17-2012
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 352 

Format: e-book

Source: netgalley

Challenge: Ebook Challenge 2012, 2012 DAC

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Goodreads Summary:

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.

A little bit of love, a lot of suspense, and a lot of teenage curiosity time-traveling make for one amazing story.  Julie Cross hit this book head-on in terms of the writing style, plot line, and engaging her reading audience.  I couldn’t put this book down.  Of course, I had to at work, which made me one crabby person, but I immediately picked it back up when I got home.  The relationship between Jackson is Holly made me so emotional, as did the relationship between Jackson and his sister Courtney.  We don’t know much about the history of Jackson and Holly, but we see enough snippets to understand how connected they are. 

The mystery surrounding Jackson, his family, and his entire life is one that he can’t help but keep trying to figure out.  He has tried to keep his time-traveling ability a secret, but it turns out everyone knows and isn’t telling him.  Although, they don’t know exactly how much ability he has or what he can do.  It’s a surprise to everyone.  Jackson is keeping secrets himself in an effort to make his own decisions regarding who he should be partnering with, what he should be doing, and where exactly his future is going to take him.  There are so many decisions this young man needs to make that he doesn’t know where to turn.  All of these potential decisions make a great story.  I couldn’t help but yell at him when I thought I knew what he should be doing.  I felt connected to Jackson at a personal level.  I felt like I understood him and what he was going through. 

I also want to mention that having a male protagonist made an even better story.  It isn’t often that we get to read from that point of view.  Jackson was a nice change-up from the usual female protagonist.  If you are interested in time-traveling, suspenseful mysteries with a touch of a love story I think Tempest would be perfect for you. Well, except for the overwhelming need to read book two in the series that won’t be out for a long time!