Book Review + Audiobook Clip: Tempest - Julie Cross

Title: Tempest (Tempest #1)

Author: Julie Cross

Release Date: January 17th 2012 

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books

Pages: 352 (hardcover)   

Source: Copy provided by the author for blog tour (thanks so much 

for inviting me, Dianne!)

Goodreads 

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.

When Tempest arrived in the mail, I immediately leafed through it and was quite taken aback by how long it seemed (it's not thick, but the letters were smaller than in most other books), but now that I've read it, all I can think of is I want more!

At first glance, Jackson Meyer seemed like he had the perfect, normal life - he was in college with Holly, his girlfriend, and free of parental and financial concerns because his father was the busy CEO of a pharmaceutical company. At first glance - because he was also a time-traveler.

Tempest had the perfect beginning, providing enough knowledge to understand Jackson's abilities and avoiding an info dump. The author clearly understands the meaning of "need-to-know basis", which also added suspense to the story. That said, I still got confused with the principle behind Jackson's time traveling, especially during his first few jumps - or maybe school just distracted me. Anyway, I got the hang of things soon enough.

Aside from the whole business of time-traveling, I also really loved the characters. At first, I imagined Jackson as this cute, nerdy guy who could quote Shakespeare in French (!!!), but as I read more of him with Holly, he turned into this smart, sexy dude whose girlfriend I seriously envied and wanted to hate, but I couldn't because Holly was everything a YA heroine should be: intelligent, level-headed, and brave - though minus some kind of special power. A whole plethora of logical characters - so there was zero facepalm moments! - were introduced, and I really mean it when I say each stood out on their own. 

Fast-paced, action-packed, and surprise-filled, Tempest was one hell of a ride. It held me in its grip until the ending that has me desperate for Vortex, which, thankfully, will come out in January 15, 2013!

MY FAVORITE PART was when Jackson tried to adapt to his new "home base".

RATING:

 

(cover and summary from Goodreads.com)

Also, here's the #0.5 novella of the series, Tomorrow is Today!

EDIT: The wonderful Esther from Macmillan Audio emailed me a link to this clip from the Tempest audiobook to share with you all! Now I want to re-read...