Jenn's Review: Tempest

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.

Review:   Wow! Tempest is the first novel that didn't really go anywhere that I adore. It went many any-whens, but that's not quite the same thing, is it?!? This was an Early Readers edition through Library Thing and I'm truly sorry it took so long for me to get to it.

Julie Cross pulls you right in at the beginning. Jackson is a smart but unfocused 19 year old boy, which is not unusual for his age... What is unusual is his ability to time-travel, well, more like time jump. The cool thing is whenever he jumps, it changes nothing in the past or the future. But when someone kills Holly in their attempt to seize him, Jackson is forced to grow up fast and find a way to undo whatever it is that leads up to the horrific moment. The only problem is, Jackson doesn't really fully understand his ability and has never been able to effect anything or anyone in the past before. He's desperate for help but anyone who seems to know anything about it attempts to kill him.

Through the past Jackson discovers himeslf and we learn more about his sister Courtney. We learn about Holly and how she becomes the person she is to become. But every answer brings more questions. Can living in the past change the future? Does discovering who you are change who you will be? And most importantly, who can Jackson trust when?

I honestly can't tell you anymore, because I don't want to give anything away. Suffice it to say, I was so attached to both Jackson and Holly by the end of the book that it was hard to leave them. I laughed, I cried, I loved. It was refreshingly original.  There are lots of things still left to be resolved and I can't wait for the next book in the trilogy... in the mean time, you must read Tempest.

Final Take: 5/5

PS. Summit Entertainment has already optioned the movie rights and if it happens, I think it would be a fabulous film.