Tempest by Julie Cross

Tempest by Julie Cross
Tempest #1
Release Date: January 5, 2012
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Source: Publisher
Rating: Essential

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. - Goodreads

There are some fantastic books coming out early next year, let me tell you that. I’ve been working my way through my review pile this month, and I have come across some brilliant upcoming releases. Tempest by Julie Cross is one of those books.

As you may have concluded from the description, Tempest is about a guy named Jackson who has the ability to time travel. His girlfriend gets shot, and Jackson jumps back two years into the past, into 2007. He learns countless truths about his abilities and about his family, all the while trying to figure out a way to save his girlfriend, Hannah, from her fate.

The time travel in this book was brilliantly complex. I loved reading about Jackson discovering what he could and could not do with his powers, and I really enjoyed reading the parts in which he jumped backwards in time to learn more about what was going on. His trips back in time were extremely interesting and informative.

Jackson is an awesome character. It was really great reading from his point of view. He is kind and caring, but not in an over the top, feminine way. He’s still very manly and hot. He loves Hannah so, so much, and I was so pleased with the way Julie Cross portrayed his character and his relationship with Hannah. The romance plays a huge part in the plot, yet the author deals with it well and it doesn’t cast a shadow on the action or on the other characters.

There are lots of twists and turns in this book, some of which I didn’t see coming. I had no idea what was going to happen most of the time; I thought that the characters were going to do one thing and instead they did something completely different. Most of the mysteries were revealed by the end of the novel, yet many more came to light and more questions were left open for the sequel.

Tempest is a wonderfully rich debut which I thoroughly enjoyed. I cannot wait to read the sequel, and I will be on the edge of my seat while I wait for the movie.