Tempest by Julie Cross

Title: Tempest (Tempest #1)

Author: Julie Cross

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Release Date: January 17, 2012

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

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.

Of all the books coming out this month I think Julie Cross' Tempest is probably the one that has gotten the most hype. It feels like I've been hearing about this book for the longest time. When I finally started reading it, I had really high expectations. Most of those were met but there are still some elements that I would have liked to be different.

While he just seems like a spoiled rich kid from Manhattan, Jackson Meyer is a little more than that. Jackson can jump through time. He can't travel very far back and nothing he ever does in the past changes the present. So he doesn't worry about it too much. But when strange men barge in to his girlfriend Holly's dorm room pointing guns, things change. Holly gets shot and Jackson finds himself two years in the past and unable to get back to the present to save Holly. Stuck in the past, Jackson digs around and discovers that everything in his life may not be exactly as it seems, especially where his father is concerned. And when he discovers the truth, everything in Jackson's life changes, both in the past and in the present.

This book has been getting hype for the longest time an the movie rights were sold long before the book was scheduled to be released. Based on that alone, I had very high expectations going into the book. And then I kept reading positive reviews which only served to raise my expectations even more. So all that to say that the bar was set very high. And so I started reading and I found myself getting frustrated with the book. It was definitely a slow start and a little confusing. But I kept reading and eventually things picked up and became clearer. And I also found myself enjoying the book more and more. By the end I really liked it and things were getting interesting. Hopefully the next book will start right where this one left off and jump right in to the action.

It took me a really long time to figure Jackson out. It may have had something to do with the fact that she constantly had to change his identity based on what time he was in. But once I finally figured him out, I kind of liked him. His only fault was that he had a bit of a one-track mind at times. All he could seem to focus on was Holly when there was so much else going on. Holly, both 007 and 009 Holly, was someone I could really get along with if she really existed. She seemed genuine and in a refreshing twist, wasn't boy crazy. Though my favorite character was probably Adam. He was an absolute nerd and I loved him for it. Whenever he said something I just couldn't help but smile. It's hard to say anything about the other characters without revealing too much. All I will say is that Jackson's father was the one who surprised me the most.

Tempest was an enjoyable read and one that suggests the rest of the trilogy holds a lot of promise. While I was not disappointed per say, I expected more from the book and I hope to see more action and development in future installments.