Review: Tempest

Tempest by Julie Cross

Synopsis (From 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.

Time travel isn't what it's like in the movies. Nothing changes, and people don't remember anything about the traveller. Jackson Meyer has the ability to jump through time. It's just harmless fun for him. When two strangers bursts into his girlfriend's room and attack Jackson and Holly, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back to 2007, further than he's ever jumped before. But this isn't like his other times, he's stuck there, unable to get back to his own time. As Jackson assumes his past self's life and learns more about his power, Jackson will learn the truth about his past and find out not even time will stop these attackers from finding him.

Julie Cross has created an interesting world where she has twisted the rules of time travel. I'm a sucker for a good time travel story, and this was just what I needed. Jackson was a strong character with so much depth. Not only did he lose his twin sister when he was younger, having constant regrets about what he would do differently if he could 'actually' effect time. He's also living with the guilt of abandoning Holly when he jumps to 2007. Holly, both of past and present, are two entirely different characters and it's interesting trying to figure out what has happened to her to have such a dramatic change of maturity.

The story was an original twist on the sci-fi time travel story with lots of twists and turns to keep you wanting to flip the page. All this leads to an ending that will definitely stir the emotions, and that's all I'm saying about that. I look forward to seeing where else Jackson can go in future stories.

Source: audible
2012 Debut Author Challenge: #1 of 12

2012 YA Reading Challenge: #12 of 50