Review: Tempest by Julie Cross

Book Description via Goodreads:

Hardcover, 413 pages

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.

Source: Hattie, Sally & Pan Macmillan UK (Thank you!)

My Thoughts:

Jackson was a rich and spoiled sophomore college student at NYU. You may think that his character follows the prototype of rich male characters in YA but that’s where you’re wrong. He was a student, a son, a boyfriend, a friend and a time-traveler. He could go back in time (within his life span) and go back to the present. Nothing would change. With his genius friend, Adam, he experimented with time jumping.

Cross made a new twist on time-travelling. Gone were the time-travelling machines and the time-travelling through objects and places with strong sentimental value and importance. Her time-travelers can travel because of their genes. I like how she made it more specific and scientific.

Jackson had more or less three important persons in his life. He shared an imperfect but good relationship with his girlfriend, Holly. She was the kind of girlfriend who let his slip-ups pass most of the time. She was the rational, logical and unshakeable kind. But at the same time, she was the understanding, not pushing Jackson to confess his secrets. But his secrets were affecting Holly. She felt that Jackson had a different life that she couldn’t be a part of. I admired Holly for being understanding. Most of the girls I know wouldn’t do that. Despite the fact that Jackson and Holly have only been going out for months, I believe that Jackson thought that they shared true love – the type that comes only once in a lifetime. Jackson wanted nothing more than to save Holly from her fate and he jumped back to the past to undo her death. This kind of dedication was rare, although it was a typical element in YA.

I enjoyed reading about Jackson’s time jumps. Going back to the past was like reliving the same memory but seeing it through a different, more mature and more observant lens. It was better than flashbacks with its strong emotional impact and life-altering quality. The jumps that Jackson made to see his dead sister, Courtney, were the ones that I liked best. Courtney was his twin – the smarter one and the stronger one. With the help of Courtney, he was able to piece together the puzzle about his life, his identity and his fate.

The characters of Tempest felt real to me. Seeing different versions of the characters from different timelines allowed me to see how they changed, how they matured and how they became better persons through the years. I got to know them well and I liked that about this novel.

I liked the alternation between past and present. It wasn’t confusing since Tempest was partly told through Jackson’s journal where he records information about his jumps. The date was included so I never felt confused. For me, Tempest was a novel of stories in a story. For people looking for layered stories, this is perfect. From the curious beginning to the unforgettable ending, I got sucked into the story. It was addictive.

With kickass action, warmth of romance, bittersweet flavor of life, Tempest is a thrilling time-travel adventure debut. I highly recommend this to readers of time-travels, adventure, romance and action!

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