Review: Tempest by Julie Cross

Tempest by Julie Cross


My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

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.

WOW!- That was my first thought when I finished this book. Tempest grabs you from the first line and doesn't let up. This book is fast-paced and action-packed, with shocking revelations and a plotline that had me racing through the pages to find out what would happen next. It is also tragically romantic (which I love), and I liked the fact that it was told from the guy's perspective, which is fairly unusual for YA fiction but definitely made it interesting and was a breath of fresh air.


Jackson is in college and secretly, he has the ability to time-travel. He hasn't travelled back very far, and is still developing his fairly new abilities. One day out of the blue, two guys burst into Jackson's dorm room and in the scuffle, end up shooting his girlfriend Holly. In order to escape them Jackson jumps back in time, but something is very different this time- he has jumped back two years- further than ever before, and he can't get back to find out what happened to Holly. With his friend Adam (the only other person who knows his secret) they develop codes and experiment with Jackson's power, avoiding the creepy group who would try to snatch Jackson. In his struggle to get back to the present Jackson discovers family secrets, a government conspiracy, and also has a chance to get to know a younger, different Holly.


This book totally gripped me. It had plenty of twists and surprises, but was also utterly emotional and had just the right amount of action and sappy romance. I loved the characters, and especially the relationship between Jackson and Holly, but also the tender bond between Jackson and his sister, and the funny friendship between Jackson and Adam. The flippping backwards and forwards in time is very well paced, and drops in shock revelations and new clues or moments, which kept me riveted all the way through and constantly switching guesses as to who the bad guys were. But we also see flashbacks and memories of Jackson and Holly's relationship giving them both much more depth and making them feel like a real couple.


Tempest is a book that could definitely appeal to both girls and boys. It is thrilling and passionate, and uses science and DNA to create a whole new exciting theory of time travel that really works. All of it is very easy to visualise, and as Summit Entertainment have just bought the movie rights to this book, who knows, maybe we will be seeing it as a film very soon?




Thanks to Macmillan and Netgalley for the advance copy for review.