{Book Review} Tempest (Tempest #1)

Author: Julie Cross

Genre: YA fantasy
Published: January 17th 2012
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Pages: 352
Source: Purchased Hardback

Goodreads Summary:

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.

My Rating of this Book – 2 out of 5 Stars

My Review:

I generally love time travel novels. This novel was especially interesting since it was time travel through a genetic gene instead of a machine or object. However, I found Tempest was a bit confusing in many ways. A lot of time, I couldn’t keep in line with all the time travel and memory flash backs. And the last several chapters threw me off completely. I became very lost and confused in the timeline as well as certain logic in the time travel itself.

What I did like about this novel was the male perspective. Though I still love dual points of view the most in any novel, Jackson was a refreshing change in pace. The mystery surrounding his character and his life captivated me. I wanted to learn more about him and the actual genetic trait. Also Adam and Holly intrigued me as well from the very start. They were like Jackson’s touchstone throughout the novel, his anchor to reality in the fringe of scrambled time.

Unfortunately, with how hard it was to wrap my brain around the plot and details, I’m not sure I’ll be continuing the series. But this is still out for debate.