January 9, 2012

Tempest - Julie Cross






Young Adult
Pages: 352
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: January 17, 2012


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.

Even though I shy away from supernatural elements in YA, time travel is just one of my favorite themes in literature. Besides the time travel bit, there's not really any other supernatural elements (or maybe this qualifies as Sci-fi?).

Tempest is narrated by Jackson, and male narrators are one of my favorite things to read. He's in college and experimenting with his time-travel freakish and mostly boring ability, because he cant go back very long and he cant change anything when he does. Until the day some dudes burst into his girlfriend's dorm and shoots her in the head right in front of him. Then he's thrown back two years in the past and gets stuck there.

Even though the writing was not rich or outstanding in any way, and it was even sometimes a tad confusing, the plot was mind-blowing and INSANELY AWESOME. What Julie Cross lacks in rich writing, she makes up for with her absolutely amazing ability to thread a thrilling plot. It's almost impossible to put down, and as a reader, I was so glued to the story because the plot kept just spitting out twists and surprises everywhere.

The mix between time-travel, male narrator and being CIA related makes me quite certain that this is a book for male readers as well. Yes, it does have it's splash of romance but the sense of adventure is in every page. This would make an amazing on-screen adaptation, and I'm glad the rights have been already bought because I cant wait to see it come to life.

It's also one of the few Young Adult books I've read where the character is actually in college and not in high school (at the beginning at least). The cover, even though it's gorgeous, had me a little wary because it looks a lot like Hush, Hush's cover, and like I said, I'm a reluctant paranormal reader. But once I established this was NOT like the typical paranormal romance recipe, I knew I would enjoy it.

This is a wonderful debut and start to a series that will appeal to teens and college students and also to realistic and fantasy readers alike.


4 comments:

  1. There are lots of things I'm excited about in this: time travel, male protag, and college-aged. I am also looking to the action part; I don't need outstanding writing as long as I'm entertained, which it sounds like it is.

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  2. I'm really looking forward to reading this!

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  3. I LOVE that cover *shushes you :P*

    I am excited to read this. The plot does sound good and I'm glad it keeps you going. The main character starts out in college? Sweet! I don't know how much it actually focuses on college, but I'm glad to see more books coming out that are "older YA".

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