NICOLE'S REVIEW: Tempest by Julie Cross

Title: Tempest

Author: Julie Cross

Format Acquired: Hardcover 

Publication Date: January 17 2012

Publishing House: St. Martin's Griffin

ISBN: 9780312568894
Source of Copy: Book Tour hosted by Dianne

Summary: The year is 2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is 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.

(Image and information courtesy of Goodreads)

Review:

I took a chance on Tempest due to its interesting summary. I haven't read much books with time travel in it and thought I'd give this a go. 

I was a bit disappointed. I mean, Tempest wasn't a bad book, it was okay for me, but it wasn't exactly a great one either. For starters, I could not connect with the characters. Jackson was flat, boring and sometimes a bit of a coward, and Holly was uninteresting, bland, and completely ordinary. There was a lot of romance in the book and I have to say that I was not amused; it wasn't even that romantic, and it was only at the latter part of the book when I started feeling that Jackson and Holly had any semblance of a relationship and started liking them a little bit. It's frustrating to read a book where you can't associate with the characters. I actually ended up liking Adam, Jackson's super smart hacker friend better than I did Jackson. And Courtney, Jackson's sister who, might I add, has been deceased for a few years. Also, have I mentioned that Jackson is super rich? Yeah, I'm not exactly surprised.

As for the time travel, it was fairly easy to follow Jackson as he time jumped, although he does it so frequently it gets annoying, especially when his jumps are so short-lived and fleeting. The basic rules for time travel here are quite easy to comprehend although there were a few things open to speculation and questioning. Our protagonist learns a few more things about time travel while stuck in 2007. It's here he learns about two warring factions, the EOTs or Enemies of Time and, of course, a hidden, top-secret branch of the CIA which his dad is incidentally a part of, and let's not forget that he's still trying to figure out why he got stuck in 2007 and then there's that pressing issue about Holly getting shot. The latter part of the book is also where things start to get messy and secrets are unraveled as a myriad of events were tossed into the fray and everything happened so fast that I was left a tad bit confused.

I felt like everything was rushed in the end as Jackson figured out the secrets his father tried to keep from him, learned more about his abilities and clashed with the EOTs. Ultimately all this leads to Jackson making a few decisions, and one of those decisions I could not stomach. I really don't like it when the whole "I'm doing this all for your own good" thing gets thrown into the mix and I'm very touchy about this. I mean I get why Jackson did what he did, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.

Initially, I was planning on giving Tempest a 2.5 rating, but despite everything I stated in my review, Tempest wasn't a bad book. It actually had a decent storyline and I think that a lot of people will enjoy this. I do plan on continuing the series though, hopefully the time travelling will be fleshed out, and more light be shed on the EOTs, more of Adam of course, and well, better character development. Who knows? Maybe I'll end up liking Jackson and Holly more in the second book.

Rating:

                         

P. S. Other book bloggers based in the Philippines who might be interested in participating in the Vortex (Tempest #2), do head on to Dianne's blog. The link has been posted above for your convenience.