Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Tempest by Julie Cross: Review

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.
I feel so lucky to have read this early. I won an ARC from GoodReads, and boy, am I thankful for it!

The Bad
The government aspect. I have to admit, I wasn't expecting the government to be a part of this book. I didn't really like the whole 'government conspiracy' thing against the Enemies of Time. It felt a bit too much. Plus the whole 'my dad is a secret CIA agent' kinda felt... off to me. (I got used to it later on- it was the doctors that bugged me later on.)

The Good
The romance. I loved Jackson and Holly together. The author made it such that you can't help but root for them. I could feel Jackson's frustration on Holly's death and when he couldn't be together with 007 Holly. They had a lot of sweet moments together, and I just wished that they could have their happy ending.

The characters. I liked how Julie developed her characters- they were fun and easy to connect with. Jackson is a likeable protagonist, and Holly was a sweet girl. I also liked Adam- he seems like a fun (not to mention useful!) friend to have!

The Awesome
The plot. There's no question that time travel is confusing stuff. Changing the past, affecting the future- its not easy to write a book about it. But somehow, Julie Cross pulled it off. I have yet to discover a loophole in the book. 

The ending. Wow, that ending was unexpected. I was totally shocked. I won't spoil it for you, but boy, talk about unhappy endings! I felt so crushed- I felt so bad for Holly and Jackson! But by ending it that way, it is guaranteed that I need to read the next book, ASAP!

The Rating
Hmmm... Not exactly easy to rate this one. I'm going with 4.5 stars. It just lacked something tiny to make it 5 stars. But overall, Tempest was a pretty awesome book. I'm totally excited for the movie- and for the sequel. If you're into science fiction and a good forbidden romance, then read this! :D

Jen @ Midnight Book Thief
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So what were your thoughts on the book?
Care to share? 

2 comments:

  1. People seem to have very strong (and sometimes opposing) views of this book. I'm so curious! January is chock-full of interesting stuff to read!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yup! Some people love it, some hate it. It all depends on you. ;) And you're so right- January has a LOT of new releases that i can't wait to get my hands on!

    ReplyDelete

Don't just sit there with your mouth hanging open. Flies will get in. Why don't you leave a comment instead and allow me to get a peek of those thoughts running in that brain of yours?