Review::Tmpest by Julie Cross

Tempest by Julie Cross

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Tempest by Julie Cross

I so much loved this novel. This was one of those that you go into a bit tentatively, not sure if you'll like it and in some way hoping you won't [It's a trilogy and if you like it, maybe; okay I'll look into the others later; but if you love it: then you're going to want to read the other two. Like yesterday.].

This was a great read. Done in first person and even with some sections in the bound book that are supposed to look hand written like a journal, which makes sense because Jackson's friend Adam has suggested that he needs to keep one with information about each of the Time Jumps that he takes. It was only by accident that he'd discovered that he could time jump and once Adam was convinced that that was what was happening, rather than Jackson having catatonic fits, Adam got on board quick and they started doing experiments to see how far back in time he could go. (The kindle version seems different with perhaps italic and bold italic for the handwritten part. So for the complete effect you might want to do the printed copies unless the first one is the only one that has this feature.)

Anyway Jackson's time travel life is his and Adam's secret and that will soon complicate things for Jackson, especially in his relationship to his girlfriend Holly. His dad seems too busy with his high paying job with a Pharmacy Company to take much notice. But when you are time traveling experimentally there are consequences, one of those being that you never know who might be watching. And though the reader soon finds out that Jackson's life is already a bit strangely complicate, it's about to get that much more complicated.

Jackson has a twin that died from cancer and he keeps seeing someone that looks like his sister; back before she died. Jackson and Courtney's mother died when they were young and their father had to raise them alone and when Courtney died that left Jackson alone. It's about the time that Adam and Jackson decide that there might be merit in finding out more about Jackson's mother, that all the experimentation catches up to him and while he is making up with Holly for having missed so many things while he'd been experimenting with Time Travel, they are attacked by some people who turn out to be time travelers who are aware of him and his abilities. Holly gets seriously injured and Jackson draws a parallel to possibly loosing her and having lost his sister and somehow he ends up trapped two years in the past (possibly from the trauma).

He needs to get back and somehow save Holly, but just as before he can only travel into the past; except now he ends up two years in the past as if that's his starting point and his real time is now his future. Between living two years in the past and traveling farther back in time, Jackson needs to find some answers that will lead him to the way of getting back to his own time. While he searches he uncovers a whole different picture about his own family and his father and his life and things will never be the same only because they were never quite what they appeared to be.

If Jackson thought life was complicated before; he didn't know the half of it.

Now the reader gets a better look into Jackson's past and into a bit of teen life while Jackson juggles life with his search and with trying to survive a past that he's slowly but surely beginning to alter just by being there. Throughout all of this the author never loses sight of the plot and the need to move the story forward and what develops it a tightly woven narrative that keeps twisting and reshaping as Jackson uncovers his past to save the future. Each step as the stakes get higher, Jackson finds himself with fewer people he can trust.

This is a roller-coaster ride with some big turns at the end that keep this exciting and still manage to give the absolute feel that this novel stands quite strong on its own despite being part of a trilogy.

Great SSF for fans of Time Travel conundrums and I just realized as I finished the sentence above this one, that I was going to give this one a five star.

J.L. Dobias



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