Tempest | Julie Cross | Review

Tempest | Julie Cross | Review

• Sunday, 24 February 2013

Apparently Tempest was super popular and everyone was reading it when it first in 2012, but I hadn’t even heard of it until I saw it on Goodreads. I must have been living under a rock.

“Today: Jackson and Holly are in love. Tomorrow: She will lie bleeding in his arms. Yesterday: Jackson must undo it all.” 

Tempest is a time travelling story. Jackson, the main character, is a 19 year old time traveler who, after he and his girlfriend, Holly, are attacked in his dorm room (and she is lying bleeding on the floor) jumps back in time two years by accident and gets stuck in the past. In the past (2007), he meets Holly, and even though she is his girlfriend in 2009, they have never actually met before. Jackson’s best friend Adam is the only one who knows about Jackson’s time travelling abilities (or so they think) and they are constantly running experiments (in 2009) to try and figure out why it is that Jackson can do the impossible. In 2007, Adam and Jackson aren't friends. They don’t even know each other. After persistence on Jackson's part, they become acquaintances and Jackson tells 2007 Adam what he and 2009 Adam were up to in the future. Basically, it gets confusing often with all the time jumping. One tip: Pay attention to the note at the beginning of each chapter; it tells you exactly when Jackson is (not where, when).

With jumps between time lines, baddies, goodies, the CIA, a lying father, Jackson’s twin sister and near death experiences, you’d think that this should be an un-put-downable-read. But I could put it down, and I did. It took me quite a bit of time to read this book, not because it was horrific to read, but maybe because it was a bit predictable. Although it’s written in first person, from Jackson’s point of view, the only character I actually liked was Adam. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy it – gotta love a bit of time travel and a romance stretching on for years (Times Traveler’s Wife, anyone?) – but I think it could have been better.

The end was strange. Predictable in an unpredictable sort of way – I do realise that doesn't make much sense but just go with it for now. I expected something to happen at the end that would change everything, and it did, but I found it was just super annoying. I have just discovered that there’s another book after this one (thankfully, because there were so many unanswered questions!), and even though I did enjoy this one, I won’t be rushing to read the next one. If I run out of other things to read, I may read it, but it won’t be at the top of my list. I’ve given Tempest 3 stars, because I liked the concept and some of the ideas in it, but I feel it had more potential.