Title: Tempest (Tempest #1)
Author: Julie Cross
Release date: January 17, 2012
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Pages: 352
Source: Publisher

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.

Tempest is one of the most unique books I have read in a while.  From the very beginning, I had a feeling I was going to love it and I was right.

Jackson has the ability to jump through time but he can only go back, not forward, and only for a short amount of time.  That changes the day he sees his girlfriend, Holly, get shot.  He ends up stuck in the year 2007.  Things only get weirder from there.

Jackson is a mix of your typical teenage guy and the not-so-typical teenage guy.  He is cocky at times but insecure at others.  He worries what other people think of him but he does his own thing.  He doesn’t like long relationships but he loves Holly.  I liked that I never knew what he was going to do next.  Holly was also a bit typical but not all the time.  She was the pretty girl but she didn’t take advantage of her good looks.  She was smart, nice, funny, and at times very insecure (mainly around Jackson).  They brought out the best in each other.  I also really liked Adam, Jackson’s dad, Jana, and the other good guys.  All the characters were very well-developed, especially for the first book in a trilogy.

The plot was what really kept me reading though.  Everything was so fast-paced and intense.  I loved that I could never guess what was going to happen next.  Tempest was full of surprises and I am still reeling over that surprising ending.  I’m happy to say it wasn’t a total cliffhanger though.

Overall, Tempest has earned my highest rating.  It will appeal to both guys and girls, young and old.  Get your hands on a copy of this book as soon as possible!

Rating: A++