Chicklish: REVIEW: Tempest by Julie Cross

Review by Hazel Holmes.

"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."

This was passed to me as Twilight meets The Time Traveller’s Wife. Being a fan of both I delved into this quickly and was not disappointed. I immediately became attached to the main characters, Jackson and his girlfriend Holly, and liked the way Cross developed the quite believable time travel plot. Jackson carries a recessive gene, labelled the Tempest. This not only allows him to time travel, but as the story deepens, it becomes apparent that he is developing other abilities too.

Jackson life was pretty normal in 2009, until two strangers appear in his girlfriend’s dorm. There’s a struggle and Holly is shot, she’s dying. All of sudden he finds himself back in 2007. The plot is quite complex so I won’t even begin try and outline it here, the blurb does a pretty good job of this, and Cross is clever in the way she explains scenarios and introduces integral secondary characters. My favourite is Adam, this guy is a total science nerd and I love how Jackson is able to rely on him, no matter what timeline he finds himself in.

It was quite refreshing hearing this sort of story from a male perspective. It’s full of action and mystery; and despite being quite sciencey, there’s also an incredible love story at the centre. I think this is going to be a very popular series, it would make a fantastic film...

Review by Hazel Holmes