Review: Tempest

Tempest (Tempest #1) by Julie Cross
Release Date ~ January 17, 2012
St. Martin's Griffin ~ MacMillan
ISBN13: 9780312568894
ARC received from Raincoast Books for review

Goodreads Synopsis:

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 book which has had an inordinate amount of hype surrounding it; and after already being optioned for film, I went into this expecting something amazing.

And Tempest is good, don't get me wrong; but it wasn't AMAZING and it didn't blow me away even though it had plenty of positive attributes and I'm looking forward to the sequel.

1. Character development:
   We really get to see Jackson develop a lot throughout the course of the book, and I expect to see even more in subsequent books. He's a far cry from perfect when the book starts out, and he's the first to (later on) admit that he can be quite the jerk at times. But the fact that he admits that? Definitely shows some character development on his part. Jackson's the kind of guy that takes some time to grow on you, but he's worth it in the end. But let me finish this with a disclaimer: this doesn't mean that I think he always makes the best decisions, but he's the same as any other flawed character. Mistakes happen- it's the development that counts in the end.
2. Exciting action sequences:
   I can definitely see why this book was picked up and optioned for film so early on; it's just filled with action, mystery, excitement and just enough romance to really appeal to people as a great storyline. And somehow Jackson just always finds trouble. ALWAYS. Oh you little troublemaker, you! (But I love it.) Anything that has me flipping the pages faster than I can read (and I'm a fast reader) is a good thing.
3. Time travel:
   I haven't read very many time travel books yet, so that might  be one reason I was really excited about this one and thoroughly enjoyed it. Time travel is a GREAT idea, and I love seeing more books that are using it because I think we're going to see some really great YA coming from this idea, Tempest included. Plus, I appreciated how much explanation was provided regarding the rules and methods of time travel in the Tempest world.

Now as much as I enjoyed this one, I have to admit that some of it was rather cheesy, (Enemies of Time? Really?) and it is fairly predictable. But I still found myself heavily invested in the story and anticipating what would happen next, and I'm excited for the next one to be released!