++++Julie Cross - Tempest - Book Review+++

                                                                 

• Pages 415
• Publisher - Macmillan Children's Books
• Publication Date - 6 January 2012
• Age - Teen
• Isbn: 978 0 230 7526 7 H/back

Jackson Meyer is hiding a secret. He can time-travel. But he doesn't know how he does it, how to control it or what it means. When Jackson, and his girlfriend Holly, find themselves in fatal danger, Jackson panics and catapaults himself two years into his past, further than he's ever managed before, and this time he can't find a way back to the future. All the rules of time-travel he's experienced so far have been broken and Jackson has no choice but to pretend to be his younger self whilst he figures out a solution. Jackson is tearing himself apart with guilt and frustration, wondering if Holly survived. He's also become the target of an unknown enemy force and it seems even his dad is lying to him. Jackson is racing against time to save the girl he loves, but to do that he must first discover the truth about his family and himself.

And stay alive.

Today - Jackson and Holly are in love
Tomorrow - She will lie dying in his arm
Yesterday - Jackson must undo it all

I was totally sold on this book from the synopsis - the time travelling theme is a concept that I really enjoy engaging with. However, within this book, the time travelling aspect is somewhat different to most for two main reasons:

• Firstly, the main character (Jackson Meyer) is able to step back in time due to a genetic gene - no machine is required 
• Secondly, Jackson can only go back as far as he was born which turns out to be around a twenty year span 

This is not necessarily a book that I would have picked up. However, I'm really pleased that I now have and to be honest at various stages, I found it really difficult to put down. You may be thinking (or perhaps you're not!) why I would not have automatically read this book? The reason why is that it's a teenage romantic love story with a mysterious theme. This is generally an area that I would normally steer away from - the paranormal-type romance which is a word that you certainly won't see very often on this blog! However, the secret agent part injects the story with both a male theme and perspective which, at times, helps to play down the romantic side.

I found the whole series of events to be rather well plotted. The nice Sci-Fi feel punched through at the end of the book which, whilst out of character, was well worth it. As a result, I feel that the author created a particularly well written debut book - two more books are due to be published within this series.

This book is fast paced and portrays a realistic teenage college-life. It features interesting science elements and some great characters. One such character is Adam, otherwise known as a computer geek and Holly, who will probably epitomise most teenage boys dream of an ideal girlfriend!

All in all this book was very enjoyable to read - it didn't feel like a book aimed at teenage girls. The sad, fresh and cool amalgamation of genres made this such a fantastic read, which I feel will be loved by all who can get their hands on a copy to read. I certainly hope that we get more of these successful ingredients within the next book.

Check out http://juliecross.blogspot.com/ for a bonus prequel short story which is available for free......

Many thanks to Sally for sending a copy of this book to me.