Southside High

This book made my head spin (in a good way!) with its breakneck pace.

Loved Jackson (and loved a YA from male POV) and his romance with Holly, his feelings for her a major motivator throughout the book for his actions.
I like a book grounded in solid conflict.

I also like interesting, layered secondary characters and Tempest had that in spades.

From an author's perspective, I'm in awe of how Julie Cross kept the plot timeline fluid in this book. Would've been a huge challenge to write! Kudos.

And it's definitely a ‘film' book, one I can see playing out on the big screen.

This is a good story, although there are a few too many twists and turns that kind of took me out of it a bit. I wasn't in love with the ending, but since there's apparently a sequel maybe the author will fix that. Also, I found myself liking the 007 relationship much more than the 009 relationship.

Ok, there were also a few other things I didn't like. The whole CIA thing seems a bit cliched. And Director Marshall thinking that as soon as Jackson figures out he can time travel he will first confide in his father and second want to join the CIA time fighters club. That seemed unreasonably optimistic of him.

As usual, with almost any story the element of communication could have resolved a lot of problems. Jackson can tell his brainy friend Adam about what's going on, but he can't tell his girlfriend. He could have saved them both some heartache with just a few sentences and a quick test to show her he was telling the truth.

In spite of my complaints I really did enjoy the story. Once I started reading I didn't want to put it down. And I can't wait to read the next one.

Julie Cross has taken the idea of time travel to another level in fiction. Showing how one minute Jackson Meyer is living everyday life, the next he is thrown back two years into the past like a leaf being lifted on a breeze in fall.

So the story starts out with Jackson doing theories about his abilities with his research side-kick named Adam. They both have so many and Adam is kind of a genius kid in the book, so he is all about the logical mathematics in time-travel. Then again most scientists are logical. Anyway, after the first few chapters you learn Jackson is in college, 19 years old, is a english major doubling in french poetry, all the while living in manhattan and involved with his girlfriend Holly.

Head on over here to my blog for the full review, mostly because I've got minor spoilers and don't want to spoil it on Goodreads!