2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer seems like the normal guy. He has a girlfriend, he goes to college, he volunteers at a summer camp…but he can also travel through time. Forget everything you know about time travel.

Jackson’s time jumps are harmless fun until scary strangers burst in on him and his girlfriend Holly in her dorm room and shoot her. Panicked, Jackson immediately jumps all the way to 2007…the furthest he has ever gone back. It is not like his other jumps. It feels differently and he is stuck. No matter what he does, he cannot get back to 2009.

He has no choice but to settle in and try to learn more about his abilities with a younger version of his best friend, Adam. Before long, the people who attacked Jackson and Holly come looking for him in 2007. Apparently, these Enemies of Time have similar abilities and want to recruit him or if he refused, kill him.

Another amazing book! Most of this book takes place in 2009 (Jackson’s present) and 2007, but other years are featured and they all give Jackson clues about where his ability came from. At first, when he jumps back, his body stays in the present, but it is out of commission. He and Adam term this a half jump. But when he jumps to 2007, all of him jumps. A full jump and the first he has experienced.

Admittedly, the first few chapters slightly bothered me. It was not the content, but the delivery. The story jumped around a lot, but then I took a minute staring at that word: jumped. And then I figured it was an appropriate feel for the book because Jackson jumps around in time. And honestly, after I had that epiphany, it was no longer an issue. It might have even remedied itself, but I was so absorbed in the story that I did not notice.

Tempest pulled me in more and more with the time travel, conspiracy theories, and CIA involvement as well as the wonderful cast of characters.

My exact thoughts and emotions when I finished reading this book?

Whoa. Wow. Sad. Amazing. Heartbreaking. Satisfying. Grief. Hope.

Tempest quickly went from a book I was not sure about to one that I love. It is another early book on my personal best of 2012 list. There is so much to this book and a lot of it should be confusing, but it instead makes perfect sense.

Recommended for older YA readers, probably seventeen and up. Some violence, a bit of language, a lot of sexual references. If you enjoy time travel in YA, you have to read Tempest. If you think it is not for you, try it anyway!