Tempest Blog Tour: Character Interview with Jackson + Giveaway

I'm hugely excited today to be a part of the promotional tour for the paperback release of Tempest, a young adult time travel tale by Julie Cross. Protagonist Jackson has kindly agreed to sit down and answer a few questions for me about his relationship with Holly and his experiences traveling back in time. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to those who enjoy a good time-bending story with a strong romance added in!

If you could jump back in time and experience one significant historical event, which one would you choose to be a part of?

I ask myself this question all the time and my answer changes almost daily. On one of my trips to Europe I was forced into a tour of a concentration camp…man that was depressing. But after that, I think I wouldn’t mind watching them tear the Berlin wall down. And there’s a few World Series games I’d love to see, but then again, if I already know the outcome, I don’t think it’d be much different to see it in person than to watch video footage. I’ve heard the Beatles used to perform at this dive bars in Germany before they became big and every concert broke out in a chair throw, all out bar brawl. I’d want to be hiding in a corner somewhere out of the line of fire, but it’d be cool to see one of those concerts. 

What would you say is the biggest difference between the Holly of 2007 and the Holly of 2009?

Honestly, 007 Holly makes me a little nervous. Not just because she’s always climbing things and flipping off of them, but because 009 Holly knew exactly what she wanted and why and I just keep thinking that maybe older Holly was sure of herself because of all the events that happen between 2007 and 2009. And what if I’m messing that up? I guess it’s just a lot of pressure with 007 Holly, being the one who knows more. I’m not used to that responsibility.

In the same vein, if Holly could time travel and was able to meet the Jackson of 2007, what might she say is the biggest difference between him and the one she loves in 2009?

First off, the 17 year old version of me would NOT have asked 009 Holly out. Not in a million years. She would have scared the crap out of me. All her talk about the future and what she wanted to do with her life…I’ve made some progress in two years, but even the 19 year old me struggled with idea of Holly being more than a summer fling. Just because I was too afraid to call us anything at first, that doesn’t mean I ever wanted to give her up. It’s complicated. Very complicated. And that’s proof that younger me, would have run away at the first sign of his attachment to this girl.

What’s your favorite time travel-related movie or book?

Back To The Future, hands down. The second movie is my favorite.

If you could travel back to just before Julie started putting you on paper and plant in her head one characteristic or facet of yourself that you wish she’d included in your story, what would it be?

Before Courtney died, before my life got all screwed up, my dad and I were really close. He even coached my Little League teams all the way through 8th grade. In middle school, I wasn’t really into girls yet or parties or drinking. I was all baseball and comic books and music. Courtney, on the other hand, was an angsty, whiny, typical 13 year old girl and I think hanging out with me, was a nice break from her girl drama for my dad. So, I guess it’d be nice to have that part of me back that looked at my dad as someone who always had the answer and always did the right thing. He was strict and old fashioned when it came to manners and responsibility, but he let me screw up and didn’t judge me. He and I are totally cool now, but we had a rough few years and I’d love to have him there for me in those years after Courtney died. But I get why he pulled away.

What year do you think Adam would most like to visit if he was able to accompany you on one of your time jumps?

The depths of Adam Silverman’s mind are honestly too great and mysterious for me to be able to answer this question.

Let’s say you suddenly have a glitch in your ability and you can only travel back to one specific moment with Holly. Which moment would you be content to relive again and again?

Is this blog PG only? Oh well…you asked so, I’ll answer. I’d easily go back to the first night we slept together but only if it includes the hours that followed. I’ve replayed all of it so many times I might not even need to do a time jump to feel like I’m there. Maybe that seems shallow or overly-hormonal but you know what? It really was pretty awesome. And even though I couldn’t say it at the time, I think that’s when I stopped falling in love with her and let myself start being in love with her.

Give us a one-word teaser that describes what you go through emotionally in Vortex.

Shell.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions Jackson! This is the second-to-last stop on the tour, so be sure and check out the conclusion tomorrow at Through the Looking Glass! You can also view the full schedule to go back through all the fun guest posts, interviews, and giveaways over the course of the tour. More information on Julie and her books can be found here:

Website
Twitter
Facebook
Amazon Buy Link

GIVEAWAY

Thanks to Sara at Through the Looking Glass and Julie Cross, I have one signed paperback copy of Tempest to give away on the blog today! YAY! To enter please just fill out the Rafflecopter form below. This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only and will run through midnight EST on Monday, December 17th after which time a winner will be chosen and emailed. Good luck everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

TEMPEST

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.

Review: Tempest

TEMPEST
Tempest #1
Julie Cross
Young Adult/Time Travel
352 pages
St. Martin's Press
Released in paperback this week!
Received from Through The Looking Glass for blog tour

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
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.

MY THOUGHTS
Tempest, like most time travel books, raises a series of fascinating philosophical questions; ones that start out fairly simple with various what-ifs, but the longer we think on them, the more complex they become until we’ve tangled ourselves in to a series of intriguing knots that keep us entertained for the duration of the story and long after. As fun, and sometimes mind-numbing, as pondering the ramifications of time travel can be, a perhaps more interesting aspect of Tempest is its focus on Jackson’s romance with Holly, as his return to the past alters his initial meeting with her and creates an entirely new path for their relationship to tread. It’s engrossing to watch as Jackson tries to charm a girl who’s already his two years in the future, and we can’t help but wonder how this change of events will affect them as a couple.

One of the more complex questions that arises from Jackson and Holly's unique situation is if love is in some ways circumstantial – are there such things as the right time and the right place to meet someone? Have certain events occurred in our lives to shape us into the people we are currently, thereby allowing us to fit snugly with someone else when we might not otherwise without those specific pieces in place? It’s made clear to us that the Holly of 2007 is a different young woman than the Holly of 2009, a spontaneity to this younger version that 009 Holly has traded in for a more reserved and careful demeanor, making her an almost entirely separate character from the girl we first meet. Thinking about Jackson’s struggle to adapt his feelings for the woman he knows intimately to the one that’s currently standing before him is something that keeps us up late at night, questioning our own lives and relationships and how they might have been if just one tiny event in our lives had turned out differently.

With many time travel stories, the sheer weight of possibility sits heavy on our shoulders, the aforementioned what-ifs at times requiring us to take a step away from the story to get our thoughts in order before we tackle the infinite complexity of defying time once again. Luckily for us with this tale, Ms. Cross manages to present the rules and parameters of her time travel world in rather simplistic fashion, not so simplistic as it feels dumbed-down or as though she’s speaking slowly to make sure we understand, but rather she gradually introduces us to the theories put forth by Jackson and friend Adam to give us ample time to absorb information before we move on to the next complication.

Overall, Tempest is a story that leaves a great deal of space in between the lines on the pages, providing us with plenty of room to make interpretations, question motives, and watch as the line between the good guys and bad guys blurs the harder we stare at it. We’re riveted from page one and never lose interest until we reach the last page, the conclusion of this first installment leaving our hearts full to bursting with questions and objections, even as we recognize the reasoning behind Jackson’s decisions. Only a month left until the release of Vortex, and it certainly cannot get in my hands quickly enough.

Rating: 4/5

*Be sure and check back tomorrow for a character interview with Jackson and a giveaway!