WEEKEND BOOK CLUB: Tempest

Julie Cross is my agency sister and I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of Tempest via my fab agent, top 10 YA seller on Publisher's Marketplace, Suzie Townsend!

TEMPEST has huge raps. To be released in January 2011, it has already been optioned for film with Summit (makers of Twilight), and has a first print run of over 250K!

Here's the blurb:

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.

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.

While I'm away at conference this weekend, what are you reading?