Author: Julie Cross

Publisher: Macmillian

From Amazon
Jackson Meyer has thrown himself into his role as an agent for Tempest, the shadowy division of the CIA that handles all time-travel-related threats. Despite his heartbreak at losing the love of his life, Jackson has proved himself to be an excellent agent. However, all that changes when Holly—the girl he altered history to save—re-enters his life. And when Eyewall, an opposing division of the CIA, emerges, Jackson and his fellow agents find themselves under attack and on the run. Jackson must decide between saving the love of his life and the entire world . . .

Review
I was excited to read Vortex – having loved Tempest, I was really looking forward to seeing how he would cope within the Tempest agency, where he would fit in, how the other recruits (ahem, agents) would treat him and how this would affect the relationship he had with his father.

But I have to admit that Vortex did get a little (okay, maybe more than a little!) confusing and the lines between who were the good and bads got a little blurred at times. I mean there were three (I think!) agencies to keep track of – Tempest, Eyewall and the Enemies of Time (EOT). At one point I thought Eyewall and EOT was the same thing – and to be honest I’m still not sure if they are or they’re separate (though I suspect separate – see what I mean!)

Adding into this mix of confusion is the time travel aspect – we all know and understand the basic rules as it applies to fiction – mess with something in the past and the consequences in the future can be dire – something which the Tempest agency is trying to stop the EOTs doing.

This simplistic definition is quite easy to follow. But this book introduces the idea of separate timelines, parallel universes, complete jumps, half jumps, Thomas jumps… (arrrggghhhh!!!). Lets just say it flew right over my head! In the end I skimmed over these bits and followed the story as best I could!

Moving on from this, I loved that we got to see Holly and Adam again – these were my favourite characters from Tempest. Adam only had a bit part to play but he was still the same character I remember loving last time around. Totally enthusiastic about science and time travel and it always seemed that if he could get a foot in the door with Tempest he’d be there like a shot.

Holly was different – though I expect this is because essentially Jackson meets her at a different point and it was interesting to see how he interacted with this different version of her. I’m not going to say anything more on the subject!
The ending was very clever and provides a nice hook to get you into the final installment. It was nice to feel a sense of ‘uh oh’ as the final words are spoken. I could almost feel those final words hitting Jackson and everyone with him in slow motion, the pace slowing down beautifully as reality hits him about the situation he now finds himself – it answers quite a big question and left me with a sense of anticipation about what is to come.

Overall, Vortex is a fast and action packed read which did unfortunately leave me a little lost in places. Despite this I was able to follow most of the story and I am looking forward to seeing how the trilogy ends.

Thanks to Macmillan for sending me a copy