I really didn't get on with this one. It dragged so much and most of it seemed very pointless. Perhaps it's been too long since I read Tempest but most of the time I had no idea what was going on with Jackson. When he was trying to make sense of his ability it just confused me further.

There was so much waffle about Jackson's relationships but I still didn't care about any of them. He never seemed to properly develop friendships and he obsesses over Holly way too much. ( )

It’s been a couple years since I read Tempest, but the story pulled me in again so quickly. I have never felt overwhelmed by all the information she gives about the mechanics of time travel, and I never feel like the romance really takes over the story.

Also? This is what should be a New Adult book – a book where the story revolves around a protagonist who is out of high school, but newly into college or embarking on a career. It feels so perfectly what I want New Adult to be. … But that’s an aside.

Now that I have all the positivity out of the way, I’m going to have to hammer down on Vortex because stuff got messy. While I appreciate the balance in some ways, Vortex got really explainy in ways Tempest did not… and there was no need for it. Explanations about Jackson’s ability abounded, popping up every time a new character was in the mix. I felt like the timeline was always shifting, and it bothered me. Where the first book kept to its rules very well, not allowing Jackson to time travel and change things without consequences… Vortex was extremely indulgent. A lot of things lined up in such a convenient way.

Then, there’s our new (and transformed) cast of characters. Holly Flynn and Adam Silverman still appear, but their characters have changed a lot, and because of them… I feel like the story isn’t allowed to take on a life of its own. I expect Jackson to still have romantic feelings about Holly, but this would have been a stronger story if it had all moved on, even if Jackson himself hadn’t. We also have the introduction of Jenny and Lila, who are good characters on their own accord, but Jenny’s character arc was far too abrupt to be believable. Lila’s was a little smoother, but still clunky. And the thing that bothered me the most? The plot shifts so dramatically in the last quarter of the book that suddenly both their characters become pointless.

And, really, it was the plot that killed me in Vortex. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t going to continue forward and read Timestorm because I’m a sucker for punishment I guess… but Vortex was a hot mess as far as plot goes. First of all, we have the “kids as secret agents!” theme going on, which I loathe. I just find it so, so, so unbelievable.. and this was a criticism I had for The Reluctant Assassin earlier this year. Listen, I think teens are great. I think they can accomplish great things. I don’t believe that they’re going to get drafted into a secret society and become the best at everything and save the world. There’s not enough time for the training and on-the-job experience, and while I’m cool with dragons and vampires, somehow teen agents is too far a stretch of the imagination for me.

Throw in the fact that the plot didn’t seem to know what it wanted to do, and you have chaos. I felt lost a lot during Vortex because there were all sorts of convenient jumps for information that could have been imparted differently, and there was not a lot of follow through on some things. It wanted to do a lot of things at once and it’s almost like Julie Cross thought to herself “psh, I’ve got time travel in my tool box – I can make this happen”. What happened instead was we had an overwhelming amount of random things, no direction, and no concrete main plot to center everything. I think the main plot was aimed to be “stopping Eyewall”, but so little happened on that front that Vortex became a filler book.

So while Tempest was a book I purchased after listening to and has a home on my shelf… Vortex does not. It’s just a means to an end so I can get to Timestorm and see if the journey was worth it. I stand by my recommendation for Tempest, but I’m not sure if Vortex was worth it yet. ( )

Background: Jackson Meyer has joined Tempest to try to rewrite his life, only his plans are not going so smoothly. Now he is trying to fix everything, even things that cannot be fixed, and trying not to die by the hands of multiple other agencies. Vortex is the second book in the Tempest series.

Review: I was not sold on Tempest when I read it, and I am not sure about Vortex either. I enjoyed Vortex more than Tempest since a majority of it did not involve time-jumping. I was very interested to see where this series would go and how the plot would pan out, so I requested Vortex as an audiobook for review. I must say that the audio version made me like Jackson’s character a little more than I had in the first book, but I am not sure if it was the reader or that the character actually grew and became a little less self-centered. The biggest issues I had with book one was the time-jumping and all the questions I had, book two does answer some of these questions and like I mentioned, there isn’t a lot of time travel until the end of this installment. I think that Jackson did grow as a character, and I think the plot did get more understandable, but not completely.
Things that I did enjoy: Jackson finds out more about himself and his gift; he also makes friends that are more like him; there was actually a plot… Jackson had a clear goal for a good amount of this book and that was want made it interesting.

I think if you like time travel this series may interest you. It is told from Jackson’s point of view so if has a nice male perspective, but be does come off as a little whiney sometimes. If you want a good mystery, a plot a lot of questions, this is for you. I guess I just want more resolution in each installment, not waiting until the very end. By the way, definite cliffhanger ending.
( )

Great read, bought the next book this morning from my Kindle Voyage.
Complicated, but as far as I think, no errors in the timeline (maybe wrong, it is very complicated).
The romance is there, and getting even more messed up, no easy solutions. No sex-scenes.
A few people die, but only in one timeline, while in others they still exist.
Normally this grates my nerves when dead people are brought back, and you can never be sure wether they stay dead, but here the explanations and complicated twisted timelines make this all work within the storyline. Also, as no one has all the knowledge how things work, even the main players can only guess and theorize.
This could be read as a standalone, it has an ending, but you will want to read on, as the third (and last) book of the trilogy is published, you will buy it instantly and read on.
A few minor errors where words where not correct (wrong word, or no space where one should be) did not distract too much, I reported at least one� (Kindle EBook Edition bought February 19th, 2015 in Germany).
Highly recommended. ( )

Omg!!!!
That was sooooo good!!!
I seriously can't wait for the next book!!!!!
I wish they didn't leave it at such a cliffhanger though.... ( )