Tag Archives: Julie Cross

An Interview with Julie Cross

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An Interview with Julie Cross

julie cross
The Reading Cafe is happy to welcome Julie Cross as our guest today. Julie has her second book, Vortex being released today. 

Check out our review of Vortex below this interview. 

Direct link to Review: Vortex

Let’s meet Julie.

 

Julie, we at the Reading Café would like to thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. 

TRC: Please tell us about yourself?

Julie: I’m a mom of 3 kids. I live in Central Illinois with my husband and kids. Before writing full-time, I was a program director at the YMCA for the gymnastics program.

TRC: When and how did you first become interested in writing?

Julie: I started writing in May of 2009. It began with a short story in a notebook that eventually turned into a full novel after a couple months. Then I began learning about the publication process and writing more stories. A year after starting I had an offer for three book deal with Thomas Dunne Book/St. Martin’s Press.

TRC: Tempest was your first book ever published? How did it feel when you found out you were going to be published?

Julie: It took a while to sink in. A week after I’d gotten an agent and negotiated the book deal, I walked into a book store in the Indianapolis airport while waiting to pick up my niece and it hit me that my book would be in a store eventually. That was a surreal feeling.

TRC: Can you please tell us the premise of your Tempest series, and how you came up with the idea?

Julie: The concept for Tempest came in layers as I worked with my now editor, Brendan Deneen. My idea started with a sort of time travel story that was also about aliens and gymnastics. His idea was to acquire a teen version of The Time Traveler’s Wife. Tempest is story that emerged from both our creative brains.

VortexTRC: Vortex is the second book in this series, which was released yesterday.   Can you please give a brief description of this story?

Julie: (TEMPEST spoiler Alert!)

Vortex picks up at the exact moment Tempest ends, walks you think the big decision Jackson had to make at the end of the first installment and his goal to join the CIA division called that deals with all things time travel. You get tiny peaks at the journal Jackson keeps while going through his first few months of training and then, very early in the novel, you are thrown right into a very dangerous CIA mission.

Links to order Vortex: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / The Book Depository

TRC: Besides the third and final book in your Tempest Trilogy, do you have any ideas of what you would like to do next? Are you interested in doing any other genre?

Julie: So far, I only want to write young adult. I have lots of post-Tempest ideas but I’m not which is going to be the one to follow. I love realistic young adult fiction and I’d love to branch out into that sub-genre as well.

TRC: If your book does make the movie screen, since you have optioned the film rights, do you have preferences as to whom you would like to play your characters?

Julie:  I’ve only thought about it for fun. Timing is a huge factor in this. I love Logan Lerman and also Drew Roy. Dianna Agron would make a great Holly.

TRC: What is your writing process?  Do you have a favorite place or time you like to write?

Julie: The only consistent about my writing process is that it’s always inconsistent. I’m really very flexible when it comes to a writing time and place. I have found, now that I’m no longer working a full time job, most of my writing time tends to be between the hours of 8am and 3pm while my kids are at school.

TRC: Is there a book that gave you the inspiration to write?

Julie:All the books I’ve read have contributed somewhat to my inspiration to write. I love escaping into a story and being able to leave myself behind. I feel the same way when I write.

 LIGHTNING ROUND:

FAVORITE FOOD: Snow crab legs

FAVORITE DESSERT: Cheese cake

MILK OR DARK CHOCOLATE: Milk but I’m not a big chocolate person.

FAVORITE AUTHOR: Can’t pick one –
Judy Blume, John Green, J.K. Rowling, David Levithan

FAVORITE BOOK: Little Women

FAVORITE FICTIONAL CHARACTER (not your own): Hermione Granger

LAST MOVIE YOU SAW: Magic Mike

Thank you, Julie for answering our questions. The Reading Café wishes you the best of luck with Vortex.  Keep us informed about your upcoming releases. We look forward to working with you again.

If you want to learn more about Julie, you can find her at the following links:
Website:
Twitter:
Facebook:
Goodreads:

 

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Vortex by Julie Cross – a Review

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Vortex by Julie Cross – a Review

Vortex

Vortex is the 2nd book in Julie Cross’s Tempest series.  I liked the first book Tempest, but Vortex is so much better.  Julie Cross has upped the level in Vortex, and it was a wonderful read.  Below is the official description, followed by my review.

Description:
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, after an accidental run in with Holly-the girl he altered history to save-Jackson is once again reminded of what he’s lost. And when Eyewall, an opposing division of the CIA, emerges, Jackson and his fellow agents not only find themselves under attack, but Jackson begins to discover that the world around him has changed and someone knows about his erased relationship with Holly, putting both their lives at risk all over again.

Review:

When we last left off in Tempest, Jackson decided he wanted to become a CIA agent, and work with his dad, and other agents from Tempest.  This agency handles only time related events, as well as dealing with the EOT (enemies of time). Jackson had also changed the timeline, so that his love, Holly would no longer know him, and thereby be safe from those enemies who would threaten her life.

This was an exciting story from the start, as Jackson becomes involved as a trainee for the CIA.  Jackson begins to learn more about how far he can go with his time travel jumps, and that he a major player in this plot between the two sides.  We meet many other trainees, who will become a major part of the story.  Julie Cross does a great job creating some of these wonderful characters.  I loved Lily, Jenni, especially when they learned all about Jackson, and his abilities, as well as what happened with Holly.  Other great characters in this series are Emily, Courtney, Mason, just to name a few.  Cross also creates characters that you do not know if they are good or bad, such as Marshall, Dr Melvin, Jackson’s Dad, Senator Healy, Freeman, Thomas, Cassidy.

There are a number of interesting twists along the way, which will include the return of Holly, as an agent for the Enemies of Time, and the strange reactions of Jackson, when he sees she does not know him.  The story was fun, and exciting, as the trainees find themselves in dangerous situations that they have to defend themselves against the enemy.  We get to understand a lot more of the time traveling, and how far back it does go, as well as how far in the future the EOT faction comes from.   Jackson knows that time travel is no longer t just simple fun, as he delves deeper into learning more.  The dangers of changing time becomes apparent, and the two factions fighting each other, opens more questions as to who is really the enemy.

The last third of the book was non stop excitement.  Near the end there was a major twist that was surprising, and confusing at the same time.  On top of that, Cross leaves us hanging to wait for the third book.  There are so many questions still to be discovered; Will Holly and Jackson ever get together again?   What will happen to two of my favorites in the series, Lily and Jenni?  How far will Jackson be able to go with his abilities, and what will be the ramifications.  Vortex was a wonderful edition to Julie Cross’s Tempest series, and I am looking forward to reading the third book, even if it’s a year away.  Well done.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher

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Tempest by Julie Cross – a Review

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Tempest by Julie Cross – a Review

tempest

Tempest by Julie Cross is her debut novel, and is the first book in her Tempest series.  Below is the official description of the book, followed by my review.

Description:
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:

As you can see by the description, our hero Jackson Meyer is a college student, who has a secret.  He can travel back in time, but does fast and short jumps, mostly for fun.  The only person Jackson has told about his secret is his friend Adam, who loves to tinkle with scientific things.  Together Adam monitors Jackson for time lapses, how far back he can go, etc, so they can figure out why Jackson is different, and has this ability.  Jackson also has a girlfriend, Holly, who does not know about his time traveling fun.  One day, when Holly and Jackson are together, someone breaks into the bedroom, and a fight ensues, with Holly getting shot, and Jackson jumping out of the room back in time,  2 years to 2007.

Jackson is desperate to go back to 2009 and save Holly, but each time he jumps, he goes back to his childhood days, or remains in 2007. For whatever reason, he cannot go back to his normal time.  Jackson over the course jumping back a bit more time, or in 2007, begins to learn more about his father, the CIA, and the so called Enemies of Time.  Jackson begins to discover, that he is not the only person who has this ability, and his father, and the cronies of his father that he meets in different time zones are all part of an elaborate division of the CIA.  I thought this was an interesting concept, time travel, but I found the early part of the book somewhat confusing, as Jackson kept trying to jump in time, meeting so many people; his young dead sister, enemies, CIA, his dead mother and the truth behind his abilities.  I personally found some of it slow, but trying to figure out who was who; or who was good or bad, throwing me off. 

But by the time we reached 2/3 of the book, it became very exciting.  You finally began to understand who was who, and yet so many twists still remained.  Eventually Jackson does go back to 2009, with the help of his father and his CIA friends.  Holly is ok, and she learns about Jackson’s abilities, which she does accept freely.  I did enjoy his relationship with Holly, friendship with Adam, and really cared about his dead sister Courtney.  Cross did an excellent job creating all of these characters.  I would like to know more about Emily and the leaders of Enemies of Time.

Rather then give spoilers, Jackson does get a lot of answers, makes decisions for his future, and for those around him.  I also want to find out how far Jackson can go to learn more of his abilities, as hinted by those desperately trying to recruit or kill him. Julie Cross has left enough open for us to come back in her next book of this trilogy, Vortex.  Though at first I wasn’t sure if I would continue, the final exciting third of the book was enough to convince me to read on.

Reviewed by Barb

 

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