Review: Tempest by Holly Hook

Book: Tempest by Holly Hook

Series: Destroyers #1
Genre: Paranormal / Young Adult
Buy A Copy: Amazon / Barnes & Noble
Available Formats: Ebook / Paperback
Publication Date: September 14th, 2010
How Did I Get This Book: From Author, For Review.
First Sentence: "Janelle froze in front of the bay window as the breathe caught in her throat."
Description: Life blows for sixteen-year-old Janelle. Ever since moving to Florida, she’s been accidentally breaking people’s arms just by touching them and yanking steel doors off their hinges. Then her new crush, Gary, sees her gray spiral birthmark and tells her she’s a Tempest, able to turn into a hurricane by touching the ocean. Like him. So that’s why she feels ready to explode when she’s at the beach.


As if that’s not lousy enough, all Tempests have to become storms once in their lives. It’s their law…and it’s Janelle’s turn.


No way in hell is Janelle going to kill people, even by accident. So she does what any sane person would do—she runs away from home.
But it’s not long before the Tempest leader discovers and abducts her. Janelle’s told that she’s destined to become the worst hurricane ever. And now she’s the main weapon in the Tempest leader’s plot to hold the world ransom. No way can Janelle live with herself if she kills thousands. But using the power she fears most might be the only way out.

Tempest is the story of Janelle, a teenage girl who discovers she is in fact, a hurricane. Janelle was a difficult character to like. I understand that she was frightened by her situation, but to me, she came off as incredibly selfish. If she would have just taken in all the facts and made a decision based on them, she could have avoided the majority of her problems. I just felt like it took her too long to just accept her life for what it is. Instead she runs around for more than half the book, avoiding the help that people are giving her.

I did enjoy the fact that the romance between Janelle and Gary was slow moving. They certainly have a connection, but at this point, that’s all it really is. The two hurricanes did not have time for a romance – they were much more concerned with saving themselves and the world. I feel like if the relationship were more developed, it would have felt forced and out of place.

In my opinion, Tempest is targeted towards pre-teens and younger teens. The storyline was incredibly over the top and grandiose. In a sense, it reminded me of the overall feel of Percy Jackson. I am not saying I did not enjoy Tempest, because I did. I just feel like the older audiences will have a harder time accepting the string of events (and reasons behind them), than a younger audience. There were a couple of instances when I was reading Tempest that I had to take a huge leap of faith with where the storyline was progressing; I caught myself thinking “that is incredibly unlikely” or “that doesn’t make any sense”.  I simply had to sit back and think, is this book written for you? Would you have thought it made sense at 12? Once I did that, I was able to sit back and enjoy Tempest for what it was – an exciting and extravagant adventure story.

The same thinking can be applied to the villain of the story, Andrina. To me, she was not fleshed out and was rather one dimensional. But again, if you digress back to the state of a 12 year old, I am sure you will love her. I know I certainly didn’t care if my villains were fleshed out then. I just wanted them to be evil and for them to loose in the end. 

Unfortunately, I think it is difficult for some people to look at a book like this. They cannot read as a younger self; they cannot accept it for what it is. If you read Tempest wanting a young-adult paranormal romance with tons of character development, a sensible plot and fleshed out villains, then I can tell you right now, you are not going to like it. But if you can go into it as a pre-teen and simply enjoy the ride, you will find it rather entertaining. Tempest certainly isn’t my favorite book of all time, but I did enjoy it.

Favorite Quotes

"We'll be fine. I know these storms."

"What did you say to someone who'd just appeared out of a waterspout? Hi, how's Oz?"

"He was long gone, probably eaten by an alligator with her luck."