****
Now that Jackson Meyer (sort of) understands the dangers of time travel, he is ready to do whatever it takes to protect the world - and his ex-girlfriend, Holly - from getting caught in the crossfire. He joins Tempest, an offshoot of the CIA that fights a mysterious group of evil time travelers. The trouble is that the other Tempest agents don't know that Jackson is a time traveler himself. Meanwhile, Tempest is being attacked by Eyewall, an opposing branch of the CIA with possible connections to the other time travelers. After a run-in with Holly on a Tempest mission, Jackson realizes that Holly is being sucked back into his life all over again.
I enjoyed this book quite a lot, but it wasn't as easy of a read as Tempest was. When I read Tempest, I had a pretty good grip on Jackson's jumps. The time traveling gets seriously confusing in Vortex. It definitely doesn't help that none of the characters understand it, either. On the other hand, it was a really cool action story. Jackson makes a pretty good agent, and I enjoyed his interactions with the other agents in his team. Jenni Stewart returns from Tempest, although of course she doesn't know Jackson in this time zone. She and Jackson get along really badly at first, but by the end they've reached an understanding and have become friends. I also loved Lily Kendrick, Jackson's new partner at work. She seems to be softer than most of the agents at first, but once Jackson gets to know her, it turns out she can be pretty feisty and tough. Despite the fact that Vortex was pretty confusing, the plot and characters were good enough that I'll be on the lookout for the next book in this series.
Rating: 4/5
Completed: January 21, 2013
