Review: The Next Together (#1) by Lauren James

Title: The Next Together (#1) 

Author: Lauren James

Published by: Sky Pony Press

Released: 2015

Source: Library

Synopsis: How many times can you lose the person you love? 

Katherine and Matthew are destined to be born again and again, century after century. Each time, their presence changes history for the better, and each time, they fall hopelessly in love, only to be tragically separated. 

Spanning the Crimean War, the Siege of Carlisle and the near-future of 2019 and 2039 they find themselves sacrificing their lives to save the world. But why do they keep coming back? What else must they achieve before they can be left to live and love in peace? 

Maybe the next together will be different...

A powerful and epic debut novel for teenagers about time-travel, fate and the timelessness of first love. The Next Together is told through a mixture of regular prose, diary entries, letters, "original" historical documents, news reports and internet articles. (Synopsis from Goodreads)

My Thoughts: This was such a unique read and I really enjoyed it. I loved the format of the story. I'm always a sucker for mixed media books. They are always so fun for me to read. I think the mixed media worked really well for this.

So this story is about two people who meet over and over at different points in time. They fall in love, and it always seems to end in tragedy. In The Next Together, we are following four different timelines of Katherine and Matthew: 2019, 1745, 2039, and 1854. I found each timeline really easy to follow. Each timeline story was really interesting and engaging. Each Katherine and Matthew were slightly different too. They were the same characters, but they were their own characters too. It's hard to explain, but I'm glad that it managed to do that.

I will say, if you're not a fan of insta-love, you might not like this. It very much focuses on the romance between each Katherine and Matthew. It can feel insta-lovey even though it's really not. It's weird, I know.

The ending didn't really give me any of the answers I wanted. I'm confused. I want to know Who? What? and Why? I'm going to read the sequel, so maybe it will give me some of those answers.

I'd say the last fourth of the book got a little confusing. Overall, I liked it. I'm definitely going to read the sequel. It's a unique book.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 3.8/5

Very Unique