Review: The Next Together

The Next Together by Lauren James
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Next Together is a reincarnation romance set in the 18th, 19th and 21st centuries that examines how love can cross centuries and endure despite hardships. 

I enjoyed the reincarnation romance aspect of it, and how science was a part of the book. I also enjoyed Katherine and Matthew's characters, and my favorite time scape was the one in the 1700s, though the one in 2039 was great too. I didn't really enjoy their 2019 communication through texts and letters. It felt like they would never talk about top secret information or write it down in that fashion, so it didn't really seem real.

         I enjoyed that history was injected into the storyline, however I would have enjoyed seeing a greater variation of time periods. I didn't particularly enjoy the 1854 storyline. Also, when they have the text at the end of sections that says "request for intervention, request denied", it was very confusing as it was never mentioned who "controlled" their time scapes and time so they could be reincarnated.

         I found the message of the novel, that love can always bring people back together and that even death can not separate us, very moving. Overall, I would give this book 3.5 stars. The story wasn't particularly well written, and I sometimes couldn't connect with Katherine (in 2019), but it was a pretty original idea for a novel, and the different time scapes weren't difficult to follow.

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