The Next Together ~ Lauren James

The Next Together has sat on my bookshelf for far too long. Embarrassingly it has probably been at least five years since I purchased this book. I attempted to read it once before but admittedly didn’t get very far into it before ending up back on the shelf. To this day I am still not too sure why but maybe it was just the wrong book at the wrong time.

Since then Claire has read this book and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I thought I better try again. For me, the beginning of November has been filled with slightly darker texts and it felt like the perfect time to try The Next Together again for a somewhat lighter read.

The Next Together follows Matthew and Katherine. A pairing destined to be reborn again and again. We follow the two, century after century, spanning from the Crimean War, the Carlisle Siege and into the future. Their love is boundless and each time their presence changes history.

The narrative took a little while to get my head around as it does jump to and from each time setting. But each ‘landscape’ differs beautifully from the next that it became easy to differentiate between each one.

I also loved that it wasn’t just standard prose. Each chapter is filled with letters, diary entries, newspaper clippings, maps, fridge post-it notes and much more. These little insights not only added to the story but made the development of each character much more beautiful. The way in which James intricately weaves each story into the other is seamless. With four ‘landscapes’ being detailed at once fully immerses you into the plot.

Overall, I gave The Next Together ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars and am eager to get my hands on the sequels/prequels James has since released.

M🌸