The Next Together

‘The Next Together’ by Lauren James. 

Look how fabulous that cover is.

I read it in one sitting. That’s the most important thing I need to tell you. Before I even mention the plot, I have to warn you – I was glued to my tablet screen for five hours, ignoring the siren call of my fridge and the internet. Be prepared to lose time.

How many times have you fallen for the same person? How many times has that gone horribly wrong? For Matt and Katherine, that number rises every other decade. Any normal couple would have noticed, would have realised that it just wasn’t meant to be. But them? They never remember each other and each time their re-meeting sparks off a powder keg – sometimes literally.

Between meeting during a siege in Carlisle, at university in the future or as shipmates headed for the New World, their meet cutes seem too fantastical to be believable. But there’s a typewriter voice threaded through this story, flatly recording all the details of their lives, even shaping those details. With this ominous presence watching over them every time they die and every time they find each other again, it’s difficult to not worry for them. What does anyone want with them? Why bring them back over and over again?

The Next Together by Lauren James is a love story. But it’s not mushy and sentimental, and I never once wanted to throw my tablet across the room. And while it has a love story at its heart, it’s also a historical novel. And it’s a sci-fi novel. ‘There’s something for everyone’ is a cliché but it sums up this book perfectly. Personally, I’ve recommended it to everyone I know in real life. So lovely people of the internet, it’s your turn. You need to read this book. Because it’s got everything and does it all well.

You can find The Next Together at Amazon, Waterstones, and I would assume any other good bookshop.