Review : Tandem by Anna Jazarb

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : Tandem (Many-Worlds Trilogy #1)
Author : Anna Jarzarb
Publication Date : October 8th 2013
Publisher : Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes & Noble
Everything repeats.
You. Your best friend. Every person you know.
Many worlds. Many lives--infinite possibilities.
Welcome to the multiverse.

Sixteen-year-old Sasha Lawson has only ever known one small, ordinary life. When she was young, she loved her grandfather's stories of parallel worlds inhabited by girls who looked like her but led totally different lives. Sasha never believed such worlds were real--until now, when she finds herself thrust into one against her will.

To prevent imminent war, Sasha must slip into the life of an alternate version of herself, a princess who has vanished on the eve of her arranged marriage. If Sasha succeeds in fooling everyone, she will be returned home; if she fails, she'll be trapped in another girl's life forever. As time runs out, Sasha finds herself torn between two worlds, two lives, and two young men vying for her love--one who knows her secret, and one who thinks she's someone she's not.

The first book in the Many-Worlds Trilogy, Tandem is a riveting saga of love and betrayal set in parallel universes in which nothing--and no one--is what it seems.

Personal Thoughts

Tandem is a hard book for me to review because I'm conflicted about my feelings on it. There were parts where I found myself really enjoying the book, but then there were also times where I noticed that my attention was waning.

The characters in Tandem weren't bad, but for the most part they were unmemorable. I can't really say that I identified with Sasha because I didn't. She was a strong character but she lacked a certain spark to make her an interesting complex character. She also complained a lot in the book and her use of snark came across as forced and not really funny. And then some of her actions had me wondering how smart of a character she could be and if she even had logic. My main problem with Sasha was that she was impulsive at times which resulted in her making the wrong choices and not really thinking through.

We also get to know her analog or double, Princess Julianna, from the another universe, but because she only appeared for a short time at the beginning of each chapter, she failed to make an impact on me. I can't say much about the love interest either. He was a good guy for sure, but I never fell for him. He lacked the swoon factor that some of my favorite YA love interests have and ended up being sort of bland to me. You also had a villain in the book who was the typical power-crazy guy who wanted to rule all the universes. So, yes, character-wise I didn't find anyone in Tandem to be exceptional.

Tandem's world-building was also not the best. There were a lot of aspects that I thought were unexplained until the end. Sasha was transported to this other universe ruled by a system of monarchy. When I read a book set in such a political system, I expect to have plenty of details as to how the world came about to be. Much of the information given in the book was vague, according to me, and I never truly got the full sense of this world. However, when it came to the explanation of the parallel universes, I thought the author did a good job at explaining to the reader how everything worked in a scientific manner.

In the same way, the plot, while undoubtedly entertaining, offered nothing refreshing according to me. It was the same old story about an evil guy who wanted to gain as much power as possible that is seen repeatedly in many dystopian novels. I went into Tandem expecting a somewhat refreshing story, but while the idea behind the book might have been unique, the execution of it wasn't. Despite that, I would have enjoyed Tandem if the pacing had not been off for me. The book started off nicely, but somewhere around the middle, everything started to slow down and I had a hard time being focused on the story line. The same goes for the romance. I didn't enjoy it very much in the first place and then the author went ahead and added in a love triangle which was unnecessary.

Tandem was in no way a terrible book. However, it wasn't an exceptional one either. At this point, I'm not sure if I want to continue the series. I might just wait for reviews to come in before deciding if I want to.

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 3/5
Characters : 3/5
Writing : 3/5

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the e-ARC of Tandem.