Review: Tandem

Tandem by Anna Jarzab 
Series: Many-Worlds Trilogy #1
Published by Random House Australia 
Format Reviewed: Paperback
Publication Date: 3rd February 2014
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Pages: 448
Reviewed by: Eugenia
My Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars 
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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. 

Tandem is a riveting saga of love and betrayal set in parallel universes in which nothing – and no one – is what it seems. 

Thank you to Random House Australia for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Before I get into this review - let me just say that the cover on Tandem is AMAZING. I know, you should 'never judge a book by its cover' but in this case the story itself and structure of the novel truly lived up to the beautifully designed front. This is a book with some parallel universes, a royal dilemma and a teenage girl just trying to make sense of it all.

Sasha never even thought that parallel universes even existed, let alone being able to travel between them. But when Grant, the most popular guy in school starts to take an interest in her, she starts to think that things might be too good to be true. When she finds out that he wasn't exactly who he said he was and she is transported into another world, she definitely realises that something bigger than she could ever imagine is going on. Forced to impersonate Juliana, the princess of Aurora (and her exact physical replica), Sasha soon learns that she needs to trust the person that brought her there, Thomas, if she has any chance of making it back home. But there's also an arranged marriage on the line with Prince Callum of the enemy kingdom, and Sasha needs to watch her steps to stop everything from falling apart.

I found the concept of the book itself to be immediately intriguing. I was drawn in by the idea of 'parallel universes' but wondered how the author would even begin to explain something that seems so scientifically complicated. Luckily, Anna Jarzab did a fantastic job with the worldbuilding, revealing more about it as the story went on. This definitely gets a big tick from me, because in any science-fiction novel, making the concept a believable reality is essential.

Apart from the great worldbuilding, I have to say that how the book was actually structured in terms of POV's and a countdown was done well and makes this a novel which stands out from the crowd. There are a couple of POV's which don't distract from the story and aren't put in regularly as such. Rather, they're dispersed in some of the key moments of the story to really give the reader a wider idea of what is happening.

The story itself was full of mystery and some great character-building from the start. Some might say that the introduction was a little on the long side, but I think that it gave some great background on Sasha as a character and what her personality is like. Once the story moved on to Aurora though, things definitely began to pick up. There was some romance and a tiny bit of a love triangle (or more like unrequited love in some part) but it didn't distract from the more pressing elements of the story. That being said, I think that there will be more to the romance in the second book - but only time will tell.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, Tandem was a very enjoyable read with a multi-verse aspect which makes the story all the more interesting. There was some great character development throughout and after such a cliffhanger at the end I can't wait to read the sequel: 'Tether'.