Tandem

It has taken me WAY too long to get this book review out, but here it finally is. It seems that whenever I have thought about writing it, I've been at work or someplace that hasn't allowed me to post to my blog. So here it is...

I've sort of been on a fiction kick lately, and after reading the synopsis for the book Tandem, by Tracey Bateman, I thought I would send away for it. When I received the book in the mail, however, I was a little disappointed. I could tell from the cover it was going to be about vampires, which had not been mentioned at all in the blurb on the Blogging for Books website. I wasn't in the mood for another Twilight knockoff, especially some poorly done Christian one, but I decided to give it a chance anyway.

The main storyline was semi-interesting; there are ritual killings going on in a small town and no one knows who the killer is. I thought it would be fairly difficult to deal with vampires in a Christian novel without it coming off as stupid or cheesy, but Bateman does a fair job of it. There are a few minor storylines that need more development. Apparently there is a prequel, Thirsty, and if you didn't read that there are parts that aren't detailed enough to make much sense. Toward the end there is a section that seems like it was just kind of thrown in to wrap up some loose ends with a few characters; it wasn't really satisfying to me. The part that bothered me the most though was the relationship between the main character, Lauryn, who is an unbeliever, and Billy, a preacher's kid who has just returned from the mission field. Bateman seems to not have a problem with a believer pursuing a romantic relationship with an unbeliever at all. I am not comfortable with this being promoted by a Christian author when I have seen it cause so many problems in real life amongst people I know.

One thing I really appreciated about this book was the attention it gives to Alzheimer patients and what their families go through. Lauryn has to take care of her dad all by herself (she has no other family to help) and the author paints a good picture of the physical, mental, and emotional toll it takes on her as her dad's Alzheimers gets worse . This wasn't enough to redeem the book for me, however.

If you're interested in previewing this book, you can download chapter one for free.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.