Parallel

Unpredictable. Fast paced. Incredibly entertaining. Well worth reading

It never gets you hooked it will make want to stop reading, it's not worth it

I am impressed. I Love LOVE this book! I haven't read anything like it before. Parallel worlds are a new concept for me. I don't even know if I can put how I feel about this book into words, my mind is still racing from that ending. Wow.

From the very beginning this book has been a page turner. I was only thirty pages in and I didn't want to stop reading. There was no real foundation set and the two worlds hadn't even collided yet, but I was hooked.

Abby Barnes's whole life is thrown out of whack when a class she picked for her senior year schedule is canceled. A schedule she happened to spend many nights and days stressing over, because she needed it to be perfect. She needed perfection because she needed to get into Northwestern. Sure there are other schools that have journalism programs, but Abby's sights have been on Northwestern for forever.

Her choice ends up being between Drama and Astronomy. She picks Drama, because Astronomy sounds like a GPA killer. But what Abby doesn't realize is that something as simple as picking a class can drastically change the course of a persons life.

On the morning after her eighteenth birthday Abby wakes up in a room and a bed that isn't her own, with no memory of how or when she got there. In a quest, with her best friend, to figure out what happened Abby finds out that she is living someone else's life. A minor earthquake was actually a collision of two parallel worlds and Abby's parallel self erased the world Abby had come to know. Unfortunately for Abby she was the only one left with all of her memories. Except she has one memory that doesn't fit with the rest. One that seems kind of hazy, but feels possible. In that memory Abby is forced to take Astronomy instead of Drama. She finds herself asking if that one decision could really change her life this much?

Now every night before Abby goes to sleep she prays that tomorrow she will wake up in the same place with all of the new memories she has created.

The explanations for the parallel worlds were often headache inducing, they definitely make you think. I loved that towards the end bits and pieces that were a bit hazy in the beginning from the explanations were explained in detail later. Everything added up and fit nicely into a perfect mathematical equation.

Abby was a strong character. Her strength radiated off the pages. I loved how real she felt. I bought everything about her, including her flaws. Caitlin and Tyler were great side characters. They complimented Abby well and they were believable best friends.

There is a love story in this novel. In fact there are two. Both Abby's fall for someone. Josh and Michael. Often I found myself conflicted, because I really wasn't sure which Abby and which guy I was rooting for. But one guy does stand out in this novel, and I always found myself drawn back to him even if I wasn't rooting for his Abby at the time. As minor as the love stories seem in the beginning they do become a huge part of the story overall. In fact at its core this novel is essentially a very beautiful love story.

This may all sound very confusing, but it does become clear in the novel. Two stories merge into one and you find yourself realizing that it really was just one story all along with one path and one answer. Great Debut!