Blogging for Books: Tandem

Tandem by Tracey Bateman

The little town of Abbey Hills has been through a lot.  Six months before, brutal murders occurred in the town that led many to believe that vampires were living among them.  All the murders stopped when a house fire reportedly claimed the lives of two people, one of them being the killer.

Now it's time for the estate auction of Markus Chisom, one of the fire victims, and Lauryn McBride owns the auction house in charge of the sale.  As she sorts through Markus's many antiques, she also has to deal with the Alzheimer's that is stealing her father from her.

Amid the estate, Lauryn finds letters that belong to the Dastillion household in New Orleans.  Amede Dastillion answers her inquiries and travels to Abbey Hills, hoping to find her long-lost sister.

Can Amede answer the questions that plague the town?  Will Lauryn be able to survive the secrets surrounding Chisom's home?

My Thoughts:

This book is Tracey Bateman's attempt to write a Christian vampire tale.  I say "attempt" because I don't really think it works.  One of the main characters, Amede, struggles with whether vampires have a soul and can God really accept them into heaven.  In true Twilight fashion, she is a "vegetarian" vampire, eating only animal blood.  But really, human-like creatures sucking the blood out of something?  Even if it existed, can that really be God's plan?  I don't think so.  A lot was mentioned about God making them this way and that they can't help it.  I don't buy that either.

As far as the mystery part of the storyline, it was pretty good.  I did figure out who the bad guy was.  But there were a few twists at the end that I didn't see coming.  I thought Lauryn was the best character in the book.  She was real and struggled with real issues.  In my opinion the book would have been great if it had only been about her and her life.

Apparently there was another book written in this series that comes before Tandem called Thirsty.  There was a lot of information that the reader was expected to know from that book that I didn't know.  By the end of Tandem I had figured out most of what happened in Thirsty but if you are going to read Tandem, I suggest you read Thirsty first.  You will be less confused. 

Bateman can definitely write well, I just think her content could have been better.

I give this book 2 out of 5 stars.


I received a complementary version of this book while participating in the Blogging for Books program.  All opinions are my own.