Queenswood and Storm

I have to decide whether the two separate plot arcs that I've written in the second half of Lio and Lamb: Haven are better presented separately (like the two halves of Tolkien's The Two Towers) or intertwined and presented chronologically.

As a writer, I am tempted by the first option. That's primarily because I wrote it that way. So it's essentially "done." Also, it does create some suspense for the main characters in Queenswood to not know what is happening with the other characters (off in Storm) until they show up.

Is that too contrived? Honestly, the second time I read The Two Towers, I rearranged it for myself, going back and forth in the text to reassemble it chronologically. I hated that big jump backward to fill in the story and catch up. It felt like too massive a flashback.

So as a reader, I prefer the second option. I'm just worried that it might get too complicated to follow... I have main characters who remain consistent (easy to follow) in each half of the story, but my POV also switches to minor characters, and each section introduces new minor characters. That could be confusing for readers.

Maybe I need to add setting references to the titles? e.g. ISLE OF DOCQ, JOSSE. That could help.

One factor in deciding what to do is knowing that if I intertwine the plots, going chronologically through events, I can easily split them again if beta-readers find the intertwined stories too complicated to follow. The more challenging task would be the initial intertwining, not the undoing.

One more thing: Although I have yet to list the chapters and POV in a spreadsheet (that will happen soon), at some point last fall/winter I did mentally map out the days and line them up. I'll have to search around a bit to see if I can find that doc. I remember planning that on any given day, intense moments happened in just one of the storylines, not both. I also planned their chronology with consideration of climate. In the story, weather events move from west to east. So a storm that happens in the western storyline eventually affects the characters in the eastern storyline. In other words, the two pieces should fit well together, pacing-wise and logically, without too much fiddling.

I feel like I have talked myself into a plan.