Thursday, March 13, 2014

Review: Pivot Point by Kasie West

Title: Pivot Point (Pivot Point #1)
Author: Kasie West
Published: February 12th 2013
Add It: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
Knowing the outcome doesn’t always make a choice easier ...

Addison Coleman’s life is one big “What if?” As a Searcher, whenever Addie is faced with a choice, she can look into the future and see both outcomes. It’s the ultimate insurance plan against disaster. Or so she thought. When Addie’s parents ambush her with the news of their divorce, she has to pick who she wants to live with—her father, who is leaving the paranormal compound to live among the “Norms,” or her mother, who is staying in the life Addie has always known. Addie loves her life just as it is, so her answer should be easy.One Search six weeks into the future proves it’s not.

In one potential future, Addie is adjusting to life outside the Compound as the new girl in a Norm high school where she meets Trevor, a cute, sensitive artist who understands her. In the other path, Addie is being pursued by the hottest guy in school—but she never wanted to be a quarterback’s girlfriend. When Addie’s father is asked to consult on a murder in the Compound, she’s unwittingly drawn into a dangerous game that threatens everything she holds dear. With love and loss in both lives, it all comes down to which reality she’s willing to live through ... and who she can’t live without.
Before I get on my thoughts I wanted to say a huge thanks to Nick [Nick’s Book Blog] who gifted me this lovely paperback. It’s absolutely gorgeous and I love the extras in it :) Allrightyyy, so Pivot Point. Who doesn’t know about this book? It was on almost every 2013 wrap-up post I read and everything I’ve heard about this novel has been positive. Naturally I was excited and I mostly got what I was expecting.


“Do you ever feel like you do something or are something for so long that it defines you?”

So let’s start with the world. “Um, hi there! I’m a fan of superheroes. You too? Oh, that’s awesome. So nice to meet you.” I just love love love superhero stories. People in this world have different powers such as telekinesis, persuasion, searching the future and such. Addie, our protagonist, is a Searcher. When she has a choice in front of her, she can Search it and see which option she should go with. That was so intriguing and I loved the idea of this novel—her choosing which parent to live with, since they’re divorcing, and Searching six weeks into the future. We kind of have these evolution theories of how the people in this compound came to have their abilities, but I wish it had been a little more thorough, I guess? I still fairly enjoyed the novel, but it read more like a contemporary.

The characters? I really enjoyed having Addie as our MC. Her passion for books and comics was adorable and I think we can all relate to people thinking we’re nothing but bookworms and being prejudiced towards our hobby, therefore, us. Addie goes through that since people really don’t get her fascination with books. Also, she’s rational and asks a lot of questions which I really admire in a character. I liked both love interests at first, but I truly adored Trevor. There’s something about him that makes him just incredibly awesome to spend time with and his kind, caring and thoughtful nature, sweet and humorous banter with Addie made him the guy to root for in my eyes. I also loved Addie’s Dad. He was awesome! There was one character that rubbed me the wrong way though: Laila. Her.. It’s not to say that she’s a bad friend, but I hated how Addie became a total pushover when Laila was around her. It’s like the girl had no opinion of her own.

The more towards the ending, the more my heart broke: for the future that had Addie betrayed so cruelly; for the future that had Addie’s true love in it, but could not be so easy so I knew there had to be a twist; for the choice she had to make at the end. I didn’t know who the bad guy was, because I didn’t really think that we were leading towards that direction, but it was awesome to see how this part of the novel managed to surprise me. I did suspect about a certain person’s powers though since it was so often referred to and I knew that somethinf fishy was going on, but um.. Ok, I don’t want to spoil if you haven’t read it so I hope the rest of you know what I mean.

The writing in general was humorous and sweet which I very much appreciated. I do have a problem with alternative POVs sometimes and this future 1 vs. future 2 thing sucked some of the fun out of reading, because I really wanted to read the chapters in which Trevor was a main character, but the other possible future kept popping up in every other chapter so yes, me and the book did have a little fight over whether or not I should skip forward and read the following chapter about Trevor, but luckily I decided to stick to straight reading and not skipping.

Anyhow, I adored this novel, but perhaps the world and some of the characters (and my reading slump which is ruining my mood so bad) were the factors that kept me from fully enjoying this novel. Do not get me wrong, there are many marked places in my book, because I LIKED THIS BOOK A LOT and I will most certainly be reading the sequel and meeting that mysterious Connor guy everyone’s talking about *winks* I just didn't form any huge emotional connections with the characters however much I enjoyed spending time with them.

Overall rating: 3.4 out of 5.0
Stars: ★★★

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18 comments:

  1. I didn't really enjoy this one much. I kind of felt like it was hyped up a lot, but in the end it was only a three-star read for me. The premise was SO interesting, but it just fell flat and I didn't really care about any of the characters :(
    It sucks because the plot sounded soooo good and everyone else loved it, but I just couldn't seem to muster up anything but 'meh' by the end. Like you, I didn't form any emotional connections to the characters.

    Glad you at least enjoyed it enough to want to check out the sequel though!

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  2. I totally get the feeling of wanting to skip chapters and go to the ones with Trevor! I had the same urge. I'm glad you liked this one, Siiri!

    Lovely review! <33

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  3. Aww no, sorry about the reading slump, it sucks! I've been meaning to get around to this series since forever! EVERYONE seems to love it, so I really, really want to read it haha. Glad you enjoyed it overall, despite the little fight with the alternate chapters :P

    Joy @ Thoughts By J

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  4. I really want to read this book ever since I heard of its release! Addie sounds like someone we could totally relate to. Too bad the characters were hard to form an emotional connection with though. I hope you enjoy the sequel a bit more, Siiri!

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  5. Siiri, my dear Siiri... I've read your review because I need someone to convince to read Pivot Point - if I don't like it, I am so blaming you.:))
    Great review, girl.

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  6. I'm glad you liked this one for the most part Siiri! I absolutely loved it, mostly because I couldn't get enough of Trevor and Addie together, and while I liked getting the alternative option's chapters, I always hurried to get through them to get back to Trevor. He just won me over from the beginning:) Laila didn't bother me so much in this book, though I did have some trouble with her when we got her POV in Split Second. I just preferred Addie, but I'm a huge Kasie West fan and it didn't detract from my love of the book enough to be an issue! Looking forward to seeing what you think of book 2.

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  7. This sounds really good and I actually have this on my kindle, but I haven't had the time to read it. Great review Siiri! Hopefully I'll get to it this year! lol

    Janina @ Synchronized Reading

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  8. At least you liked it for the most part, Siiri! I DNFed the book a few percentage in. I'm not sure why; I think the premise in general just didn't click with me at all. Sometimes though I feel guilty about it because so many people just adore this author like she's the biggest thing since sliced bread (mmm sliced bread). Hopefully I'll be able to get into her "On the Fence" which I have as an ARC. Fingers crossed, yes? <3

    Faye @ The Social Potato Reviews

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  9. I DIDN'T KNOW THERE WERE SUPERPOWERS IN THIS ONE!!!!
    I love love love books with superheroes!
    And yeah I feel like I am so behind because practically everyone loved this. I am not even sure if I've read a single negative review for this one.

    I am still a little vary of diving into this one because I've been burned a couple of times by alternate universe stories and well I don't like love triangles .-.

    I am glad you still enjoyed this in spite of everything.

    Lovely Review, Siiri!! :)

    Rashika @ The Social Potato

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  10. I've been meaning to read Pivot Point for SO LONG. I didn't realize there were "super heroes" involved. Those don't usually work on me, but we'll see how it goes.
    Great review, Siiri!

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  11. Trevor... <3 You need to read Split Second--there's a crapload of lovable Trevor scenes there. I agree that, while it was a really enjoyable book, there was something about it that didn't scream "amazing," right? Lovely review!

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  12. I love Kasie West and adored these books! Glad to hear you didn't hate it :)
    I hope you read book two!

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  13. Glad to hear you liked it but sorry that the emotional connection you wanted just wasnt there

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  14. Wonderful review, Siiri. I enjoyed this a little more than you, but I completely agree, I wanted to read the chapters with Trevor more than with the other guy. Can't remember his name at the moment.

    Sorry to hear you've been in a reading slump. I change genres when that happens, or I watch a movie! Great review! :)

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  15. LOL I totally know how you feel. It's same to me when I'm reading book and it has two aspects which are combined. I just want to skip the chapters about the second until I finish the first. It's such a struggle sometimes. Glad you were able to resist girl. I haven't read this one yet, but yeah it was hard to miss it last year and the whole idea sees so great. Great review, Siiri :)

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  16. I remember reading this last year and wanting to skip a bunch of chapters too just so I could read more about Trever. URGH. bets book boyfriend EVER. haha! This one was a three star read for me up until the final few chapters when Addie really put on her big girl pants and did what was right, that's when it became a solid 4.5!
    great review :)
    Lily @ Lilysbookblog

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  17. I love superheroes too! I haven't read this but I didn't think of it that way. Your comment definitely makes this more appealing. I like that this is a completed duet that I could read straight through as a pair. Especially because you talk about your heart breaking at the end! This girl's talent is definitely intriguing. I don't think I've read anything like it before. However, so far I've managed to avoid all books with parallel/alternate worlds. For some reason they're not my thing. But perhaps I should try this one.

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  18. I do love the sound of this one, sounds kind of unique to me and would probably be a more refreshing read to the stuff I been reading lately. Sorry to hear that you just couldn't connect with the characters. I guess the way it's been done, isn't overall surprising.

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