Review: Pivot Point by Kasie West

Title: Pivot Point (Pivot Point #1)
Author: Kasie West
Published: February 12th 2013
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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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