Waiting on Wednesday #16

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating. Wow, it's been such a long time since I took part in one. The last WoW post on Little Pieces of Imagination was on February 20, 2013 O.o But I love sharing all the excitement and have missed these posts so let's try this again :) This week's pick is a very anticipated YA read that promises to be perfect for a warm summer night.

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.

January Wrap Up

For the past year I've watched people among blogosphere and booktube wrap up their previous months when it comes to reading, set goals for the next and just talk and gush about all things bookish. I always love reading two of them especially: Amber's [Books of Amber] and Rachel & Jasprit's [The Reader's Den]. Edit: since I forgot to add the giveaway and poll, then these will be added in the next month's wrap up post with double amount of books to choose from. 

January reviews (click on the covers for the links)

Books read in total? The total amount of books I read in January is 20. A LOT, I know. For me it is, at least. I just kind of had the month off except for work, because I managed to do so well last semester that I had zero exams. Plus, three of the books I read were novellas which read extremely fast. February will be a lot more laid back for me.

Lowest and highest ratings were 4.9 and DNF. I gave 5.0 to Under the Never Sky when I re-read it, because I realized that I love absolutely everything about it (even though I gave 3.5 when I first read it.. yep, I don't know how that happened...), but since it's a re-read then it doesn't count in my eyes, so 4.9 it is.

Book boyfriend of the month is a tie between Perry and Roar. I just love them both equally and you cannot make me choose to save my life. The runner-up is Braden Carmichael which Aman totally approves of, I'm sure ;)

Love triangles? There was only one book that had a decent love triangle and that is Hallowed by Cynthia Hand where Christian Prescott *scowls* and Tucker Avery *beams* fight for Clara's heart. Other than that, there were books that held some love-triangely tension, but I wouldn't call them love triangles because the choice is very, very obvious.

What I'm planning on reading... I'm so bad with tbr-s, you have no idea. If I make a tbr, you can be certain that I won't read anything from the list. Though, since Nick is reading The Bone Season this month, I'm planning on reading it with her. Perhaps I'll join the Angelfall readalong with Aman and Janhvi. Perhaps I'll read Cress right away depending on how bad I need it after Scarlet. What's for certain though is that I will read Into the Still Blue BECAUSE. Because!!! I need it more than my next breath basically. So I'm definitely reading this pretty thing:

That's it for me on January. I think I'll take it slow this month, because it's the beginning of spring semester and my final one (hopefully) before I get my BA degree. I need to work on my thesis, finish the semester, graduate, go to work (hopefully more often than last fall), hopefully read some awesome books and hopefully blog without taking huge breaks. Anyhow, I have some questions for you, because I'm nosy like that and want to know :) ...

What were your favorite books last month? Any new book boyfriends I should know about? (Or any old crushes returning to the pages you were reading?) ;) How many books did you read? What are you planning on reading this month?

Review: The Distance Between Us by Kasie West

Title: The Distance Between Us
Author: Kasie West
Published: July 2nd 2013
Add It: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers studies the rich like her own personal science experiment, and after years of observation she’s pretty sure they’re only good for one thing—spending money on useless stuff, like the porcelain dolls in her mother’s shop.
So when Xander Spence walks into the store to pick up a doll for his grandmother, it only takes one glance for Caymen to figure out he’s oozing rich. Despite his charming ways and that he’s one of the first people who actually gets her, she’s smart enough to know his interest won’t last. Because if there’s one thing she’s learned from her mother’s warnings, it’s that the rich have a short attention span. But Xander keeps coming around, despite her best efforts to scare him off. And much to her dismay, she's beginning to enjoy his company.
She knows her mom can’t find out—she wouldn’t approve. She’d much rather Caymen hang out with the local rocker who hasn’t been raised by money. But just when Xander’s attention and loyalty are about to convince Caymen that being rich isn’t a character flaw, she finds out that money is a much bigger part of their relationship than she’d ever realized. And that Xander’s not the only one she should’ve been worried about.

There’s nothing better than a book that proves you wrong. You see, I knew that people adored this book so so so much and I was very hesitant to try it. When it came out, I started reading it, but the first chapter felt so cliché that I put it down and didn’t even try to push through it. Sometime later, during a cold November day, I thought I really ought to give it one more go. Best. Decision. Ever.

“Sometimes it's the little things that bring that special someone back to us in some small way.”

How many times have you seen a movie or read a book about the poor girl and the rich boy and their star-crossed love story? A million? Probably. I was so sure that I had all of this figured out beforehand, but boy was I wrong! First of all, the characters? Yipiiyay. Caymen (trying really hard here not to make a Caveman joke) was full of sarcasm and dry humor. This girl was the perfect lead to such a seemingly cheesy story. Also, Xander was a really great male lead since he wasn’t the prince charming, but a very sweet guy nonetheless. Their career days were my favorite and I wish that someone would have helped me out with all the decisions prior college. There’re so many options nowadays and it’s hard to make the right one at such a young age.

Also, you know the plot formula that goes like this—girl meets boy; they fight their feelings, fall in love, get together; families try to tear them apart, especially the rich person’s parents; they break up over some jealousy issue or an obvious lie; everything gets sorted out and they live happily ever after. Sounds familiar? Ha. I was waiting for the break up, for Xander’s family to start sabotaging the relationship... Nada. Nothing like this happened. It was so refreshing and truly felt like a breath of fresh air. I loved how it didn’t make me cry, but rather kept a huge smile on my face. I basically looked something like this throughout the entire novel:

See? I was this happy with The Distance Between Us and I truly loved every single moment of it. I don’t think it’s the strongest novel I have ever read and I wasn’t perhaps that emotionally invested in Caymen’s story, but it was so cute and warm—the perfect kind to make a cold day all kinds of fuzzy and happy. Since you’ve all probably read this one already, there’s nothing left to say than you were right and I was wrong. Now I just need to get myself to read Pivot Point asap :)

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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