Happy Valentine's Day! Sending all of you virtual chocolate.
First off, I wanted to remind you that I have two amazing giveaways going on that offer you a chance to win some of my favorite romantic books. Just click on the description to enter!
Romance is In the Air giveaway ends tonight at midnight! Win either Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead or Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols.
For the Love of Swoon -- enter to win Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi, Scarlet by Marissa Meyer, or Crash/Clash by Nicole Williams.
These two are US only, but if you are international, do not despair. You can enter my Hot Off the Presses giveaway!
Now, let's get to:
Pivot Point
by Kasie West
Published by Harper Teen
on February 12, 2012
Source: eARC from the publisher via Edelweiss. My FTC disclosure is in the right sidebar.
Connect with the author on her: blog : Twitter

My summary: Addison "Addie" Coleman lives in the Compound, a community designed for people with special paranormal abilities. Addie's mom is a Persuader. Her dad, a Discerner, is a human lie detector. Her best friend Laila can delete unwanted memories. Officially, Addie is a Clairvoyant, but her power is even more specific than that. Addie can look into the future and see the possible outcomes of a decision. When Addie's parents announce they're splitting up and tell her that she can either live with her mother or her father, Addie looks ahead to see the implications of both decisions. They're huge: she'll have to choose whether to follow a path of heartbreak for herself, or to save a life.
My take: Pivot Point is an intriguing and well-crafted story that's half paranormal romance, half science fiction/parallel universe story. Addie lives in a community of people with paranormal abilities, and her ability allows her to explore the outcome of different choices. If you've studied quantum mechanics or seen the movie Sliding Doors, or the TV series Sliders, you'll understand what I mean.
When Addie's parents split up, they ask her to decide if she wants to remain in the Compound with her mom or head into the real world with her dad. So she decides to mentally flash forward six weeks and see what would happen in each scenario.
Addie's "normal" and "paranormal" choice paths are described in alternating chapters, which threw me a little at first. Then I decided that it made more sense that way. I was rarely confused as to which path she was on until she ended up outside the Compound in both. The author does help out with clever chapter headings.
I was also taken aback by the fact that, in each possible reality, Addie cozies up to an attractive football player. Since Addie has no interest in sports, I wondered why we couldn't have some nice musician or scientist as one of her love interests. But soon -- head smack! --I figured out that her two realities were going to converge. Awesome! Waiting for that to happen was by far my favorite part of the book, and I waited breathlessly to see what would transpire.
A few other elements of the book -- mean cheerleader Stephanie and Addie's sassy best friend Laila -- felt very familiar. There's also a subplot about a guy murdering teenage girls, and I had figured out pretty quickly how both that and Laila's abilities were going to play into the plot. But that didn't spoil my enjoyment in the slightest.
Pivot Point was a fun and moving read that definitely had a few surprises up its sleeve. Watching Addie choose her path was tough. But ... did that means that the other path she didn't choose never really happened? I'm a little iffy on this quantum mechanics stuff. I'll have to wait for book two in this series to see how it all pans out. I'd definitely recommend Pivot Point to fans of paranormal romance and those who love science fiction.
First off, I wanted to remind you that I have two amazing giveaways going on that offer you a chance to win some of my favorite romantic books. Just click on the description to enter!
Romance is In the Air giveaway ends tonight at midnight! Win either Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead or Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols.
For the Love of Swoon -- enter to win Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi, Scarlet by Marissa Meyer, or Crash/Clash by Nicole Williams.
These two are US only, but if you are international, do not despair. You can enter my Hot Off the Presses giveaway!
Now, let's get to:
Pivot Point
by Kasie West
Published by Harper Teen
on February 12, 2012
Source: eARC from the publisher via Edelweiss. My FTC disclosure is in the right sidebar.
Connect with the author on her: blog : Twitter

My summary: Addison "Addie" Coleman lives in the Compound, a community designed for people with special paranormal abilities. Addie's mom is a Persuader. Her dad, a Discerner, is a human lie detector. Her best friend Laila can delete unwanted memories. Officially, Addie is a Clairvoyant, but her power is even more specific than that. Addie can look into the future and see the possible outcomes of a decision. When Addie's parents announce they're splitting up and tell her that she can either live with her mother or her father, Addie looks ahead to see the implications of both decisions. They're huge: she'll have to choose whether to follow a path of heartbreak for herself, or to save a life.
My take: Pivot Point is an intriguing and well-crafted story that's half paranormal romance, half science fiction/parallel universe story. Addie lives in a community of people with paranormal abilities, and her ability allows her to explore the outcome of different choices. If you've studied quantum mechanics or seen the movie Sliding Doors, or the TV series Sliders, you'll understand what I mean.
When Addie's parents split up, they ask her to decide if she wants to remain in the Compound with her mom or head into the real world with her dad. So she decides to mentally flash forward six weeks and see what would happen in each scenario.
Addie's "normal" and "paranormal" choice paths are described in alternating chapters, which threw me a little at first. Then I decided that it made more sense that way. I was rarely confused as to which path she was on until she ended up outside the Compound in both. The author does help out with clever chapter headings.
I was also taken aback by the fact that, in each possible reality, Addie cozies up to an attractive football player. Since Addie has no interest in sports, I wondered why we couldn't have some nice musician or scientist as one of her love interests. But soon -- head smack! --I figured out that her two realities were going to converge. Awesome! Waiting for that to happen was by far my favorite part of the book, and I waited breathlessly to see what would transpire.
A few other elements of the book -- mean cheerleader Stephanie and Addie's sassy best friend Laila -- felt very familiar. There's also a subplot about a guy murdering teenage girls, and I had figured out pretty quickly how both that and Laila's abilities were going to play into the plot. But that didn't spoil my enjoyment in the slightest.
Pivot Point was a fun and moving read that definitely had a few surprises up its sleeve. Watching Addie choose her path was tough. But ... did that means that the other path she didn't choose never really happened? I'm a little iffy on this quantum mechanics stuff. I'll have to wait for book two in this series to see how it all pans out. I'd definitely recommend Pivot Point to fans of paranormal romance and those who love science fiction.
I am ridiculously excited to read Pivot Point. I really like Leila's ability. I know that bad stuff shapes our personality but sometimes you just don't want to remember that stuff. Probably would have to be careful though, you don't want to delete too many memories!
ReplyDeleteYes, that kind of stuff can get dangerous!
DeleteAmazing review Jen! I really want to read this one so bad! I love good Chapter headers! And the cover is ammaazzziinng!!
ReplyDeleteHappy Reading! :)
I also love creative chapter headers -- these are really fun.
DeleteWhy does Stephanie have to be mean? That will definitely come up in my review of this book next month-now I'm all grumpy. But thanks for sharing more info about this-I'm particularly interested in checking out the chapter headings now.
ReplyDeleteSorry about that. But she is!!
DeleteIt really was hard for me to watch her make the decision that is best for everyone... and I thought it was awesome how the paths converged.
ReplyDeleteBrandi @ Blkosiner’s Book Blog
I loved that part a lot!
DeleteI love the show Fringe so I think I'll like this one. Happy V day!
ReplyDeleteI watched one season of Fringe -- but yes, it's kind of that theory of pivotal turning points in history. Like alt-history.
DeleteThis just sounds so cool. I love the idea of the parallel universes and that she can see each outcome. The biggest complaint I have heard it that there isn't really the whole butterfly affect thing though, so she can't change the outcome? I don't know. It seems that people are really loving this though. I can't wait to read it. Great review!
ReplyDeleteI'm not 100% sure, but I think she's doing it all in her mind. I don't think she's actually time traveling or visiting the parallel universe, just peeking ahead mentally to see what happen if she makes choice A versus choice B.
DeleteI loved this book so much!! It was my first read of 2013 and I wasn't disappointed! Great review!
ReplyDeletexo
jaime @ Fic Fare
I know, wasn't the end crazy??!?! It boggles your mind a little. I'm definitely curious to see how Kasie West deals with it in book 2!
ReplyDeleteLoved this book! I think that she said she can change things based off what she learned but then her new life wouldn't follow either choice perfectly and she just didn't want to risk it that her changes wouldn't help things. I loved seeing both choices and how some things showed through both choices. By the end I was kind of sad to have to see her choose either life because I liked both! LOL I guess we are supposed to prefer the one boy but I liked the other two even after his mistake. I am so excited for the sequel!
ReplyDeleteOh man, I've been hearing great things about Pivot Point. I love stories w/alternate or parallel dime shins. So glad you enjoyed this!
ReplyDeleteYeah, the other storyline basically never happens, so you spend a good 1/3 of the book reading something that is nothing but a dream. This bugged me a little!
ReplyDeleteYES! Totally loved it. I think the idea alone of getting to search the future before making any decisions is so freaking awesome. Nice review.
ReplyDeleteThis is waiting for me! I am SO ready to be done with school so I can sit around reading until I get bored and too busy again. LOLOLOL.
ReplyDeleteAmazing review. I read so many praising review for this one I couldn't help but pine for this book myself :D I think the two different realities is an interesting plot!
ReplyDeleteSee, just the term "quantum mechanics" makes my head hurt. Which is probably why I steered clear of this book. But I do like sci-fi. It's just the whole parallel realities/ universe thing that get's me sometimes (kind of like time travel does.)
ReplyDeleteBut Asheley really seemed to like it and it looks like you did as well so I may reconsider:)
Starting Siege and Storm tomorrow (FINALLY!) :)
I can't wait to read this! Great review!
ReplyDeleteOk..i have to grab this..you have sold me!
ReplyDeleteLoved this one...the two converging paths, deciding which one was the lesser evil. Good stuff. I'm glad there's more to come. :)
ReplyDelete