Title: Pivot Point (Pivot Point #1)
Author: Kasie West
Published: February, 2013 by HarperTeen
Pages: 352
Rating:  
Purchase: 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.

Final Thoughts:
I have wanted to read this one for a while now. I’m a fan of time travel and stories with alternate timelines so I thought this would be just the thing for me. While it may not have lived up to the self-imposed hype I’d given it, Pivot Point was still enjoyable in its own contemporary romance kind of way. It has a mystery and a bit of suspense, but for the most part, it plays out very much like a lot of other YA romances. I guess the real point of difference comes from the fact that there were two stories running parallel to each other that we switched back and forth between every second chapter.

The way in which the two different plots interweaved with each other the further we got into the book impressed me. Events that occurred in one possible timeline would get a mention in the other as a nice tie-in. However, it did get a little confusing at times, as characters would occasionally overlap and I’d forget which reality we were in. Still, these were moments that I enjoyed and would have liked to see more of.

A lot of the time was spent on regular high school stuff that just felt like filler to me. Sure, it helped the characters in getting to know each other, but it just wasn’t grabbing me enough to invest a whole lot in the outcome. That did come, but just not soon enough. I felt like I was slugging through until about the ¾ mark.

I can’t pinpoint what did it, but suddenly it was good. Not great, but still, at that point I willing to latch on to anything. I started enjoying the romance, I felt the struggles, and found the characters to be a little smarter than I thought they were. There weren’t any great revelations as to the paranormal world and how it came to be or anything along those lines, but the smaller mysteries that had been cultivated along the way felt satisfactorily solved. I actually closed the book thinking ‘that made sense’ and appreciated the choices that Addie had made.

Recommendation:
I wouldn’t go rushing back to this book, but I think the end made up for the journey. If you enjoy all of the angst that goes along with high school dramas you may enjoy this more than I did.