Pivot Point: Review

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.


When I had first read this summary and seen the cover(about a year ago), I immediately wanted it. It sounded exciting and different from other paranormal books. Now, a year later, I finally got to read Pivot Point. Even if it wasn't quite what I was expecting, I still adored everything about this book.

I read The Distance Between Us earlier this year, and after I had finished, I wanted to read Pivot Point, just to see how different the contemporary the author had written to the paranormal one. (Admittedly, I had wanted to read Pivot Point long before The Distance Between Us.) Surprisingly, I wouldn't say it was very different.

This is the part where I tell you why this book turned out to be different than I expected. Ok, going into this book, I thought that I was going into an action-packed thriller, with a side of paranormal. As you can suspect, it was not that.

Like Kasie West's other novel, this one also focuses on characters. Of course, there's small differences; it's got paranormal in it and this one is a bit more entertaining to read. But still. Addie, the main character, was a person I could relate to easily and liked from the beginning; she was kind and passionate and independent. There's a multitude of other characters that I enjoyed like Laila, the sassy BFF, Duke, the perfect quarterback boyfriend, and Trevor, the adorable artsy boyfriend. I'm not going to try to spoil things, but throughout this novel, friendships were tested, hearts were broken, and truths were told(okay the last one came out lamer sounding).

Onto the plot: the book is not quite plot driven, with an exception of the ending, because that was most definitely planned by the author(evil, evil author). As you can tell from the above paragraph, it focuses on characters and each one of their quirks. THAT is the reason why I think it tends to come out across to me as contemporary rather than paranormal. Still, I definitely suggest paranormal readers should check this one out too!

The last 30(maybe 40?) pages of this book where it turned WAY more action packed-thriller. I can't spill anything besides this, or otherwise, you know, spoilers. BUT IT IS GOOD. SO GOOD. Even when I knew that the ending was going to be surprising, I still did not see that coming!

Overall, I would most certainly suggest this book to any young adult readers, but especially for paranormal-contemporary kinds of people.

Cress: Review(In which I rave)

In this third book in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army. 

Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker—unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice. 

When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can.

So, if you follow me on twitter, you probably know that I was lucky enough to get Cress. And I read it like it was my last few days on Earth(har, har). I read Cress in about 2 1/2 days, and the book itself is about 550 pages long. Do the math. I've been in a kind of reading rut for the past few months, where I can only read about a book a week-if that. So even though I know most bloggers can read way faster than me, I feel accomplished that I read Cress in a few days. I also feel miserable now that I finished it.


Cress jumped in right after Scarlet. The new character in this book is, of course, Cress. Cress is based off the retelling for Rapunzel. The twists to this retelling is that Cress was put into a satellite, not a tower(and she has some wicked tech-y skills). I loved, loved Cress. She was a brand new character and way more different then any other character Meyer has written in this series. She was innocent and naïve and shy. But that also allowed for Cress to have a lot more character growth throughout the rest of the series. In this book, she changed a bit, but not a whole lot, which I appreciate since Meyer's books needs to have a sweet, kind character. I am looking forward to seeing her change!

As some of probably already know...Captain Thorne is the love interest in this book.


Oh yes, ladies ;) I actually think Thorne drastically changed in Cress, due to a certain event. He was still a comedian, but he also became more serious.

What was one thing that made me sad? Definitely not much of Scarlet in this book. I think I was only in her viewpoint about 3-4 times in the whole book. SO, yes that disappointed me. And poor Wolf! If you have read the ARC already, you probably understand what I mean. Meyer, why you so mean?

However, I did get to see more of Cinder and Kai than I usually did-I got to see their feelings a bit more and how they handled their situations. Plus, a certain scene where I swooned alot.

Okay, I'll stop there, because my review is just going to be more crazy if I don't stop! Too many feels!

Overall, Cress was fantastic, thrilling, and action-packed! 

NaNoWriMo

This is going to be a somewhat short post. So, most book bloggers and authors and readers are trading in blogging and reading for writing. BECAUSE IT'S NANOWRIMO.

If you don't know what NaNoWriMo stands for: National Novel Writing Month. The name pretty much says it all. I participated last year...and epically failed. I think I made it to about 5,000 words? I can't remember, ok!

The thing I'm doing different this year is that I have a plan.


Oh yes, I do! It is a very rough plan, but I have a plan! I'm pretty psyched to say the least. As some of you know from experience, NaNoWriMo takes up ALOT of your time. I mean, you are writing a novel in a month. And most NaNos are fledglings (not all though!).

This means that I A) Will not be reading very much B) Will probably not blog very much but will try and C) Will be busy as hell. November is kind of a crazy month for me, because most of my school events I participate in are THIS month and all the other stuff....so YEAH. Just wanted to get that out there.

I will now go off to writing my novel.

Goodbye, for now.


P.S. Are any of you participating in NaNo? Leave me a comment!