Top Ten Tuesday: Most Unique Books

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, where we talk about bookish topics and share the love.

This week's topic is:

Top Ten Most Unique Reads

1. Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloane: A mystery involving books that made my love for books even deeper.

2. Mind Games by Kiersten White: Just as the title suggests, this book played games with my head and it stood out from the rest because of it.

3. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi: Juliette's voice is unique one of a kind, that you'll never forget it.

4. Pivot Point by Kasie West: Two completely different worlds and realities playing out at the same time made for a really fun and unique read.

5. Imaginary Girls by Nova Suma Ren: It was hard to tell what was real in this book and as far as unreliable narrators go, this one has the best one.

6. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell: Cute and quirky, this book takes the email world to the extreme and I loved it!

7. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson: The grief in this book stands out above the rest and the notes and poems scattered through the pages made this book feel very real.

8. Bright Before Sunrise by Tiffany Schmidt: Two narrators, one counting down to something and the other just trying to get through. The titles of the chapters and the way that it played out in one evening gave this book a nice, unique quality.

9. Panic by Lauren Oliver: The concept was cool and different and the writing was very different from what I've been reading lately.

10. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold: I'm a big fan of books written from the stand point of a dead character (morbid I know) and this one was heartbreaking and touching with a bit of mystery involved.

What are some fun, unique reads you've had the pleasure of reading?

Review: Split Second

Split Second
Author: Kasie West
Published: February 11, 2014
Hardcover, 360 pages
5 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

Life can change in a split second.

Addie hardly recognizes her life since her parents divorced. Her boyfriend used her. Her best friend betrayed her. She can’t believe this is the future she chose. On top of that, her ability is acting up. She’s always been able to Search the future when presented with a choice. Now she can manipulate and slow down time, too . . . but not without a price.

When Addie’s dad invites her to spend her winter break with him, she jumps at the chance to escape into the Norm world of Dallas, Texas. There she meets the handsome and achingly familiar Trevor. He’s a virtual stranger to her, so why does her heart do a funny flip every time she sees him? But after witnessing secrets that were supposed to stay hidden, Trevor quickly seems more suspicious of Addie than interested in her. And she has an inexplicable desire to change that.

Meanwhile, her best friend, Laila, has a secret of her own: she can restore Addie’s memories . . . once she learns how. But there are powerful people who don’t want to see this happen. Desperate, Laila tries to manipulate Connor, a brooding bad boy from school—but he seems to be the only boy in the Compound immune to her charms. And the only one who can help her.

As Addie and Laila frantically attempt to retrieve the lost memories, Addie must piece together a world she thought she knew before she loses the love she nearly forgot . . . and a future that could change everything.

The Pivot Point world blows me away. I love how easily West created these normal people with extraordinary talents. There is so much more to this world that I have yet to discover (and hopefully will be able to with more books!) and I would love to dive right back into this book. Pivot Point introduced us to Addie, a girl with the remarkable ability to see into two separate futures and decide which one to take. The book follows her through both futures, one where she is living in the compound with others like her, and another where she is the normal world falling for a normal guy. But when the unthinkable happens in one future, Addie is forced to pick the other one and erase all memories of the one she wished she could keep. Split Second starts where that one left off, Addie living in the compound with no memory of Trevor, the man she fell for in the norm world. So when she goes to the norm world for winter break and meets Trevor again, she can't help but feel like she knows him and is drawn to him quickly again. Her best friend, Laila, is the one who erased Addie's memories from her trip and after reading a note that Addie wrote her in the non-future, she knows she has the power to restore Addie's memories, she just has to figure out how. She enlists the help of Conner, a guy who has ways of getting ability enhancements. As Addie gets to know Trevor more and Laila learns to control her ability, the two girls discover new things about their lives, love, and the power they have over both.

Told from both Addie and Laila's perspectives, we finally get to learn more about what makes these girls great. We met Laila in the first book, but we didn't get inside her head. She struggles just as much as Addie does while also trying to overcome the complications of living in the compound. Addie falls into a new life in the norm world, remembering nothing of being there the first time. It was interesting knowing what I know from Pivot Point, knowing everything that Addie discovered but now knows nothing about. The dramatic irony was riveting and I couldn't wait to find out if Addie would fall for Trevor again, if Laila would be able to restore her memories. I know there are no more books in this series, but I wish there were. I wish I could learn more about these girls, what else happens in the compound after the events of this book and how their relationships will change. This could easily be a longer series and I would read anything that West wants to write. Both Addie and Laila are easy to identify with in different ways. Laila's home life is messed up and she will do anything for her brother. Addie's parents just got divorced so she is learning to live a new way, one in the compound and one in the norm world. I mostly love that the girls needed to learn about the norm world because it's so different from the compound. This series is a breath of fresh air from the other super power books. Each ability is mental, but the abilities are not the most important thing in this book. It's about living with who you are, finding out what you're really capable of and I love reading stories like this.

West has shown such talent in her writing. I fell in love with Pivot Point off the bat and read The Distance Between Us and fell even harder. Split Second solidified her spot in my top favourite authors and I'm excited to see what else she has in store for us, excited to see what else she can do and what other novels I can fall in love with. Addie and Trevor are so perfect together and Laila and Connor made my heart beat faster. This was a fantastic series and I wish it never had to end.

“Once Addie let someone in, she was impossible to forget. There was something about her that crawled inside a person and built a nice comfy home there, her goodness expanding until it filled every limb.” 

Waiting on Wednesday: Split Second

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Split Second

by Kasie West
Publication Date: February 11, 2014

From Goodreads:

Life can change in a split second.

Addie hardly recognizes her life since her parents divorced. Her boyfriend used her. Her best friend betrayed her. She can’t believe this is the future she chose. On top of that, her ability is acting up. She’s always been able to Search the future when presented with a choice. Now she can manipulate and slow down time, too . . . but not without a price.

When Addie’s dad invites her to spend her winter break with him, she jumps at the chance to escape into the Norm world of Dallas, Texas. There she meets the handsome and achingly familiar Trevor. He’s a virtual stranger to her, so why does her heart do a funny flip every time she sees him? But after witnessing secrets that were supposed to stay hidden, Trevor quickly seems more suspicious of Addie than interested in her. And she has an inexplicable desire to change that.

Meanwhile, her best friend, Laila, has a secret of her own: she can restore Addie’s memories . . . once she learns how. But there are powerful people who don’t want to see this happen. Desperate, Laila tries to manipulate Connor, a brooding bad boy from school—but he seems to be the only boy in the Compound immune to her charms. And the only one who can help her.

As Addie and Laila frantically attempt to retrieve the lost memories, Addie must piece together a world she thought she knew before she loses the love she nearly forgot . . . and a future that could change everything.

The first book in this series, Pivot Point, blew me away. I loved the special abilities, the private lives, and the integrating into normal society. West wrote the two different worlds perfectly, connecting each together without over lapping information. I can't wait to dive back into Addie's world and see where her next search will take her.

Has anyone read Pivot Point? Who's looking forward to this book? What book are you dying to read? I'd love to know!

Review: Pivot Point

Pivot Point
Author: Kasie West
Published: February 12, 2013
352 Pages
4 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

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.

In West's world, there is a secret compound hiding people with abilities. They have advanced technology and enough skills to not need to go into the real world. Addie is a Searcher, able to see both paths of a future when faced with a decision. On the eve of her parent's divorce, she must make the choice to leave the compound and live with her father, or stay and live with her mother. Curious as to what the outside world is like, she searches both futures so she can decide which she'll choose. 

With alternating chapters switching between paranormal life and normal life (with catchy definitions involving PAR or NORM to tell you which future you're reading) we follow Addie as she lives out both lives within a matter of hours. Things change quickly in her Compound life when the quarterback, Duke,  suddenly takes an interest to her. At the same time, she's quickly making friends with Trevor, a norm boy who's sweet as pie. Each chapter, though completely different worlds, connect in subtle ways that made me smile. West is clever in her scenes and words, creating two very different lives where Addie seems like a totally different person in each one. 

A mystery slowly starts to unravel around Addie and her friends. Unexplained football accidents and missing girls lead Addie trying to figure out her alliances and keeping herself out of trouble. The plot was quick and intriguing and I found myself not wanting to put this book down. I was rooting for the norm life the entire time because I love Trevor and he was so much better for Addie than Duke. I'm still surprised that she even gave Duke a chance since he was so wrong for her. This was actually the perfect way to incorporate a love triangle because it actually didn't make me want to throw up. My only problem with the book was that the romance was more important than anything else. I would hope that she'd pick a path depending on which family member she wanted to live with, but most of it came down to boys. Then again, most teenagers make decisions based on boys, so I guess it's realistic.

I loved the skills that each person in the compound had. West did a great job building this small world within a world and I enjoyed watching how things played out. Watching Addie struggle to live without her ability was nice, and watching her find out who she is without it was wonderfully written. It was a nice, quick read with a lot of heart and I'll certainly be thinking about it for awhile longer. 

“One person can't change the future. Do you know how many people and things are involved in every major event that happens? Sure, you might be able to change some of the minor aspects of a day, but ultimately things that are going to happen, if you go along a certain path, do happen.”