Round 2 of the Swoon

"I want to know you.
I need to."
--Kasie West, Split Second

Genre: YA Paranormal

Publisher: Harper Teen, 360 pages

Publication Date: February 11th, 2014

Source: ARC Borrowed from Jaime and Erin at Fiction Fare--Thanks ladies!!
Goodreads
Previous Books in Series: Pivot Point

Goodreads Description

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 Belle

The Drama. The plot. It continues to be extremely fast-paced. Informative. Twisting. You DON’T want to put this down! This book alternates between Addie’s and Laila’s perspective and it is perfect. It is so hard to write what I liked about the book because I don’t want to give anything away!

The Sidekick. Laila as a character continues to have my love. She is quick-witted, sassy, and knows her strengths to get a man to do what she wants. She is hilarious and I love her. Her relationship with her brothers was one of my favorite parts of the book. She is so maternal and caring and will do anything for them. She is a fantastic friend to Addie and seeing her let go and open herself up to people *coughCONNORcough* is beautiful. She really grows up a lot and sees that it’s okay to depend on other people and not everyone will let her down. I just adore her and think she is one of the best best friends in YA.

The Heroine. I loved getting back in Addie’s head and seeing her adapt to the Norm world. I LOVED how different her perception and perspective is of certain characters when meeting them in an entire different situation. She struggles with figuring out what is best for her and what she should be fighting for. I loved that she listens to her heart as well as her head.

The Swoon. Ok. Now on to the really good stuff. TREVOR!!! ERMAGOSH I LOVE TREVOR! We get to meet and fall in love with Trevor all over again and, let me tell you, it is just as good the second time around. I love his quiet strength and confidence. I love his ability to see Addie for who she is. I just *sigh* love him. I legit sighed every time he was mentioned or came into the scene. Like I just couldn’t get enough! Swoony as all hell and he looks out for Addison like it’s his job. Oh, did I mention he is big and muscular and sexy?...No?...Well he is! If you haven’t met Trevor yet, GO DO IT NOW!

The ending. I can’t say a lot about it because I will not ruin the book for you but just know that the ending was fantastic for the story. It was realistic within the content of the paranormal world Kasie West has created. It wasn’t neither a super simple nor extremely complex ending that didn’t fit with the story. It ended in a way that made sense, didn’t bit off more than the story could chew, and left the reader feeling satisfied. It was a perfect ending to an amazing story.

The Beast

Kissing?...Nah. Ya know, it would be a perfect time for me to say that more kissing needed to happen but I just can’t. I mean, I wouldn’t have turned it down, but the buildup of all the relationships in the book was perfect. Not too fast, not too slow, just right. It didn’t feel forced or rushed and I wasn’t screaming for it to happen either. Kasie West did a really great job of basically re-writing a relationship we already know happened with new experiences and without skipping through the slow burn.

Should You RSVP to this Ball? 

YEP! If you haven’t read Pivot Point yet, GO DO IT NOW! It is a really unique and amazing paranormal story. The dual perspective in both books works really well and you legit will NOT want to put the book down.