Review: Split Second

SPLIT SECOND
Pivot Point #2
Kasie West
Paranormal Young Adult
360 pages
HarperTeen
Available Now
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (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.

MY THOUGHTS
Split Second is a breezy sequel, one that flies by at a speed that will by no means be surprising for those who loved Pivot Point, giving us just enough tension to ensure we’re riveted without weighing our hearts down with an abundance of pain and tears. Though not quite as emotionally gripping as its predecessor, this sequel still manages to make the butterflies in our stomachs feel as though they have razor-tipped wings, every flutter we experience as Addie is forced back to square one with Trevor seeming to leave a trickle of blood in its wake, our desire to see them returned to the couple we know they’re capable of being an unrelenting throb of need as we read. What keeps us from being as fully immersed in this sequel as we were in the first book is the addition of Laila as a narrator, her point of view alternating with Addie’s and forcing us to make an unavoidable comparison between the two, one after which Laila is found a touch wanting.

Addie is as much a joy in this book as she was in Pivot Point, her sweet demeanor and her desire to be honest with Trevor despite what’s at stake for her if she is something that makes us want to wrap our arms around her and hold tight. Her first instinct is always to tell Trevor exactly who she is, and even though her memories of the Search path that included him in book one are still Erased (thus leaving him somewhat of a stranger to her once again), she still wants the communication between them to be free and flowing. When their worlds collide for a second time she’s upfront with how she feels, never resorting to game playing or speaking in riddles, providing us as readers with the comfort of knowing the two of them absolutely belong together and will do what it takes to find a way to make it happen.

Laila, unlike Addie, is very much a game player, a young woman who exerts the control she lacks in her home life through the emotional and mental manipulation (thanks to her ability to Erase memories) of those from whom she needs something. We get glimpses of a horribly poor excuse for a father, and while his treatment of her and her brothers causes both anger and sympathy to flare in our chests simultaneously, the fact that she in turn seeks to take back the control her father robs her of by robbing others of their own has us sometimes hurrying through her chapters to return to Addie. She uses her good looks to attempt to influence Connor (who thankfully doesn’t buy what she’s selling and gives as good as he gets), and when a moment arises where she has the chance to let him in the tiniest bit, she instead slams the door in his face with an intentionally provocative remark that’s often the exact opposite of what she actually wants to say. As the story progresses though, she does begin to grow on us, and her unwavering loyalty to Addie as well as her gradual thaw toward Connor brings a smile to our faces in the end.

Despite the fact that Laila isn’t quite as strong a character or narrator as Addie, Split Second is still a strong and hugely entertaining sequel, Ms. West’s writing style warm, flowing and oh-so easy to simply sink into and get lost.

Rating: 4/5 

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.