Title: Split Second
Author: Kasie West (Pivot Point and The Distance Between Us)
Genre: Mystery/Paranormal/Science Fiction
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 368
Rating: 4.5/5
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.
Sequels can be tricky things; sequels that add a new point of view of an already established character in addition to the original main character can be even trickier. This kind of sequel can also be a sign that you’ve found a new favorite author, though, and luckily that was definitely the case for me with Kasie West’s third book, Split Second.
I reread Pivot Point about a week or less before reading Split Second, so I definitely understood what was going on at the beginning of the second book, but I don’t think it would have been that hard to jump in even if it’d been a year since I read the first book, although I can’t be sure. Anyway, the plot of this book takes a closer look at the Compound, both from inside and outside like we saw in Pivot Point, and at times it seemed darker.
Of course, there’s plenty of humor and romance to offset the darkness. It didn’t overwhelm the seriousness, though – instead, it mostly seemed to compliment it, so that you had plenty of breaths of fresh air in between the serious drama and questions that the book was throwing at you. Addie was just as entertaining a protagonist, and Laila certainly had her moments of being snarky and fun, so no matter whose POV it was, chances are it’ll be entertaining.
OK, let’s talk about the romance. Trevor is back, of course, and there’s drama and cute moments from that. Duke also has a part in this book, although smaller, and that was kind of nice to see. It wasn’t a love triangle, but there were definitely acknowledgements of the relationship that Addie and Duke had actually had, compared to the relationship she had with Trevor that neither remembers. And there was a love interest for Laila, of course, and even though he sometimes seemed like a typical sort-of-rebel-but-still-a-nice-guy character that you find in many YA books, I liked him and definitely wanted to see as many cute moments with him and Laila as possible.
It was interesting seeing and “meeting” characters we already knew from the first book, but that Addie and Laila didn’t really know. My favorite was Stephanie – even though the end of her storyline seemed a little abrupt, it was great seeing a different side of her where she wasn’t always competing with Addie for the attention of Trevor.
I’m really sad that this is apparently only going to be a duology since I feel like there could be more stories told in this world, but it was still a pretty satisfying story. If there are more books, I’ll definitely be happy, but as is, I’m looking forward to anything West comes up with at this point.
The Reading Shelf 
I loved how everything was so well plotted and how it came together. In my book Kasie West can do no wrong. I was put off at first by the dual POV but I like how it works and adds to the overall story.
Aly @ My Heart Hearts Books
Before I read the book, I was worried about the POV because I’ve come to realize that I’m not always a fan of sequels telling things from the POV of a different character while still showing the previous protagonist and what the new narrator thinks of them, as was the case partly with this book, but I loved it almost right away. It was a little weird hearing about Addie after being in her head for a whole book, but Laila was so great that I didn’t care!
So excited to read this one, and so happy to hear that you enjoyed it. I love how you described the moments of humour, amidst all the darkness and drama, as breaths of fresh air – it’s strange, but I totally know what you mean by that! Haha
Humor amidst darkness and drama is the only way I survive some of the movies and TV shows that I like to watch, so I need it in my books as well! I think that’s something that a lot of people appreciate, so I think a lot of people will be happy to see it in this book.
I really hope you like it! I was kind of worried initially, because I didn’t know how the book was going to handle things after the ending of Pivot Point, but I think I liked this book even more than the first, which was still lots of fun!