New Point - Olivia Luck

Title: New Point

Author: Olivia Luck

Rating: 3/5

Thanks to NetGallery and Olivia Luck for letting me receive a digital copy before the official release.

Imagine the worst day of your life. Immerse yourself in the details. How did you feel? Who were you with? What were the consequences?

Recalling my darkest day is as simple as typing a few search terms into a web browser. It only took thirty minutes for me to become the center of a media frenzy that caught the attention of an entire country.

So I hid.

Nine months later and I'm getting better. Moved two hours from home, landed my dream job, and met a delicious new guy.

Healing is that simple, right?

Wrong.

New Point focuses on a subject that surprisingly isn't included in a lot of novels. I'd have guessed that guns and shootings in school hook more authors that want to write about that. Honestly, I don't like reading about it (good thing New Point is the second book I read with that topic), because I don't like to think of such terrible things to happen, though they happen way too often, especially in the USA. But let's not talk about the laws there and such things. Let's talk about the book.

I'll admit, knowing the main characters has mental issues, gives me a hard time reading a book. I envy all authors for being able to create such characters. I don't know why I don't like to read about characters like that, but sometimes it's hard for me to keep up with their thoughts. Or maybe it's my wish to help them, put my hands on their shoulders and shake them and scream at the book.

The second Zoe moves to New Point she meets Miles (not right the second she moves, but you know what I mean). You don't get to understand why she moves, you just know it's not because of regular reasons. Miles is her hot neighbour who gets to share his point of view from time to time. I've been looking forward to that all the time. He and Zoe are bounded by a special connection right from the start. Their chemistry doesn't grow, it's constantly there, even when Miles behaves like an ass. Can I say that? It's already said, so whatever.

The only other book I read about a shooting at a school was from a student's point of view. New Point is from Zoe's point of view. She wasn't a student when that guy stepped into elementary school and threatened to kill someone, she worked at the school's libary.

Once I got to the story point where Zoe reflected what happened that day, I realized what a strong character Olivia Luck had invented. Before that, I thought of Zoe as... Not exactly weak, but not that confident either. And when... Argh, I can't write about that. I'd spoil too much and I can't have that.

There's one thing I have to write about critically though. I hope it doesn't give away too many spoilers. It seems too much of a coincidence to tell the kids what they should do in case of an emergency and within and hour, they have to recall what Zoe told them. I think she should have told them sooner, but maybe it's just me...

Olivia Luck is a really talented author. I saw that by the way she thought of small details and ideas she came up with, like Zoe's and Miles' sister's relationship.

By now, I'm not sure if I'll read the sequel. The sequel is about Zoe's brother and his love affair or however you want to put it. The idea of their story doesn't make me want to read it as soon as possible. I'll probably put it on my list and see whether I'm in the mood to read it or not.