A Review for Hunting Lila (Lila #1) by Sarah Alderson

Posted by Jess
Published Date: August 4th, 2011
Finished Date: November 4th, 2011
Publishers: Simon Pulse
Source: Bought
Format: Paperback
Pages: 320


The blurb from Goodreads: 17-year-old Lila has two secrets she's prepared to take to the grave. The first is that she can move things just by looking at them. The second is that she's been in love with her brother's best friend, Alex, since forever. Or thereabouts.After a mugging on the streets of South London goes horribly wrong and exposes her unique ability, Lila decides to run to the only people she can trust - her brother and Alex. They live in Southern California where they work for a secret organisation called The Unit, and Lila discovers that the two of them are hunting down the men who murdered her mother five years before. And that they've found them. Trying to uncover the truth of why her mother was killed, and the real remit of The Unit, Lila becomes a pawn in a dangerous game. Struggling to keep her secrets in a world where nothing and no one is quite as they seem, Lila quickly realises that she is not alone - there are others out there just like her - people with special powers -and her mother's killer is one of them...


The Review: "When you came down the stairs and fell into me, that was the moment." Then his lips pressed against mine."


Wow. I was so thrilled when I finally sat down to read this. Having heard rave reviews from Donna I was sooo glad I wasn't disappointed.


Hunting Lila is a fast paced book that had me hooked from page one! I was constantly wanting to see where the characters would go. What would happen to them, and Sarah Alderson pulled it out of the bag...!


This book as it all. Suspense, mystery, romance (Oh Alex), betrayal, unlikely alliances...everything. Sarah Alderson created something spectacular when she wrote Hunting Lila, and I really couldn't get enough of it. 


The plot was thought out, and even thought it wasn't totally driven by the abilities that Lila possesses, it does play a big part in it when leading up to the finale of the book. I loved Lila, she's very easily likable, and although she starts off quite young in the mind only ever lusting after her brothers best friend Alex (Oh Alex) and wanting to see them both again, she does do a massive amount of growing up as the story goes on. She begins to mature in her mind, and in everything she does. Jack her brother is a great character, he's your typical big 'over protective' brother and I loved the relationship Lila had with him even after 5 years of being apart from him. It felt real, and super natural. Then there's Alex...(Oh Alex). What can I say about Alex? Sarah Alderson really hit the nail on the head when dealing with the strong but caring 'older man'. Having loved him for almost 17 years, Lila's love remains unrequited and I can totally see her attraction to Alex, he was kind and caring when they were young, and now he's even more so, added with a pinch of gun toting and a sprinkle of UBER hotness...and the fact he wears a uniform...yeah, Lila, I can totally see the attraction. And I loved that their relationship was one of slow build and sexual tension, that it was simply amazing that when Alex finally admitted his feelings for her that it just felt right and perfect in so many ways. Beautiful.


There are so many amazing characters in this, that I can't go through them all. But I will say that I'm really looking forward to reading more of Demos and his team. So many twists and turns in this book that it just leaves you on the edge of your seat biting what remains of your fingernails. 


The ending to this book was incredible! So much tension and so intense from start to finish, who's dead? Is that person good or bad? Omg, is that? and WHHHHAAAATTT??? Yeah it was just FULL of stuff that leaves your head reeling! However, it's not an ending that's a cliffhanger, but it does make you wish you had book two next to you. I really enjoyed the Epilogue to Hunting Lila, that was pretty good and THAT'S what makes me look forward to Losing Lila, to see what will happen with everything including how Alex and Lila's relationship will progress from there.


I'm not really sure if I have anything more that I can say, that hasn't already been said. I'm sorry if this review isn't very good, but I'm literally stuck for words. And I keep thinking about Alex which doesn't help matters *big sigh*. 


Anyway, I really would LOVE to read Losing Lila like...right now, but I guess I'll have to wait impatiently until 2012...*sad sigh*.