Book Review: Hunting Lila

Hunting Lila (Lila #1)

By: Sarah Alderson

Published By: Simon & Schuster 

Publication Date: August 2011

Page Count: 306

Buy it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or IndieBound

Source: Purchased by Reviewer

Audience: Young Adult - Paranormal, Fantasy

A friend recommended I read Hunting Lila a while ago, and I finally got around to picking it up recently. What a read! It had pace and mystery, excitement and sizzle! In fact, when I finished reading it I had to immediately buy and start the sequel, Losing Lila!

 

Hunting Lila is about a 17 year old girl whose family is split over 2 continents; Lila is in London with her largely absent father, and her brother Jack is in the USA with his best friend, and the love of Lila’s life, Alex. The family was torn apart by the murder of her mother about 3 years previously, and Lila misses virtually everything about living in the USA, but especially Alex, who she has known and loved for years.

 

The book starts out with a pretty shocking series of events; Lila is mugged but comes out unscathed, thanks mostly to her burgeoning telekinetic power. But it totally freaks her out and she bolts to her true home, with a little help from some abuse of her father’s credit card. Jack is pretty shocked to see her, and she starts to understand that it isn’t just any old Marine Corp that he’s in – he and Alex are involved in some serious black ops, which they keep insisting places her in grave danger.

 

Lila is pretty blasé about the danger though and finds herself getting drawn into something she doesn’t understand. This does involve ‘powers’ of some sort, although I won’t say what as that might spoil things. It is really exciting though, as you read from Lila’s point of view and so you are as desperate to work things out as she is. I won’t say any more about what happens, but it had me increasingly glued to the pages!

 

The romance angle was great; this was one that made my stomach swoop. It was well written, and believable –I did think Lila was being a bit neurotic at some times, but then I think that is probably a reality of being in love with someone who has never looked at your like that.

 

All in all, I really rated this book and it would be perfect reading for a holiday, just make sure you have the sequel lined up – you won’t want to wait!

Summary:

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.

After a mugging 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.

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…