Review: Hunting Lila

Hunting Lila
Sarah Alderson
306 pages (Paperback)
Simon & Schuster UK



Blurb:

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 organization 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 realizes 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…

Review:

Lila's had a rough three years with her mother dying, her brother kind of abandoning her, and unusual abilities becoming a part of her every day life. But after a near-mugging, things are starting to look better as she boards a plane and takes off to see her brother, Jack, and his best friend, Alex, in California. Unfortunately, things aren't going to be quite that simple.

Hunting Lila was a rather fast-paced novel that had some mystery and romance thrown into the pot to make it better. The plot of this story surprised me. When I started it, I thought I had it all figured out and would be able to predict exactly what was coming next. However, that was not the case. I kept getting totally thrown every time I thought I knew everything that was going on. It kept me on my feet, that's for sure.

Lila was also a pretty kickass main character. She was really stubborn, which translated to a little bit mopey sometimes and she was also impulsive and jumped to conclusions several times when she really shouldn't have. But she was also a fighter and wasn't willing to back down from what she wanted, which are both great qualities in a female lead. She tried her best to figure out what was going on with her mental abilities, but she also tried to keep control of them most of the time. She tried her best to do what she thought was best for herself, even if others didn't agree.

The only real problems I had were the romance's progression and Lila's trust of Jack and Alex. So, Lila and Alex's romance wasn't exactly what I'd call fast, however once they both understood what the other wanted, it did go a bit more quickly than I would expect of a budding romance. Granted, Lila had loved Alex for a long time, but still. And Alex seemed to go from reserved to fiercely-protective in the blink of an eye. The trust part I just didn't get. Lila tried to get information from them, but they were almost completely uncooperative. They said they'd protect her, but from what? Had I been her, I think I would have been a bit more suspicious and careful, whether they were a brother and a friend or not.

Overall, I'd give this book a hangover level of 4 out of 5.