Series ~ Lila #1
Author ~ Sarah Alderson
Release Date ~ August 4, 2011
Age Group ~ Young Adult
Publisher ~ Simon and Schuster Childrens Books
Source ~ A Good Addiction
GOODREADS 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. 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 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. 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…
REVIEW
Hunting Lila was like two different books. The first half was s-l-o-w with very little action and not a whole lot going on. I like to gather my background information slowly as I read. Little bits of it sprinkled here and there. While Hunting Lila let me collect some of the background on my own, it also had an information dump where it was all just handed to me like I was reading a textbook. GAH!
The second half picked up with a ton of action and another information dump, but better executed this time. There’s a kidnapping, a car chase, break-ins, and more. I REALLY liked the suspense and the paranormal POWERS! Sarah Alderson goes heavy on the action details and it WORKS! Mind reading and its big cousin MIND CONTROL are my favorite powers.
The romance was weirdish to me. Lila has had a HUMONGOUS crush on her brother’s best friend, Alex, forever. It bordered on obsession. And it’s pretty one-sided for a good part of the book. Maybe Alex was playing hard to get or maybe he just wasn’t into her or perhaps he thought it was creepy that his best friend’s little sister had the hots for him. Whatever the reason, I had some trouble with Lila being 17 and Alex being 20. Three years is a big difference at that age. Lila was in high school and Alex was in the military. It’s kinda’ hard to realistically see that working out.
The Unit is the mystery in Hunting Lila. I had my own theories about The Unit, and every one of them was wrong. I love being wrong about things like that! The big reveal felt IRONIC and a teeny bit convenient. Like it fit together too nicely. Ah well, I gave it a try.
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