Review: Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson

FORETHOUGHT:

I wasn't expecting this book to show up in the mail. I didn't request it. Part of me was excited at the prospect of a surprise book with a pretty cover and another part of me thought it was some big stuff up. I decided to give it a  go and see what it was like anyhow.

THE DETAILS:

Pages: 320

Release Date: September 2011

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

THE PLOT:

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…

MY THOUGHTS:

'Hunting Lila' was a literary mix of 'covert affairs' and 'heroes'. There is a love story, a killer plot and was something that you could imagine in the hand of one of the cool kids. I don't think I know any girl that wouldn't be interested in this story. 

I loved that this story was really well thought out and complex. There were two plots playing out at once! On one hand there is this girl who is in love with her brothers best friend (so you can imagine all the issues there) and on the other hand she has this crazy ability that will make her a target to a terrorist group. I loved that it was fast paced and that there was always something new going on.

I'm not sure that the cover goes great with the story. I get the electric blue dress because it references to the story, but I think the style of the shoes is too grown up and I thought for a second that the book was going to be adult because of the more grown up looking cover. Not that the cover should really matter...

The only things that bothered me about the book was that the main character acted a bit daft sometimes and the ending. I thought that sometimes Lila could have listened more and been a little less self conceited. She was really insecure and couldn't just accept things as they were. Also the ending was a little unfinished. The writing at the end sort of finalized everything, but there were still so many things I wanted to know. Maybe the writer will make a sequel?

Overall I did really like the story. It started off well but didn't end as well as I would have hoped. I think this book is worth 4 stars and hopefully the writer will make a sequel. I recommend this book to anyone that likes top secret stuff like spies. Or who likes to watch shows like X-files.

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