Losing Lila by Sarah Alderson

Alex and Lila are on the run, desperately trying to stay one step ahead of the Unit, which is somehow tracking their every move. WhileAlex is determined to keep Lila safe and her ability secret at any cost, Lila’s only thought isoffinding a way back to California so she can rescue her brother and mother from the military base where they’re being held.

Struggling to control both her growing power and her deepening feelings for Alex, Lila decides the time has finally come to stop running and start fighting. Together with Alex, Demos, and the others she’s come to think of as family, Lila plans not onlyto save her brother and mum, but also to completely destroy the Unit and everything it stands for. But the plan requires Lila to return to California alone, andto make friends with the enemy – and in doing so, sheriskslosing everything:Alex, her family… even her life. (Goodreads)

Losing Lila is the second and final instalment in this series – which I find a little bit sad! I would have loved to have seen this series as a trilogy rather than a duo. That aside, I loved this book probably more than I did the first!

The reader can see how the characters have developed from one book to the next, which makes the book more interesting because they live and learn – much like real life. It is easier to relate to characters who change based on the experiences and problems that they face. Lila went from a character who was constantly nervous and quite shy to being a character who jumped into the middle of action and wasn’t afraid to show who she was to the people around her. Alex and Jack managed to put their prejudices aside (from everything they had learnt from where they work) and managed to work together with the people with special powers.

We also got to know the dad a little bit more within this book which allowed the reader to connect more to the character. Before, he was a character who had appeared a couple of times, but he wasn’t a fixed part of the book. With his sudden appearance, the reader could watch the relationship between himself and his children develop – even the relationship between himself and the people with special powers developed!

I also loved the twists and turns within this book. Some of them literally left me with my mouth hanging open. Some of them left me feeling really sorry for the characters involved, while others made some of the events make more sense.

I could have easily imagined these books being a trio and I think it is sad that it isn’t one! Either way, I loved both of these books and gave this book a 5/5 stars.

Hunting Lila

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…(Goodreads)

I read this book quite a long time ago (surprise surprise) as it is one of the books that I read for my British Books Challenge. I’d had it on my TBR for a while before that, so the BBC seemed like a good reason to get me to actually get around to reading it. Of course, I ended up kicking myself because I hadn’t read it before that point!

This is one of those supernatural books that could go either way – either it will be amazing and you won’t be able to put it down or it is going to be awful and you are going to wish you hadn’t bothered in the beginning. Thankfully for me, this was worth the read! Lila is someone who can move things with her mind. Her brother and his best friend (the love of her life) work for a very secret military group who hunt down people with special abilities because they are led to believe that they are all evil. The best bit – the boys don’t know about her powers and she doesn’t know what exactly they do at work all day, only that it is military and secret! The premises for an amazing story, right?

What I loved about this book is that the relationships between the characters were all realistic and easily believable. They are relationships that the reader can take off of the page and apply to real life. Protective older brothers and his best friend (who has been around since forever), problematic relationships with the father because of the death of the mother.

Another thing about this book is the fact that it is easy to read and fast paced – there isn’t a boring moment within the book. There is always something going on from the very first page, which makes the book enjoyable to read.

This book had a lot of twists and turns, which left me glued to the pages! I didn’t want this book to end and I immediately picked up the next instalment once I had finished this book. I gave this book 5/5 stars.

British Books Challenge – update

The British Books Challenge is being hosted by Fluttering Butterflies.

Hey guys! I realised that while I was checking out some books via Goodreads and other blogs, I noticed that I hadn’t done an update of the British Books Challenge since I started! Now, I know that this isn’t a requirement of the challenge, but I think it is a good idea to update it so that I have an idea of what I need to read and you guys have an idea of how far along I am. I haven’t actually read one book per month written by a British author – which I guess almost defeats the point. I will still, however, have read 12 books by the end of the year and hopefully more! I am going to add some books to the original list and I am going to leave links to the reviews that I have already written and, obviously, links to the Goodreads page themselves!

 Stolen: A Letter to my Captor. I have actually already read this… So to speak. I had such high expectations of this book, but it just didn’t deliver and I ended up DNFing it! Here is a link to my review with the reasons why.

 You Against Me by Jenny Downham. I still have to get a copy of this book and actually open it! However, this, I think, is one of those books that you really have to be in the right mood for and, till now, the mood hasn’t really taken me! Hopefully it will do soon!

 Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson. I actually have a copy of this book sitting and waiting for me to open it. I am planning on doing that fairly soon!

 Hurt by Tabitha Suzuma. I fell in love with Suzuma’s writing after reading Forbidden. Again, this is a book that has to be read when in the right mood.

 Me and Mr J by Rachel McIntyre. As someone who had both a high school crush on a teacher and was in the position of having a student crushing on me when I was their teacher, I am looking forward to seeing just how close to the mark this book is!

 Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas. Even thinking about this book has my skin tingling! I adored this book, just like I did Dangerous Boys and I feel like I need another one! Even if it is in the form of Dangerous Babies… I just want another! Here is my review!

Cruel Summer by James Dawson. I should have probably guessed from his name that James Dawson a British author is. I just didn’t – I am a fail of an English person! I adored his book Say Her Name and I recently decided to add this book to both my TBR and my British Books Challenge.

 A Kiss in the Dark by Cat Clarke. I have had this book on my TBR for absolutely ages now – and I only recently realised the the author is British! Win win! Time to take this book off of my leaning tower of TBR!

 The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkein. So, my dad actually has the limited addition “Lord of the Rings” book, which has all three books with illustrated pictures to go along with it. He also owns each book separately – which are all looking a bit worse for wear. However, his second book went missing quite a while back (I’m assuming after some little tyke ruined it and made it unreadable), and I was forced to take his limited edition book under threat of death if I creased on page or even marked it in any sense or form. I have now had this book for absolutely ages – I think going on 2 years – because I started the second book, but never actually finished the book. I guess this is a good time to finish said book and a challenge gives me an incentive to read it sooner rather than later.

I think that is it for now! I should probably go and find some more authors to add to this list! Or, if you have any suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below