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Thursday, February 20, 2014

Review: The Temptation of Lila and Ethan by Jessica Sorensen Title: The Temptation of Lila and Ethan (The Secret #3)
Author: Jessica Sorensen
Published: October 22nd 2013
Add It: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

I first noticed Jessica Sorensen’s work when Ella and Micha’s books had the original covers. They were so eye-catching and the blurbs sounded so amazingly good. (Well, I was surfing on the wave of New Adult back then.) Then the raving reviews started to surface. I am not quite sure why I didn’t pick ‘em up, but I have wanted to for the longest time. Since Ella and Micha's story didn't have a conclusion back when I felt the urge to read something by Jessica (yes, I had heard of the cliff hanger syndrome her books seem to be suffering from), I decided to give Ethan and Lila a try. Luckily, this companion stand-alone did not disappoint.

"I can't bring myself to move and break the peaceful moment. So instead I sit down and wrap my legs and arms around her and we just sit there in the sun, enjoying each other in the quiet."

Lila was an interesting character. At times she comes off as a spoiled rich brat, then there are times where her vulnerability and good spirit shine through like no other and these were the parts what got to me the most. She doesn’t have a lot of people in her life she really cares about, but when she gets the chance to show her gratitude, devotion and good heart, it’s brilliant. Then again, she’s fighting some pretty dark demons of substance abuse and who else to help her through this battlefield than Ethan.

Talking about Ethan… He was superb! I hear he’s a good friend to Micha and from what I read, this proved to be right. He’s also a great friend to Lila and he went beyond his limits to take care of her when she hit rock bottom and I admired his strength to hold himself back from ruining their relationship by taking it a little further than friendship, even though it was killing him to do so. He has had his own fair share of demons to fight with and he’s still doing the fighting four years later. I felt for him a lot.

As for the demons I talked about? Lila’s substance abuse is a hard one, but she has had the most awful experience in her past. I can’t believe that there are people out there who do such things to young girls. What’s worse, her mom and dad are the main reason things went the way they did. I’m just so glad that Lila has a real family in Ethan, Ella and Micha. Ethan’s past entwines with Lila’s present in some ways and overall it all came to a full circle. Watching them let go of their pasts was great. I basically enjoyed everything about it. The writing was quite simple, yet I liked it.

If I had to point out flaws, I’d say that the middle part somewhat dragged in some chapters and I'm not a fan of those under 10 year old kids telling their dark stories in the prologue to build the suspense, but other than that, it was a decent New Adult novel and offered more than just break-up-make-up drama.

In the end, I think I'll be reading something more by Jessica (especially since the follow-up novella of Lila and Ethan is free on Amazon and I already have it + I own the first two of Ella and Micha's books), but I'm definitely going to wait until all the books in a series are out. At least I'll try, because I don't handle cliff hangers well. Plus, I hear that she has the tendency to turn originally stand-alones into a series, so.. We'll see how it goes.

PS. By now I have read another book by Jessica and while Lila and Ethan's story was a hit for me, just wait for my other review.. -.-

Overall rating: 3.8 out of 5.0
Stars: ★★★★

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Posted by Siiri at 8:00 AM Labels: books, Jessica Sorensen, review