Hunting Lila (Lila #1) -

Sarah Alderson

Simon & Schuster Childrens Books

2011

320 páginas

10h 40m

ISBN-13: 9780857071958

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 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. 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...

Resenhas (1)

5 (Perfeito)

When I saw how many great ratings this book had, I was curious to see if it was as good as most people kept saying it was.

And... oh, boy. It was even better.

From the moment I read the first phrase I was completely lost into the story. It was incredibly engrossing. Lila was such an adorable character. Feminine, fragile and, yet, strong. I always had a thing for special abilities, and it was just fascinating to read about her trying to control hers. Usually in books (or movies), those with powers like hers just have total control of everything, so it's refreshing to see someone having some trouble with it. LOL.

Lila was a bit imature and stubborn at times... and that made her somewhat irritating, too. But she was 17-years-old, so... totally understandable. And quite fitting.

Alex was super hot. And Oh-so-romantic. He did act a bit harsh and dry towards Lila later on in the story, but only because he was having some serious internal battles over what he was told and what he was seeing.

As a matter of fact, all of the characters were very believable. They were so well-written and well-described that it felt more like watching a movie than reading a book. They felt very human, very real. It's difficult to get that kind of vibe from books. Books don't normally make you really care about the characters (they should, but not often manage to), they're usually all about the story or the setting. Hunting Lila is about everything. If that makes sense to you.

That is to say: I just loved this book. I absolutely had to know what happened at the end so bad, I stayed up super late to finish it in one sitting. And when I spoke to the author on twitter (she actually thanked me for the 5-star rating!) I could really see why the book had such a gentle and intense feeling to it. Sarah Alderson is such a dear! She is so nice and polite and... well, humble. I was going to buy the second book (Losing Lila) as soon as it came out anyway, but now that I saw how sweet she is, I just feel even more like doing it.

Let me tell you, it's authors like that that make you want to keep reading. ;)

If you like paranormal thriller YA's with great characters and a great story, then you'll be hooked by this one.