Rowena’s review of The Temptation of Lila and Ethan (The Secret #3) by Jessica Sorensen.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Ella and Micha series comes a gripping story of passion, pain, and the courage to love . . .
THE TEMPTATION OF LILA AND ETHAN
On the surface, Lila Summers is flawless: good looks, expensive clothes, and a big, beautiful smile. But a dark past and even darker secrets are threatening to bubble over her perfect façade. She’ll do anything to keep the emptiness inside hidden-which leads her into situations that always end badly. Whenever she hits bottom, there’s only one person who’s there to pull her out: Ethan Gregory.
Ethan set the rules a long time ago: he and Lila are just friends. He doesn’t do relationships. Although his tattooed, bad boy exterior is a far cry from Lila’s pretty princess image, Ethan can’t deny they have a deeper connection than he’s used to. If he’s not careful, he could be in serious danger of becoming attached-and he’s learned the hard way that attachment only leads to heartbreak.
When Lila falls farther than she ever has before, can Ethan continue to help as a friend? Or is he also getting close to falling . . . for her?
I’ve been looking forward to this book ever since I finished The Forever of Ella and Micha. Ethan and Lila have always had something hovering between them. Chemistry or whatever you want to call it and I was thrilled when I found out that they were getting their own books.
There’s so much that we didn’t know about these characters and I really, really loved getting to know them. Ethan has always been the loner type, the guy that likes to keep to himself but who is completely loyal to those he cares about and I loved that about him in Ella and Micha’s books and I adored it even more in this book because Lila is all kinds of messed up and the one steady presence in her life is Ethan. Their feelings are there for everyone to see, this book was all about them finding their way to each other.
The Lila that we all know and love from The Secret and Forever of Ella and Micha is such a complicated character. She was broken and she needed help and I hate to think where she’d be without Ethan there. Lila existed in a world that made it okay for her to become addicted to prescription drugs and she abused those drugs for the better part of her life and things got so bad that Ethan, a man who thrived on keeping his distance from everyone, including the people he loved and cared about felt the need to step in and take care of her.
Seeing Lila come into her own with Ethan’s help made for a story that captivated me from the jump. I couldn’t get enough of these characters and I cheered when Lila came into her own without drugs clouding her vision and her thoughts. I loved knowing that it was Ethan that helped her beat the addiction but as much as I loved the two of them, they sure did ride my nerves a whole bunch throughout the story as well. They frustrated me with the covering up of their feelings (especially Ethan) but as frustrated as I was, I understood where they were coming from. I understood why Ethan held everyone at arms length but when they finally came together, it was worth the long wait.
I really came to love both Ethan and Lila more than I thought I would from reading about them in the previous books in this series but they were great secondary characters and fantastic main characters and I really hope that we get to read more from them in future books in this series.
This book was filled with everything that I’ve come to love from a Jessica Sorensen book. It was the perfect book to remind me why I loved reading her books before. I read Breaking Nova and that book wasn’t for me. But this one? Loved it. I definitely recommend it.
Grade: 4.5 out of 5
This book is available from Forever. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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