Tag: The Secret Series

Throwback Thursday Review: The Secret of Ella and Micha by Jessica Sorensen

Posted August 29, 2019 by Rowena in Reviews | 3 Comments

Throwback Thursday Review: The Secret of Ella and Micha by Jessica SorensenReviewer: Rowena
The Secret of Ella and Micha by Jessica Sorensen
Series: The Secret #1
Publisher: Forever
Publication Date: February 12th 2013
Genres: New Adult, Contemporary Romance
Pages: 320
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four-half-stars
Series Rating: five-stars

Ella and Micha have been best friends since they were kids. But one tragic night shatters their friendship and their lives forever.

Ella used to be a rule-breaker with fiery attitude who wore her heart on her sleeve. But she left everything behind when she went to college and transformed into someone that follows the rules, keeps everything together, and hides all her problems. But now it's summer break and she has nowhere else to go but home.

Ella fears everything she worked so hard to bury might resurface, especially with Micha living right next door. If Micha tries to tempt the old her back, she knows that it will be hard to resist.

Micha is sexy, smart, confident, and can get under Ella’s skin like no one else can. He knows everything about her, including her darkest secrets. And he’s determined to bring his best friend, and the girl he loves back, no matter what it takes.

(New Adult Contemporary)*Mature Content** Recommended for ages 17+ due to sexual situations and language.

*** Every Thursday, we’ll be posting throwback reviews of our favorite and not-so-favorite books. Enjoy! ***

This review was originally posted on Apr 17, 2013

This story is filled with secrets up to my ears and I spent a good deal of this book, confused.  I was trying to figure out what happened, why they weren’t talking about it and yet, I couldn’t put this book down.  I thought this book was written exactly the way that it was supposed to be written because I was so wrapped up in Ella and Micha’s world that I was sad when it all came to an end.

Ella and Micha are best friends and have been best friends since they were children.  They’ve also got some big time feelings for each other but for reasons that belong to the both of them, they’ve never gotten together.  They’ve never been an official couple.  When Ella’s mother dies, things happen and Ella runs away.  She runs away from her home, from her friends and from Micha.  Nobody knows where Ella went, except for her Dad and he’s not telling anyone, anything and that, more than anything, pisses Micha off.

The story takes place eight months later.  It’s summer time and with nowhere to go for the summer, Ella has no choice but to go back home and face the music that is sure to be waiting for her when she gets back.

Throughout this whole story, I was engaged.  My heart, my emotions, my mind, it was all focused on the characters in this book.  I couldn’t put it down.  The book isn’t a very long read anyway but I still inhaled it.  I came to love both Ella and Micha so much as well as Ethan and Lila.

Ella and Micha together made sense and man, the amount of love and passion that Micha showed for Ella, holy cow…it was fantastic!  He was my very favorite part of this book and I cannot freaking wait until the next book.  There were a few times when I wanted to strangle Ella and Dean and Ella’s Dad but overall, the story was a great read. I highly recommend.

Rating: 4.75 out of 5

The Secret


four-half-stars

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Review: Lila and Ethan: Forever and Always by Jessica Sorensen

Posted May 19, 2014 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Lila and Luke Forever and AlwaysRowena’s review of Lila and Ethan: Forever and Always (The Secret #4.5) by Jessica Sorensen.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Ella and Micha series comes a story of love, risks, and rewards . . .

Lila Summers just wants to know one thing for certain: that Ethan Gregory will be with her always. Once her friend, he’s become so much more, melting the pain of her past away with each kiss. Now Lila is on a road trip with Ethan, in the wilderness under the stars, and she can’t imagine her life without him. But when she talks about the future, something in Ethan changes . . .

Ethan has no doubts about his feelings for Lila. His life with her gets better every day-and that’s the scary part. How can he walk into a future where he has everything to lose? With Lila, his whole heart is on the line for the very first time. But if Ethan can’t give her the promise she needs, his greatest fear might come true: he’ll lose Lila for good.

This was a short read that didn’t really have much in the way of storylines but it was a cute read, anyway.

So Lila and Ethan have gone on their road trip that Ethan’s been planning on going on for a while now. He’s taken Lila with him and he’s enjoying it a lot more than he thought he would. He’s been a loner for so long now that it’s surprising how much he loves having Lila around.

Lila is fretting about the future. She knows that Luke loves her but she can’t help but wonder how long he’ll love her and want to keep her around? With Ella and Micha getting married and setting their futures up, Lila is wondering if she’ll end up alone and lonely when Luke gets fed up with being in a relationship. A little reassurance that Luke is even thinking about a future with Lila would do wonders to ease Lila’s fears but she doesn’t want to come out and say it.

It’s short and it’s sweet and I thought Luke’s diary entry was one of the most honest and real thoughts I’ve read from anyone in this series. I adored it and that entry alone really made this story pop for me. It was good to see into Luke’s head and to see what he’s feeling for sure.

My only thing with this story was that I wish it had been a part of their book, instead of released after the fact…but I wasn’t too mad about getting more from Luke and Lila. I just hope that we don’t keep getting these things long after it’s time to move on from these characters.

Grade: 3.5 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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Review: The Ever After of Ella & Micha by Jessica Sorensen

Posted February 5, 2014 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Ever After of Ella and Micha
Rowena’s review of The Ever After of Ella & Micha (The Secret #4) by Jessica Sorensen.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Temptation of Lila and Ethan comes a story of change, hope, and unbreakable vows.

The day Ella has waited for is just around the corner. It’s the day she’ll marry Micha, the love of her life, the light that guided her out of the darkness. It looks like it will be the perfect Christmas-until an unexpected package arrives with a harsh reminder of Ella’s past. Suddenly Ella doesn’t feel as confident about her future. Can she really have a “happily-ever-after” if she’s never even seen one?

Micha will stand by Ella no matter what she’s going through-though he worries that she might leave him standing at the altar again. When he’s offered a once-in-a-lifetime chance to tour with his favorite bands for three months, Micha knows he can’t leave Ella behind. But can he ask her to uproot her life to join him on the road?

Now Ella and Micha must find a way to balance their fears, their dreams, and their love . . . if they ever want to hear wedding bells.

Ella & Micha are getting married.

Micha has loved Ella for as long as he can remember and he’s giddy with the thought of having her by his side for the rest of his life.  It’s all he’s ever wanted and things are finally looking up for him because she has agreed to become his wife.

Ella wants to marry Micha, she wants it more than she thought she would.  Being with Micha feels right to her but they have to do things the right way.  They can’t get married hundreds of miles away from their home, from their family.  So Ella does what no normal person does, she doesn’t show up for the wedding and nearly breaks the love of her life’s heart by…not communicating with him.  Instead of calling him and telling him what she’s thinking, she just sits on the bed and scares the crap out of Micha…again.

All throughout this book, I was frustrated with Ella.  I lost count of how many times I wanted to punch her in the throat because it’s the third book that her and Micha are featured in.  She should have her shit together by now.  She has already put Micha through the wringer in the previous two books, she has broken his heart more times than is probably normal and yet, it’s Book 3 and she’s STILL doing it.  It drove me nuts.  She drives me nuts.

And I hated how Micha treated her with baby gloves.  When they weren’t having sex, that is.  She was all woman when he was banging her in the bathroom, on the kitchen counter or whatever but when they’ve got their clothes on? Its all about protecting Ella..from herself.  That got real old (and it was old in the last book), real fast.  Micha needed to put Ella in her place, smack some damn sense into her.

I sincerely hope that this is the last book in this series.  I don’t think I could handle another book featuring Micha & Ella.  I first met them in The Secret of Ella & Micha and I adored the hell out of them.  My heart broke for them over and over again in that book and I didn’t want to leave them behind….but now I kind of wish that I had stopped with that book because then I wouldn’t be nearly as annoyed with them as I was while reading this book.

It’s a testament to Jessica Sorensen’s writing that even when I’m annoyed to high heaven with her characters, I’m still captivated by their story.  I still have to read the entire thing and fall into their world.  I ate this book up and am looking forward to reading the other Ethan & Lila book but I hope to high heaven that their story ends in that one.  I don’t want these characters dragged through the mud longer than they need to.

Grade: 2.75 out of 5

This book is available from Forever Books. You can purchase it here or here. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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Review: The Temptation of Lila and Ethan by Jessica Sorensen.

Posted November 15, 2013 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

The Temptation by Lila and EthanRowena’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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