I love a good mystery and this one did not disappoint! This one was a page turner and kept you guessing. Usually I can figure out many twists but this one wasn’t as easy for me to guess. I would recommend this one to anyone looking for a page turning unputdownable book!

This book was so amazing that I didn't want to put it down. I could not wait to see how it ended and it did not disappoint. I thought I had it figured out then there was a twist! This is definitely one of my favorite books of 2019. If you love Suspense then this is the perfect book for you!

What a wild ride! This book is so unique in the way that it was written… two possible storylines of two possible lives of Lila Bennett. It was so interesting to read the novel the way it was written like this and I really enjoyed the dynamics of the books and the duality of Lila’s life. Such an interesting concept of a novel and it was entertaining and full of twists and surprises.

Lila is a complicated character in this novel. She is full of secrets and has let many people down. No one is perfect, of course, but Lila has made her fair share of mistakes and wronged other people. Now it is up to her to right those wrongs, before it is too late. Will Lila succeed?

A novel that will have you immersed so deep into the story that won’t notice the time flying by until you are at the end of the book. Great job on this book. I look forward to the next novel you write together!

I really enjoyed this book.  I haven’t read anything like it before!  I liked the characters and it had me guessing until the end!  Thank you!

In a way, this book reminded me of the choose your own adventure books that I was hooked on as a kid.  You would make a choice and from that point on the story would change and go a different way.  In this book, Lila has made the mistake of having an affair with her boss and by being conniving in her career.  In one choice, she is captured and in the other she is free.  As she goes down each path, she is changed.  I really liked this book a lot and loved the way it drew out from each point.  Thanks for the ARC, Net Galley.

What an interesting psychological thriller... I couldn't put it down and I couldn't keep reading. I wanted to know what happened next and I was scared to know what happened next. Lila has made a lot of mistakes in her life. Have they caught up to her? The story begins with a case that involves a disgruntled sister of the deceased woman whose alleged husband murdered her and whom Lila defended in court. Add a little betrayal and adultery and the story unfolds into two Lila Bennetts. Which of the stories is real? What really happened? How will the stories of the two LIlas connect? Wanting to know the ending, I stayed up way too late. Worth it! 
Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Unpopular opinion here, but I did not like this book. I really dragged out finishing it because I just didn't want to pick it back up.

Lila is supposed to be an unlikable character, but at no point did I ever grow to care about her or root for her. I was just annoyed by her. She comes off as an entitled woman who has never had to face the consequences of her actions before and that definitely did not make me sympathetic to her.

The concept of one decision changing your life is interesting, but in this case it didn't really split Lila's life into two different paths as many of the same events still played out. I also would've appreciated this book more if it wasn't trying to make right and wrong so black and white and instead left room for a moral gray area.

Thanks to Lake Union Publishing and Netgalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Can we get an AMEN?

Psyche suspense writers are pulling out all the stops this year. Just when we were getting dragged down with the same ole same ole….we have authors like Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke sticking it to us with a great big switcheroo.

What is going on? J. P. Delaney introducing robots into his newest thrillers, The Perfect Wife? And now…what the heck? Fenton and Steinke pulling out a Reverse Version of Jimmy Stewart It’s a Wonderful Life… Instead of showing Lila what would be if she hadn’t been born, she is forced to watch all her life’s mistakes where people were mortally wounded, betrayed and ruined that got in her path because she WAS born.

For all intents and purposes, The Two Lila Bennetts is technically a page turning, addictive, suspense thriller. But, believe me…you will be questioning every page and wonder how in the world this is going to be cleaned up at the end. 

Despite your initial misgivings you WILL have, I am here to tell you that it works. Just go with it. Appreciate the uniqueness. 

I feel like the psyche suspense gods have heard our prayers. They know how tiresome the trope has become. They have sent some angels in the form of genius writers. Thank you. Thank you. 

Now, let’s have some more please!

Thanks to Netgalley and the authors for letting me read this and post my honest review!

This is a cleverly crafted, deftly plotted book which will keep you on the edge of your seat. The idea is that we have a good side and a bad side. Lila definitely has a bad side, or rather a ruthless side which helps make her a determined, ambitious, competitive and sought out defense attorney. She helps guilty people walk away and she has made many bad choices in her life to get what she wants. 
The book begins with a relative threatening Lila with karma when Stephanie's murdered sister's husband is found not guilty of murder, thanks to the work of Lila in the courtroom.
The book then alternates between Lila being held a prisoner and Lila carrying on with her life freely.
Can we change if we are forced to look at our own actions? Does the good triumph over the bad? 
I love the way there are tiny details from both the 'free' and 'captured' chapters which link the two together. The events run parallel, kind of what would happen if Lila made this choice versus what would happen if Lila made a different choice. However, life is rarely that black and white and a person either totally good or completely bad which is why I guess those tiny details are such a clever way of linking different versions of the same person together.
The book encompasses so many moral concepts such as guilt, remorse, infidelity and forgiveness and how these attitudes guide us in the actions we take and the way our relationships are formed and played out.
The story was full of twists and shocking truths with some characters able to move on and others determined to make Lila pay.
In the captured version Lila is abducted. What we don't know is who by. It becomes clear why, she needs to make amends for all her past misdemeanours, but we are fed so many different possibilities by the author as to who the kidnapper is, that you simply cannot put the book down! And when the chapter reverts to the 'free' Lila we are able to follow her on her journey of self-awareness and atonement.
Is it too late in either of the versions of Lila Bennett's life or can Lila live to be the best version of herself?
An incredible ending.
You have GOT to read this book!
Thanks to the publisher, Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke and of course NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this book.

I really enjoyed this book! I'd give it a 4.5, rather than a 4. I loved the 'sliding doors' format, slowly revealing new snippets of information each chapter. I was so convinced I knew 'who did it' - even right until almost the end I was like I know who it is....  but BAM, completely shocked me. Great read!

This was an interesting book with two plot lines.  The terrific prize is how the plots blend in together to make  an ending. Consequences and choices.  What if? 
Many thanks to Lake Union Publishing and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and Ms. K.A. Tucker for the opportunity to read this Advanced Readers Copy of "Say You Still Love Me". 

This is the story of girl meets boy at summer camp.
Girl falls madly in love, a love that's bigger than a summer romance. Years later the girl is still pining for him.

Piper and Kyle were summer camp counsellors. 
Piper now works at her dad's multimillion firm. After many years of no contact, Kyle shows up with a job in Piper's company.

Piper learns very quickly that her feelings for Kyle are as strong as ever... but what about his feelings for her? 

This is a fun summer read that flips us back in time to summer camp days and forward to present day... where we find out the truth of first love, best friends and secrets that weren't best kept hidden!

"Maybe all we are is the sum of our choices, each one leading us down a different path, each with its own unique outcome."

This is a story of one woman and two endings. Lila Bennett, a fierce LA defense attorney, has made some questionable choices an decisions in her life. So what would make her change her life?

Wow! Really enjoyed this book. I loved how the authors showed what would happen in different scenarios in her life. It makes me think of the movie The Butterfly Effect with Aston Kutcher. How would life be different if we made one different choice? Went left instead of right? Said yes instead of no? The book also showed that what we have done in our past does not have to come with us to the future. We are in control of our life and our choices. Thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I read this book in one sitting as I could not put it down. It was so well written and kept me guessing until the very end. Lila Bennett has lost her heart and goodness along the path of becoming a successful attorney. But as the pages go by we see that she is trying to change. The book lets us know it is never too late. I loved this book. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

The Two Lila Bennets is about a defense attorney named Lila Bennett who has just finished defending a man accused of murdering his wife. In a parking garage, she makes a choice and that choice leads her to two realities. Think Sliding Doors (I’ve seen people reference it, although I’ve never seen the movie). 

This book has been all over bookstagram so I decided to see if NetGalley would approve me for a copy and they did! However, halfway through the book, I found a couple of things problematic. 

Barring the unique style it was written in, this book didn’t capture my attention. Maybe it was because I was expecting a thriller and it didn’t feel like one at all.  I simply kept reading because I wanted to know who was coming after her. No doubt because of her job, there would be a list of people a mile long, however revenge usually seems more fitting to the prosecutorial role. 

I didn’t appreciate the depiction of a defense attorney in this light. In the US justice system, an attorney has to give the best defense if they are hired to do that if they don’t and it can be proven, then they can be sued for malpractice. The characterization of Lila doesn’t make her unlikeable but the story itself felt like it was trying to tell me that she was a bad person without actually showing me. If anything, I was trying to find evidence that she was actually as bad as they were saying that she was. I was also trying to find any evidence that she was this “badass”.  

It felt like the wrong message to be sending. At most, there were three bad choices that she made. But it followed the same vein of all those other books that make women apologize for getting ahead and succeeding in a primarily male arena. It ultimately felt judgmental. If the authors aren’t rooting for the lead character then why would I? 

2.5 stars. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for my free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first book that I have read by the duo writers, Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke and I was very impressed with this collaboration. I will surely be looking for the next book by this duo.

Lila Bennett is a highly successful criminal defense attorney whose job it is to defend those that are presumed guilty.  She is very good at convincing a jury to look at all of the evidence in a case and that without physical evidence there can be no conviction. More than once she has won cases where it was questionable whether her clients were actually innocent or guilty. She is great at her job and has risen quickly at her law firm. When she finds herself thinking about this she ruminates that “it’s not my job to know the truth; it’s my duty to give my clients the defense they are legally entitled to”. 

Lila Bennett is not a nice person. She has done some ruthless things to further her career and in her personal life she has been unfaithful to her husband, Ethan, who always seems to see the good in her. She has deeply hurt her best friend and has “slept around” with whomever and whenever she wanted to, either because of personal feelings or to further her career. 

After her last case she begins to feel that she has done something terrible, let a murderer loose and caused great sorrow to the victim’s sister, she comes across some damaging evidence and has to decide whether she will let it go or give it to the defense lawyer to use against her client.

She begins to feel that someone is after her to pay for the wrongs she has done.  After lots of heartfelt thinking she feels that she is finally at the point where she has to make a decision as to how she will proceed with her life. 

This novel quite quickly divides into two sections, the “captured” Lisa and the “free” Lisa. I found both storylines to be interesting and they held my attention. 

The FREE Lisa begins to see a new path to her life but she has a lot of bridges to cross to change and it probably would mean the end of her criminal defense career. She could damage others careers in the process, in particular her personal assistant, Chase. He has been her right hand man running errands, arranging her schedule, etc. all the while he seems dedicated to Lisa.

The CAPTURED Lisa is quite a terrifying scenario. She is being held in a concrete room, hands and ankles bound with little food or water. Her captor wears a mask and neither Lila nor the reader has any idea who is out for revenge. Lila searches her mind through all of the cases that she has won, all of the friends and colleagues that she has hurt. No one seems to match the build and voice of her captor. She remembers what the sister of the murdered woman in her last case said to her “Karma’s a bitch, and I have no doubt you’ll get yours”. Could she have hired someone to capture her?  There are so many questions, and so many possible outcomes.

This is a fast paced novel about conscience and how every action has a consequence whether good or bad. It got me thinking about making choices and how hard that can sometimes be.

I recommend this book to those who enjoy a fast paced thriller with some moral lessons to be learned.

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.

Thank you so much to Lake Union Publishing for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I love how this book was told from two different perspectives, the "captured Lila" and the "free Lila". It gave a lot more depth to the story and showed you how one decision can change so many different things. In one scenario the past comes back to haunt Lila and affects not only her life but her marriage and in the other scenario Lila is kidnapped and held captive as revenge. I have never read a book like this before and it was so fascinating and interesting to me.

I loved this book from two of the most amazing authors!

What a fabulous read. I was totally taken in by this story - I loved the way it was written and Lila was fascinating. 

I highly recommend this book to lovers of psychological suspense, books that keep you guessing and stories that stay with you for months. I enjoyed this one so much.

Wow, what did I just read?    This is one I will be thinking about for a while.   I still have so many questions!   Lila Bennett, while fascinating, is probably one of my least favorite characters in a very long time.  Yet I still found myself invested in her and her story.    Highly entertaining, quick summer read!  

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the authors for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

What if for every choice two realities happen.  You decide to marry Tom, or you decide to marry Harry.  The split then occurs with a separate reality for each choice.  Taking from the multiverse theory proposed by Hugh Everett, Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke have created a stylish and clever novel. 

Lila has made bad choices. She has let ambition drown her better self.  She has indulged her need for gratification at the expense of her husband.  She has begun to distance herself from her best friend.  Unsettled she does make a choice. To end an affair.  With this decision the parallel universe opens. 
In one she is kidnapped, terrorized and trapped.  In another life seems to go on as before, or does it? 

Gripping, and fast paced, this reader found it difficult to put down.  Look for a great summer read. 

Highly recommended.