Hunting Lila - Sarah Alderson

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.

After being involved in a mugging Lila races to where she feels safest, and flies from London to California and into the loving arms of her brother, Jack. Or at least that is how she sees it. What she finds is a relative who wants her out of his life as soon as possible. From the moment she arrives, Jack and Alex refuse to leave her alone. There is something wrong but unable to simply turn around and go home, she tries to find out exactly what the two of them do in their military unit and why there is a need for members of the unit to keep a close eye on her.

She is soon dragged into a supernatural battle between the unit and a group of individuals who are capable of using their minds just like her. Where is the line between good and evil and which side, if any, will Lila chose?

This book was on my TBR for quite a long time and I am just sorry it took me so long to get to. It caught me within the first line. We are thrown straight into action, at the very point that Lila is attacked and what she does to stop it. The writing flows well and I found I needed to know how things would develop for Lila, Jack and Alex. The characters are well defined, each bringing something to the story. There is action as well as romance which means there is something for everyone. With no really surprises here and nothing new when we think about the military, it still kept my interest and I read it in one sitting.

I have just ordered the second and will be reading that as soon as I get a chance.

The Theory of Everything - Film review

Release date: 1^st January 2015

Top Billing: Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones

It starts as Stephen and Jane meet at Cambridge. Maybe a little awkward at first glance but they become close friends and it quickly develops into something more. Stephen initially shows an odd tremor in his hand, the way he carries himself is a little off, though it is only taken seriously when he takes a terrible fall. Once tests are completed, he is told he has two years maximum to live and there is nothing that can be done.

Rather than run away, Jane becomes his rock and the marry knowing that time is not on their side. He slowly deteriorates, first finding it hard to walk and then in a wheelchair, even unable to breath. As time goes on Jane begins to lose her spirit and her mother advices her to join the church choir just to remove herself from the situation for an hour a week.

There she meets Jonathan who kindly agrees to help the whole family, yet however harmless it begins, feelings grow. A rift is opened within the relationship but when Stephen is in trouble she races to his side, and demands that he is operated on even when the doctor suggests that letting him go would be better. Time moves on and the couple separate but stay great friends as his career hits new heights.

This was a really good film. Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones are great as Stephen and Jane, and I couldn’t help but immediately sympathise with the two lead characters. As you can tell from the story it doesn’t concentrate on his illness rather on the relationship, however you can’t get away from his condition. Watching him slowly slip away from Jane was hard to watch. He seemed rarely to let it get to him though that may have been more because the screenplay was based on a book Jane wrote so you tend to see things from her point of view.

I would think that most people know his story but it is brought into clear focus with this film and I couldn’t help but be surprised that they only gave him two years and nearly 50 years on he is still going. The film may have put a little gloss on the couple but you can’t fail to really feel for both of them.

Forgotten - Cat Patrick

Every night when London falls asleep her brain resets, and she wakes with no knowledge of her past. Of course she writes notes each night so that she knows what people have said, what she’s done. There is something else about London that is unusual, though she forgets the past she sees into the future. Not just a day or two ahead but whole lives of those around her.

Her world turns upside down when she meets Luke. At first it would seem that things are moving on and her life is getting better. Now she has a boyfriend, but her friend Jamie is heading down a dark path, her mother is lying to her and why does Luke never feature in her future memories?


I liked this concept, the fact that she didn’t freak out with the lack of memory thanks to seeing the future is something that I hadn’t read before. Slowly explaining her situation, and through her eyes, we see how she pieces her past with her future. The story expands, not only with her fractured relationship with Jamie, but with the growing mystery around Luke and now her father. I found that it grabbed me and I needed to read on. The pace is nice and the little snippets handed out are enough to keep you hooked.

As a whole it isn’t too taxing. It is a short read that gives us a slice of her life, a very important part but a slice nevertheless. Read it two sittings I would recommend this for a change to the norm.