The Temptation of Lila and Ethan (Ella and Micha, #3)

by Jessica Sorensen

THE NUMBER ONE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR

Ella's best friend Lila has always been a good girl who likes pretty clothes and preppy boys. But ever since the first day she met Micha's best friend Ethan, she hasn't been able to stop thinking about him.

Girls have always flocked to Ethan -- but never princesses like Lila. And until Lila came into his life he never wanted them to. From the outside the two couldn't seem more different, but somehow they have a connection deeper and more intense than anyone could have imagined.

Can two people from such dramatically different worlds really have a love that lasts?

• ISBN10: 1455574899
• ISBN13: 9781455574896
• Publish Date: 6 May 2014 (first published 1 January 2013)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Little, Brown & Company
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leah]

Jessica Sorensen is a very prolific author. Honestly – take a look at her website and see what upcoming books she has and you’ll see what I mean. She must write all day, every day! :) But she’s an author I enjoy so much – I like her writing style, I like her various book series and I was mightily impressed with both The Secret of Ella & Micha and The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden. I will admit to finding both their sequels a bit disappointing, but she’s still an author I enjoy, and still an author whose books I strive (and fail) to keep up with. I’ve been really excited for a long time to read The Temptation of Lila & Ethan, because as soon as I read about both of them in The Secret of Ella & Micha, I knew there was a story there and I knew I wanted to read it. It’s taken me way longer than I would like to read the novel, but I finally found time in my super busy schedule to fit it in, and man, was I impressed.

When I first started The Temptation of Lila & Ethan I wasn’t sure at all what to expect – from what I remembered of them both from the previous Ella & Micha novels was that Lila seemed like the life and soul of any party, she was a happy go lucky girl, and Ethan seemed a touch darker, a bit of a bad boy. So it was to my immense surprise that both Lila and Ethan are as messed up as each other! It was a bit of a shock, actually, to see that Lila was in no way the perfect girl she exudes in the other books, and it kinda made me remember a few instances where she wasn’t always so well presented and chipper. It was nothing like I expected, and the way she talkes about herself devastated me because I don’t think any girl, ever, should think about themselves that way, or talk about themselves in such derogotary terms and it made me flinch. Lila was so flippant about sleeping with guys, and popping her pills, and it just stunned me that that was her life, and that was her normal, and I just wanted to do something to help her.

It was surprising to me how much I relied on Ethan whilst reading the novel. Which sounds silly, but because Lila and Ethan are so damaged (Lila in particular), Ethan sort of becomes the emotional crutch. He’s the strong-headed one, trying to make Lila see sense and trying to (for lack of a better way of putting it) fix Lila. Because make no mistake, her parents and the boarding school where she attended in New York really did a number on poor Lila, and I wanted nothing more for her to come out of the other end feeling better about herself, and being with Ethan allowed her to do that. Ethan didn’t take any of her rubbish, and they had this easy sort of friendship that could be more, but both were afraid for varying reasons. It says a lot that Ethan had his own issues, but was more concerned with helping Lila with hers. To me, that’s a mark of a really good friend and I liked that, at their core, Lila and Ethan were friends first. Whatever happened, they started as friends, which I always think is a great basis for any relationship. I loved when Lila moved in with Ethan, the novel was headed that way for ages, so it was awesome when it eventually happened. My poor, bruised heart sang!

The Temptation of Lila & Ethan really surprised me. It was raw, it was brutal, and it was very honest. Flinchingly so. I couldn’t believe two people could regard drugs and sex so offhandedly, as if it meant nothing, and it was a bit of a shock, but I soon got used to it. That was their coping mechanisms, that was how Lila and Ethan faced the world every day, when they’ve been told for so long that they’re not worthy, Lila especially. I felt an affinity with both of them, and I definitely understood where Ethan’s craving for solitude came from – I crave it on a daily basis, going somewhere where there are no people, no sounds, no nothing. Just me and my books and my TV shows. (And maybe my dogs, too, cos I couldn’t leave them behind.) I absolutely loved Lila and Ethan’s story. It seemed so real, and it was so gratifying to see two damaged people make themselves happy, and to hell with what anyone else said. I see since the release of Lila & Ethan, Jessica has released another novel (or perhaps novella) featuring them so I can’t wait to read more from them, I have never rooted for a couple as much as I rooted for Lila and Ethan. I loved them as if they were old friends.

[Cocktails and Books]

Even though this is a stand alone book and I didn’t read the first two book in this series I really wish that I had because than I would have known a little more about the secondary characters Ella and Micah. Lila was Ella’s roommate and best friend and Ethan is Micah’s best friend and that is how Lila and Ethan meet. They are from two different worlds, yet they end up being best friends. Ethan comes from a physically abusive family, which in turn causes him to have a very narrow view of relationships.

“I’m not looking for a relationship. They’re ugly, raw, brutal, painful, life destroying. They exist only in the hearts of the needy and I don’t need anything from anyone. I’m perfectly content being along, hiding in the desolate place inside myself.”

Than he meets London and his feelings start to change just a little, but I’m not sure if that was because of the drugs or if he really did loved her. After the accident Ethan cleans up his act and does his best to move on. He is a simple guy. He’s not all about materialist. He’s about the simple things. He’s Lila’s best friend and savior. Lila comes from wealth, but she is unloved and verbally abused. She makes a HUGE mistake when she’s 14 that will affect the rest of her life. This mistake changes her whole outlook.

“The pills keep away the memories and feelings of what happened last night, along with many other nights in my past. And not remembering them is important. Pain equals unwanted emotions, meltdowns, embarrassment.”

I can honestly say not to many books have characters that I truly hate, but I truly hate Lila’s parents! WOW…they are despicable and I really, really wanted to reach thru my kindle and punch them out. While Ethan has his own issues, he is ALWAYS there for Lila and you can’t help but root for these two. Life is never easy, there are so many struggles with self-worth and hard truths, but together they can make it work.

“Fiercely. Forcefully. With heat, desire, and hunger suffocating both of us as we drown in each other’s feelings. Our bodies align and press together as I kiss her with all the pent-up energy I’ve been collecting since the first day we met. I’ve lost all control over my actions. Rules don’t exist. The past and the future dissolve and only this moment exists”

This book deals with some very dark issues such as excessive drug use, abuse both physical and verbal, sex with unknown partners, and feelings of hopelessness. I love how Jessica Sorensen creates these beautifully damaged characters that you can’t help but fall in love with.

Reviewed by Carolyn for Cocktails and Books

[Rowena]

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.

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

Finally! Not just that Lila and Ethan finally got together, but The Temptation of Lila and Ethan reminded me why I love this author! I was pretty disappointed with the last few books I read of hers, but not this time. I love Ella and Micha, and I was eager to get to know their best friends better, too. Ethan is another bad boy who's overcome a troubled past, but there's more there than I expected. I always viewed Lila as Ella's perfectly put together best friend, but I figured that there had to be something else there, because c'mon, all NA characters have issues! The prologue delves into the root of both Lila and Ethan's troubles. All Lila has ever wanted was love, but she's looking for it in all of the wrong places. Meanwhile Ethan is avoiding relationships at all costs after losing the first girl he's ever loved.

I was definitely relieved that Ethan's issues were less intense, and Lila was the main troubled one. I don't think both love interests need to be damaged for their story to be interesting, so that was appreciated. The Temptation of Lila and Ethan focuses a lot on the importance of appearances, or at least how people may look okay when they're really not. Lila's always been told that she needs to look and act perfect in public at all times, and appearances are all that matter. She buys into this and comes across as the spoiled, vapid girl everyone thinks she is. But that's not her at all. She's in serious trouble due to a pill addiction. She takes them so she doesn't have to feel anything and as a result has a lot of meaningless sex in order to fill that void. I found her story really interesting and sad. There's so much going on in her life that no one knows about.

Of course, Lila's perfect facade crumbles and Ethan is there to pick up the pieces. I really liked how he stepped up and helped Lila with her addiction and her self esteem. They didn't have some pointless blow out, where he abandons her, and she totally self-destructs. He sticks with her and keeps up barriers until she's better. Then things explode, but in a good way! I loved these two together! There's a lot of sexual tension and build up throughout the whole book, but it was so worth it! Sadly, there's not as many sexy scenes as the previous book, but maybe some readers will be glad about that.

I am so happy for The Temptation of Lila and Ethan! I actually think this may be my favorite from this author so far! I loved how Lila and Ethan were friends first much like Ella and Micha. And it was an intense ride as their feelings slipped out of the friend zone. That epilogue has me super duper eager for the next book though! It's not exactly a cliffhanger, but it will leave readers wondering what's going on. I'm definitely excited for more Ella and Micha!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.