Review: Emotional, romantic, and a really good read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 22, 2013
We first met Lila and Ethan in The Secret of Ella and Micha.  Lila was Ella's best friend and roommate and Ethan was Micha's good friend.  The events in The Temptation of Lila and Ethan take place soon after the events that transpired in The Forever of Ella and Micha.  On the surface, Lila comes across as the spoiled little rich girl who attended boarding school, has an expensive car and expensive clothes, and is the life of the party.  Ethan, on the other hand, is from the wrong side of town, he's currently working in construction, he's tattooed, very hot, he's not into materialistic things at all, and is really the total opposite of Lila.  Somehow they hit it off and become really good "friends", a boundary that Ethan set in their relationship early on, though the underlying sexual tension is forever present, as hard as they try to ignore it.  They share a unique friendship and unspoken bond, neither judging the other, yet there for them any time they need them to be, each knowing things about the other that no one does, yet each having secrets that eat away at them as well.  Lila is slowly spiraling out of control as the past and its secrets consume her like a cancer that has been slowly eating away at her insides, leaving a huge empty cavern of nothingness that she attempts to fill in the most unhealthy ways.  Unable to hide behind the facade she has put up since she was fourteen years old, her world begins to crumble as everything begins to come to the surface, something no one has ever been able to see, no one that is except Ethan.When the reality of what is going on with Lila finally hits Ethan, he, begins to realize how much he really cares for her and make the decision, though not an easy one, to help her.  He sees her in a way no one else ever has, and he is also prepared to come across with the tough love that Lila needs to recover and to survive.  At the same time, however, Ethan is dealing with his own demons from the past, demons that have held him in a state of perpetual guilt, loneliness, and self-loathing for some time now.  The secrets from both of their pasts and the scars that those events have left both inside and outside, have prevented Lila, as well as Ethan, from pursuing a meaning relationship, instead seeking comfort in one-night stands, among other things.  In the process of helping Lila, Ethan begins to realize that his feelings for her go much deeper than he's willing or ready to admit.  Lila feels the same way.  These secrets are like a pot of water that has been simmering and slowly comes to a rolling boil, now spilling over the sides until they both realize that they must come clean with each other and share the things that have consumed them for years.  When everything is on the table, including the truth about their feelings, will they turn and run, as has been the pattern, or will they face their demons, the fears, and their feelings, and against the odds move forward into a future together?Lila and Ethan's story is emotionally raw, devastating, and heart wrenching.  The truth of Lila's past and what has happened to her, the way she has been treated, the things she has come to believe about herself because that is what she has been told by her family, will break your heart.  I thought poor Ella was a mess, but Lila's situation, coupled with the fact that she has hid it for so many years, is deep-rooted and almost more than she can overcome.  Thank God for Ethan.  If it wasn't for him, she wouldn't make it. Poor Ethan, I felt so bad for him also.  His abusive past has not only led him to steer clear of relationships, but the one relationship he did have has left him beating himself up for years, and though he has overcome some of the things he is now helping Lila with, he still has a lot to work through himself. The sexual tension and chemistry between these two is undeniable, and the more time they spend together, the more tense it gets.  As Ethan helps Lila to slowly heal, whether he realizes it or not, he is slowly healing as well.  He's not perfect by any means, and he manages to screw up to, but all in all, I was really impressed with him and with how he handled things with Lila.  I was also rooting for Lila as she learned to live in the "real world," apart from money and the things it provided, while Ethan helped her to learn how to take care of herself.  There were plenty of obstacles and dramatic events that these two encounter have to overcome in the process, but I loved seeing where Jessica Sorensen took these two characters and their relationship over the course of the novel.  I was sucked into the the story from beginning to end, and felt the gamut of emotions from one end of the scale to the other, right along with them.  I was really pleased with the ending, and with the fact that it also includes Ella and Micha, setting the stage for the next book in the series, while leaving you feeling really good about where things were between Lila and Ethan as it came to a close.  The Temptation of Lila and Ethan is an emotional, romantic, and really great contemporary romance that I thoroughly enjoyed and would definitely recommend.