This is my first time reading these coauthors and I’m an immediate fan! As soon as I completed this book, I added the rest of their books to my wishlist. The Two Lila Bennetts was creatively written with two story lines running parallel. Lila is a high powered defense attorney in LA. She’s a self-centered wife and friend who repeatedly makes decisions that hurt people, despite a part of her wanting to be a kinder person. In one life, Lila is kidnapped and forced to examine her wrongdoings. In another life, Lila is free and able to examine her life choices motivated by different circumstances. Each chapter flips between a captured Lila and a free Lila. The suspense continued to build and the book got harder and harder to put down. I felt like I was racing to the end! The ending is quite creative as well; not at all what I expected. ( )

Another page turner from this Duo. This book is completely different from anything I’ve read. While I don’t think this book will be for everyone, I thoroughly enjoyed the originality. Fast paced story that alternates between two scenarios. Once I figured out what was happening, I couldn’t put it down.

Lila Bennett is a criminal defense lawyer, making quite the name for herself...not necessarily in all good ways. She is doing what she wants, not worrying about anyone else, making many bad choices. Until her life becomes split in two. She must atone for her sins. In one scenario, she is kidnapped and kept in a concrete cell. Her kidnapper knows everything she’s one, but he’s a stranger to her. Or is he? The other scene, she is escapes being kidnapped but is hunted and must face her sins one at a time. Lila makes quite the transformation, but is it too late for her? Life as she knew it is over, but what is worth saving? Lila needs to decide, come clean with those she hurt but at what cost.

Lila, although not lovable, is somewhat likable even with all her faults...and boy does she have them. The cast of characters are a mixture of good and evil. The chapters move fluidly between captured and free...as the stories move forward, overlapping with little nuances which make you think. I didn’t want it to end when it did!

I received an ARC of this book. Opinion is mine alone. ( )

Lila Bennett, an extremely ambitious and successful criminal defense attorney with a high-powered firm, seems to have everything. Her career seems to be skyrocketing, and her case win rate is virtually unequalled. She has a loving, devoted husband, and she enjoys a luxurious lifestyle. BUT she has been somewhat ruthless, has committed serious misdeeds and has made significant mistakes in her past. One night, as she leaves work and her boss asks her out for a drink, her life suddenly splits in two — or, at least at this point in the novel, chapters begin to alternate between two different courses her life could take. In one, she is kidnapped and held captive by someone who seems hell bent on destroying her life as she knows it. In the other, although she is free and has never been held captive, someone begins revealing her past misdeeds and mistakes, thus forcing Lila to deal with all that comes with these revelations and to come to terms with her past behavior.

The authors, Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke, have done an excellent job in keeping this a real page-turner as the reader toggles between Lila Bennett’s two lives. Not a heavy psychological thriller, but definitely one that is a tantalizing read with plenty of drama and suspense. Although this is the first book of Fenton and Steinke’s that I have read, I highly recommend it and look forward to reading their others.

Thanks to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy for my honest review. ( )

Skimmed to the end; too slow and I was bored ( )

The old story of a truly unlikable human being (often a lawyer, as here) and how a single choice can change your life taken to another level with a delightful twist. It seems that Lila Bennett has made one bad choice too many and now her life is split in two, literally. Lila thinks she is finally making a good choice, the right choice. But is it really? And if it is, is it too late? Has she been as clever and successful about keeping her secrets as she thinks she has? Suddenly there is Free Lila and Captured Lila.

This was a fascinating read that kept me turning pages as fast as I could. I couldn’t begin to imagine what was really happening to Lila – was she in a coma, a fugue state, the victim of an elaborate hoax? Was she aware, even in her subconscious, of her free and captured states?

I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to spoil the story for the next reader. Lila is truly despicable. While you root for her as a human being, you also want to make her pay for the selfish, deceitful, uncaring way she seems to have lived her entire life. The chapters switch back and forth from “Free” to “Captured” in such a smooth way that you become totally engrossed in each. Even though you’ll be scratching your head trying to figure out what is going on, and the ending will likely surprise you, everything seems totally believable.

A great book that I heartily recommend, as I do everything else that authors Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke have written. Thanks to Goodreads for providing a copy in exchange for my honest review. ( )