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.

This was such a great book- it certainly surprised me. At first I was a little thrown off by the separate time lines but I loved it when they converged and I was definitely curious as to which was real. I certainly had a preference at times. Great twist- good book. I do recommend it!

First of all, thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is the twisty thriller tale of Lila Bennett, a workaholic attorney who finds herself in a situation that so many people dread.
I really enjoyed the way that this story played out and how it was written with the "free" and "captured" alternations. I kept trying to guess how it would end, or how the story would end and I was still surprised at the ending.
I have been wanting to get back into my Kindle reading and having the opportunity to read this total page Turner really helped that.
If you want a great story, a fast read, a thriller/mystery that will keep you trying to guess at the ending. This is it.

The Two Lila Bennetts was a unique and interesting read. We start out learning about Lila's professional( she is a successful lawyer) and personal( not a very good wife, daughter, or friend) life, then the chapters alternate between Captured and Free. In one version( Captured), Lila is kidnapped and being held hostage by someone who knows quite a bit about her life. In the other version( Free), Lila's world is falling apart and her secrets and lies are revealed to the people she loves.
This was cleverly written and I flew through the chapters to see how these two timelines would come together. My first read by these authors and all I can say is it was an extremely entertaining beach read. I am intrigued enough to see what else they have written.
I received a DRC from Lake Union Publishing through NetGalley.

Lila Bennett is a defense lawyer who must defend her clients at all costs. But is this the best life she could have? The book takes a look at two alternative lives for Lila in the middle of her legal career. In one alternative, Lila is kidnapped and must face her past decisions, both good and bad in order to try to save her life. The other alternative lets Lila love her life but forces her to face the same past mistakes.

When I first met Lila she was a driven lawyer determined to “win” at all costs even if the win let a guilty client go free. She is so focused on herself she does not see the impact she is making. She is having an affair with her boss, who is also her best friends husband. She ignores her husband who is struggling personally. After a “win” where a suspected murder goes free Lila begins to question is she really “won” or got a guilty man acquitted. This is where the alternative lives begin. I loved watching Lila change throughout the story and feel in love with one alternative over the other, but I won’t spoil the book by telling! The story was a little hard to follow when it split into the two alternatives but it became clear quickly. Everyone should read and decide for yourself!

Unfortunately this book was not for me. I did not finish it. I wanted to love it because there was alot of hype around it. I just found myself not really connecting with it.
Alot of people have loved this book. So I would definitely still suggest checking if out.

I received this book "The Two Lila Bennetts" from NetGalley and all opinions expressed are my own. The choices you make really do make a difference. What if - what if you made the other choice? In the real world we do not know what if - there is no way to see what would have happened if we made "the other choice". I thought this book was amazing! I really loved it. Stayed up way too late reading lol. In this story you will find out "the what if" of Lila's life. Did she make the right choice? What would happen if she made the other choice? Suspense! Interesting! A Must Read!

How much can one choice impact a life?

In The Two Lila Bennetts this question is explored by offering two alternate storylines simultaneously. Successful criminal defense attorney, Lila, has made some questionable decisions in work and in play. Some might call her ambitious, others selfish - She knows no bounds. In one story, Lila is taken and held hostage, forced to face a list of people she hurt in the past. In the other, Lila is caught making some of these bad decisions and must decide how to address them in order to move forward.

“Maybe all we are is a sum of our choices, each one leading us down a different path, each with its own unique outcome. The notion that each decision holds that much power is overwhelming, and I squeeze my eyes shut to shake the thought away.”

I loved the execution of this and enjoyed both of the storylines, which is not always the case for me in books with multiples. One thing I couldn’t help but notice though, due to its repetition, was the amount of times the book included “not unkindly” when referencing the tone a character used. There’s nothing wrong with this description but a change up (rudely, sharply, shortly, etc.) would have been nice. This is the first book I’ve read by duo Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke and I liked it.

A clever concept and an entertaining read which kept me turning the pages right till the end. Lila Bennett is a very successful criminal defence lawyer who has made some questionable choices in her life. When those choices catch up with her, the book splits into two and the chapters alternate between a scenario whereby she is taken prisoner by someone who knows her secrets and forces her to confront them and another where she continues with her life but is being followed and blackmailed.

The construction of the book is very clever, and what could have resulted in a very disjointed book works incredibly well. The character development is strong - Lila is both likeable and unlikeable, deeply flawed but somehow all the more interesting because of that. It leaves the reader pondering on all those "what if" thoughts we all have at some point, evaluating the choices we have made in our own lives and the consequences on those around us.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.