Many thanks to Netgalley for the e-audiobook!

So this book was really interesting being placed with a character who doesn't know where she is except she's apparently a lawyer in a courtroom. The writing this book had kept me engaged and the narrator was great I thought.

This was an okay book. I wasn’t super invested in the outcome or characters. It’s not that the story was bad, but more like, everything was added into this book and and like the saying goes sometimes less is more. A little bit more editing would be really done wonders for this book.

The Trials of Lila Dalton by L.J. Shepherd is one of the more layered debuts that I have read in a minute, and I was hooked from the very first chapter! The premise of a barrister standing at the front of a courtroom with no idea of how she got there or who she is was incredibly intriguing to me and the execution was well done. I initially rated this a 3, but after thinking about it more, it is probably more of a 4 star read for me. It is very complex and while I didn’t love the far-right aspect of the story I have to be fair to the author who literally put it in the note at the beginning that I failed to read first for fear of spoilers, so that’s on me.

I did love this book on audio and I thought Ella Lynch made for an amazing narrator. She was pleasant to listen to, easy to understand, and she totally took on the persona of our FMC Lila. The anxiety ridden moments especially as we get to the end were excellently expressed by Lynch and I could feel her voice radiating the tension I myself was feeling for Lila. I loved the isolated location setting as well as the scraps of memory and déjà vu that Lila experiences throughout as she tries to figure out how she got to where she is while at the same time trying to win the case for her client. This ended up being very twisty and I was so glad there was a conversation with the author (not in the audiobook) that confirmed it was what I thought it was. Very freaky and added a bit of an otherworldly twist I wasn't expecting.

Read this if you enjoy intricate debuts that are based on far-right conspiracy theorists, heaps of red herrings, and courtroom dramas!

Book Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Audiobook Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I did the audio version of this title, which the narration was good. However, do to the intricate plot that requires your attention I had to listen to parts over to ensure I was following. I enjoyed the storyline overall, I just think I would have had a better experience with a physical book.

Super interesting premise for a book, and the audiobook was very good and enjoyable. I really enjoyed the storyline and character development, and I was confused and on the edge of my seat till the very end.

Judge, jury, support staff throughout, and those others. . .poor Lila is truly at sea in this tale, and I stayed with her to the very end. We discovered, uncovered, recovered, and covered. . .and sadly, I'm still at sea. This tale confused me completely. Refreshing, different, but for me a map in another language.

L. J. Shepherd's writing is sharp and crisp, and the court work she sets the story in held me as its a world I know, and in which I have spent a lot of time, so that was very comforting to at least have a handle on those parts. It was the twisty-turny, repeatedly circling back narrative that had me seasick in a readerly way. Yet there are so many much hardier than me.

Don't let my bamboozlement hold you back - I toss this in the review basket in case there is someone else out there suffering from the same malady. AND that said, I'll make another run at it in a different season to see if I can clamber back onboard for proper closure.

All that said, I'll welcome another work of L J Shepherd to follow up on this one. . .

*A sincere thank you to L. J. Shepherd, Poisoned Pen Press, Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #trialsofliladalton #NetGalley

DNF @36% I went into thinking this would be a book about a girl on trial and mystery but this was a hot mess. Thrown into the story with you the reader and the main character not knowing anything is not my cup of tea and all the right wing talk no thank you.

My brain kinda hurts. I wasn’t really looking for a book that would make me think, but that’s exactly what this made me do. And it only really made me think during the last few chapters. I don’t mind it necessarily, it just wasn’t exactly what I was gearing for when I started to listen to this. In the thinking mood, this would be a better listen and review in my opinion.

I didn’t love this but I also didn’t hate this. It has a good amount of action that’s not over the top and all of the characters play their roles so well. I actually felt myself getting annoyed at all the right times.

Overall, I don’t exactly know what happened in the end, I feel a bit confused and unsure; this felt the same to me as watching the movie Inception.

I enjoyed the beginning of this book, but the rest wasn't really what I expected. There a bunch of random things happening, and I don't feel like it tied together completely. I do think the premise was a great idea, so I would definitely be interested in reading more from this author. I received a free copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Let me start out with saying I definitely would have DNFed this had I not had an arc for it. This book was not good. This book was so over complicated for the story it was trying to tell.

First, there are random perspective changed throughout the entire book. These add nothing to the story, especially because there is not rhyme or reason to when they occur.

Next, the whole middle of the book felt like the same pattern. Over and over and over and over again. It made the book feel so long and like literally nothing was happening ever.

Finally, the end sucked. There was little resolution to any of the big things. It kinda explained things but not really. Just kind of a cop out of an ending in my opinion.

Overall, I was not a fan and would not recommend. This was the longest 350 pages I have ever read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for the advanced copy!

Above all, the Narrator was amazing! She had the perfect balance of incredulity and suspense captured in her voice.
Thanks to the Narrator, I plugged on through this book. I had such great expectations at its beginning, easily following the plot of a lawyer who is involved in defending a mass murderer with no memory of the case or of any of her life, for that matter. However, the plot became so entangled that it lost its nail-biting momentum. A great beginning stalled as it moved forward.

Unfortunately I was not a fan. The plot was complicated, lots of legal jargon. Lots of layers, with threads left dangling. Loses steam in second half. Thank you however for the opportunity to listen to this book.

I found this to be a bizarre and intriguing tale.

Lila Dalton snaps to attention in the middle of the biggest court case of her life. She is supposed to be defending a mass murderer. The only problem is that she doesn't remember her name, anything about herself or how she got there.

Lila finds herself in a bizarre cat and mouse game where she is sure she couldn't have committed a murder herself, could she?

Since I am an attorney myself, I don't generally enjoy anything with legal aspects to it, but this story was so unique and bizarre that it drew me in.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Lila Dalton wakes up standing in a Courtroom during a Trial and she is defending a man charged with detonating bombs that killed and injured many innocent victims. The problem is Lila has no memory of ever being a lawyer and no memory of her life. How is she supposed to defend a murderer when she has n idea who she is or where she is? Enjoy!!!

Happy to have gotten the audiobook via netgalley. The premise was very intriguing. It kept me guessing but overall wasn't for me. A bit frustrating and convoluted.

I've always been a fan of books in which we learn about what's happening as the characters do. In this story, Lila finds herself an attorney in the middle of a trial, but she doesn't even know her own name. She doesn't admit her memory loss but asks the judge for a break while she tries to figure out what's happening.
As an attorney, I found this particularly entertaining, and the author understood many legal concepts. This kind of amnesia really happens, as people can continue doing actions where they have training even without memory. However, the story ended up being convoluted, and I'm sure I didn't completely understand what was happening. Still, it was entertaining and unusual. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me listen to this audiobook. I don't know if it would have been less confusing in print, but I enjoyed the narrator's accent and performance.

First off the narrator is FANTASTIC! The accent is BEAUTIFUL. I cannot get enough of her voice. I didn’t realize how historical this book would get but i enjoyed it. The memory lapses always had me intrigued. So many great twists and turns. The details are just WOW! I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to hear actual trials. So good! Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this. Lila Dalton is portrayed amazingly in this novel.

A unique premise for a courtroom drama/ legal thriller but did not have the expected follow through. The story was extremely convoluted and there were details provided that didn’t connect to the story or make sense. It was too long and just got more confusing. This one didn’t work for me unfortunately.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ALC.

The Trials of Lila Dalton of L.J. Shepherd - I loved the plot and premise of this book but not so much the execution. It got very confusing in the middle. It was very hard to follow along with and made me not want to finish. I might try at a later time but this was a DNF for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishing house, the audio house, the narrator and the author for the opportunity to listen to a complimentary copy of this audiobook in return for review, based upon my honest opinion.

The premise of this book was really good, the characters were interesting and the location was intriguing. Unfortunately, I really struggled with this book; I found the storyline hard to follow. Perhaps if I’ve been reading the book I would’ve found it easier to keep track of the timeline and the characters. I will say this book has lots of promise and I would definitely read another book by this author. But this book was a maybe for me.