The Two Lila Bennetts

Written by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

Narrated by Karissa Vacker

“One fateful decision. Two unexpected endings. A perfect summer read!” —Wendy Walker, bestselling author of The Night Before

Lila Bennett’s bad choices have finally caught up with her. And one of those decisions has split her life in two. Literally.

In one life, she’s taken hostage by someone who appears to be a stranger but knows too much. As she’s trapped in a concrete cell, her kidnapper forces her to face what she’s done or be killed. In an alternate life, she eludes her captor but is hunted by someone who is dismantling her happiness, exposing one secret at a time.

Lila’s decorated career as a criminal defense attorney, her marriage, and her life are on the line. She must make a list of those she’s wronged—both in and out of the courtroom—to determine who is out to get her before it’s too late. But even if she can pinpoint her assailant, will she survive? And if she does, which parts of her life are worth saving, and which parts must die? Because one thing’s for certain—life as Lila Bennett knew it is over.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jul 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781721389872

Liz Fenton

Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke have been best friends for over thirty years and survived high school and college together. They’ve coauthored seven novels, including The Two Lila Bennetts, Girls’ Night Out, and the Amazon Charts bestseller The Good Widow. In their former lives, Liz worked in the pharmaceutical industry, and Lisa was a talk show producer. They both reside with their families and several rescue dogs in San Diego, California. Find them at www.lizandlisa.com and on Instagram at @lisaandliz.

Reviews for The Two Lila Bennetts

[Yna · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My first read from this author duo and I have to say that I enjoyed the two parallel universes.

[Jess · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not the most excited book, but I’ve always been fascinated by the “sliding doors” idea of following two paths of life. Although with this one in particular I didn’t find that the two path were all the different really. Where she was physically may have been different, but it wasn’t like any of the rest of her decisions were. Nice idea but the execution was a little lacking for me.

[Cheryl Morrell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Totally enjoyed ! Roller coaster ride for sure. Just wow

[natalieriley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[lorikboyd · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[ml923 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[simplykelina · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Skimmed to the end; too slow and I was bored

[grandmacootie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[girlwellread · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A special thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.In this intense thriller, Lila Bennett is an attorney with an insatiable hunger for success. To get to where she is, Lila has made many bad choices, and one of those choices has literally split her life in two.In one life, after celebratory drinks, she's taken captive by a masked man who seemingly knows a lot about her. Lila is trapped in a concrete cell with her feet and hands bound. She is forced to face her unsavoury actions or be killed.Although she manages to evade being captured in her alternate life, she is still hunted by someone who is exposing her secrets one at a time. As result, her happiness, and everything she has worked for, is slowly being chipped away.You see, in both of these scenarios, everything is on the line—her marriage, her career, and her life. Lila must make a list of those in her past that she's wronged to determine who is responsible, before it's too late. And even if she can figure out who is behind what is happening to her, will she even survive? Which Lila Bennett will emerge? Because one thing is for certain, life as she knows it is over.Inspired by the movie Sliding Doors, Liz and Lisa have ratcheted up the suspense in their newest novel. The story starts out as linear, but when Lila literally muses that her life "could split in two," and that the choices laid at her feet would lead her on completely different paths, the narrative actually splits into two. From here, Fenton & Steinke alternate between the two scenarios at the same point in time (each chapter is title "Captured" and "Free"). Readers are not only treated to some pretty incredible writing, but are tasked to figure out who is responsible.Lila is a complex, layered character and the perfect unreliable narrator. She's whip-smart, but her intelligence and success are ironically part of her downfall. Also, her conscious is questionable—she gets people off for murder—yet for someone who is so bold and brazen, she actually fosters insecurities about her persona.What is remarkable, besides the writing, is that it totally makes you start to question some of the decisions you have made in your own life, and that there are always several possibilities in every scenario. Both endings are outstanding and overall, this book is so damn clever! This ambitious narrative style could have easily gotten away from Fenton & Steinke, but it figuratively knocked my socks off.

[jypsylynn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Two Lila Bennetts is actually the story of one woman. It's the parallel universe concept, and I always think about the butterfly effect because it's a similar theory. Lila, the main character, makes a choice, not a major decision, and is henceforth split in two(no, not literally). Theoretically, choice a takes her life in this direction, and choice b takes Lila in a totally different direction. The parallel realities are free and captured for reasons I will not explain. Lila's character is sympathetic yet not completely likeable. She's funny and engaging and offputting all at once. The story is fascinating because of the ever elusive what if scenarios. We've all thought about this concept at some point. If I went to a different college.....If I had stayed home.......If I'd never gotten married.....and on and on. I loved reading about the reality of one choice splitting in two directions. Can a single act really change the course of an entire life? I guess it doesn't matter because how would we know? This story approaches those deep theoretical questions floating out there in the universe. It's a ponderous engrossing and entertaining read that I definitely recommend.

[susan0316 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have enjoyed all of the books by Liz and Lisa and loved their new book. They tried something very different in this book and I thought that it was a huge success. I couldn't put the book down until I got all of my questions answered and knew how Lila's life was going to turn out.This book is told in two voices -- not in two time periods or by two different people but by one person - Lila Bennett - with her life split in two with different outcomes for each. In one scenario, Lila is kidnapped and forced to apologize to the people she has hurt. In the other scenario, she goes home to her husband but due to circumstances wants to make amends to the people she's hurt. Ok, so who is this Lila Bennett. She is an attorney who fights for people even if she thinks they are guilty, she plays dirty and is really an unlikable person. Or is she? She loves her mom, even tho her mom irritates her; she loves her husband but then why is she having an affair, she loved her best friend but they why did she cheat her out of a prime job.... Lila is ruthless and arrogant and driven to be win at any cost. Can she change and become a good person? As important, who has kidnapped her? My opinion changed several times but I didn't even imagine the ending!So clear your calendar before you start this book and jump on the roller coaster ride that Liz and Lisa create for you! You're bound to lose some sleep over this one!

[tamidale · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a fast-paced story that will have you reading into the night to find out what happens. The story reminded me of A Thousand Doors by JT Ellison, in which several authors gave their version of what happened to a woman if she made different choices at pivotal moments in her life. Only, The Two Lila Bennetts goes into much more depth and gives two perspectives with each one shedding light on how this woman needs to change her life.The woman is Lila Bennett, a successful lawyer. She has gotten where she is by caring only for herself and stepping over others to have what she wants. She’s a defense attorney who will stop at nothing to win. But after a time, this lifestyle begins to weigh her down and guilt sets in. She’s left many hurt people in her past and her current behavior is still set on the same path.Readers are shown two separate scenarios as Lila Bennett is forced to come to terms with who she is and how she needs to make amends. Neither one is easy, but one of them will be fatal.I was really impressed at how the authors resolved the ending. It’s not an easy thing to merge timelines in a believable way and they did an excellent job.Many thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.

[teachlz · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

WOW! Kudos to Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke , Authors of "The Two Lila Bennetts", for writing such a captivating, enthralling, intense, riveting, suspenseful and chilling mystery.  I was just going to check "The Two Lila Bennetts" out for just a moment, and was so engrossed I finished this in one sitting. The Genres for this novel are Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, and Thriller.  This is quite a thought-provoking story and has the feel of the movie "Sliding Doors" with actress Gwyneth Paltrow , or a Twilight Zone episode on TV, or even Alfred Hitchcock.  This story can be interpreted in several ways. Is it two characters and two different universes, or one character split with mysterious purposes? In any event, I can promise you a shocking adventure while reading this book.The author describes her dramatic cast of characters as complex and complicated. Lila Bennett is a Defense Attorney, who is aggressive and determined. Most of her clients could be guilty, but Lila has the reputation of being a winner. Lila has made poor choices in her life, and it looks like it is time for pay-back. There are a number of characters that want revenge on Lila.  It looks like in this parallel universe, Lila's life or lives will soon be over as she knows it. Who? What? How? Why? When?I highly recommend this amazing novel for those readers who enjoy an intense, shocking and suspenseful story.