Lila Books in Order

The Lila books are where Sarah Alderson first brought together many of the elements she still uses so well: fast pacing, paranormal abilities, dangerous secrets, and romance that gets more tangled the more the plot tightens. The series begins with Lila, a seventeen-year-old girl who has spent years hiding two things, that she can move objects with her mind, and that she has been in love with Alex, her older brother's best friend, for what feels like forever.

A street mugging blows up the first secret, and from there the story moves quickly from South London to Southern California. Lila runs to the only people she thinks she can trust, her brother Jack and Alex, only to learn that they are caught up with a secret organization called the Unit. They are also hunting the people responsible for her mother's murder. What first looks like one family tragedy turns out to be tied to a much bigger world of people with strange abilities, hidden agendas, and loyalties that keep shifting.

The books move fast.

Hunting Lila sets up the core appeal of the series, a heroine thrown into danger before she fully understands who she is, a strong romantic thread, and a conspiracy that keeps opening into something larger. Losing Lila widens the scale, sending Lila and Alex on the run and forcing them to work with people they once saw as enemies. The stakes stop being only personal, even though Lila's urge to protect her family never goes away.

In tone, the series sits halfway between paranormal YA and chase thriller. There are secret programs, rescue plans, betrayals, uneasy alliances, and plenty of moments where Lila has to decide whether what she has been told is even remotely true. The California setting gives the books space and sun, but the mood is rarely relaxed for long. Someone is usually lying, watching, or coming after the people she loves.

Alex and Lila are a big part of why the series works. Their chemistry matters, but it sits inside a story about grief, identity, and the unsettling discovery that your life has been built on half-truths. Jack matters too, as do the wider cast of allies and enemies who gradually turn out to be more complicated than they first appear.

The side books round out that world in useful ways. Tormenting Lila gives readers more time with Lila and Alex while dropping them into another threat, and Lila Shortcuts opens the series up through short pieces from other points of view. Those extras are best after the main novels, because the emotional spine of the story is still the one-two punch of Hunting Lila and Losing Lila.