REVIEW: "Layla" by Colleen Hoover
One of my least favorite things is when my cat stares off into space, intently focusing on something that isn't there.
In all likelihood, she has set her sights on a dust mite that is too tiny for me to spot with my naked eye. Or, perhaps, she sees a spider that is as fast as it is small and, therefore, can scurry up the wall before I spot it.
While logic tells me that there are probably totally explainable reasons for her staring, my mind always goes to one more terrifying thought: she's looking at a ghost. Probably a murderous one with fangs and a sickle and a blood-stained, Civil-War era garment.
Amplifying these fears is the fact that these staring spells always seem to occur when I’m at my most vulnerable. When I’m stepping naked out of the shower or snuggled in bed on a stormy night or checking on my kids on one of the uncommon nights when my 6'6" husband isn't there to serve as a natural barrier between me and a specter that means me harm.
I don't know whether or not I believe in ghosts. But what I do know is, if there are ghosts floating around, capturing feline attention left and right, I abso-fucking-lutely don't want to know about it.
This long-held desire to remain in the dark as to the presence of spirits made it, at times, difficult for me to understand the actions of Leeds, the hero in this novel.
Understanding his attraction to the heroine, Layla, though, wasn’t anywhere near as difficult.
When Leeds met Layla, it was either purely accidental or entirely fated. A secretly wealthy man who spends his time playing poor while moonlighting in a semi-successful band, Leeds was playing the bass at Layla’s sister’s wedding when, like a myopic cat, he focused solely on her.
From the moment they saw each other, their attraction was as intense as it was irrevocable. They fell in the love in the way that most people hope to but few actually do: rapidly and deeply and intensely.
But, as is too often the case, their love burned too bright to last. Not long after their meeting, a horrible event rocked both of their lives. While they made it through, they are far from unscathed. Layla suffered the most intense damage, escaping the event narrowly and not without lasting scars — both physical and mental.
Eager to reconnect with the woman he loved so intensely, Leeds decides to take her back to the bed and breakfast at which her sister got married — the place where they shared their first intense moments together.
Not long after their arrival, though, Leeds starts to experience occurrences he can’t understand. It only takes him a little bit of digging and a trip to Radio Shack — or whatever the 2020 equivalent of Radio Shack is — to know for certain that something is amiss.
While he and Layla should be the only inhabitants of this now closed bed and breakfast, he quickly comes to realize that they aren’t truly alone. Though there are no other humans shuffling around the halls of this secluded mansion, there is something else. A force that Leeds cannot fully understand but yet, somehow, finds himself inexplicably drawn to.
Despite his logical reservations, he can’t help but dig deeper, trying to determine what — or who — this force is and why he feels so incapable of simply walking away from this place that literally begs to be walked away from.
As the days pass, Leeds finds himself not only questioning his relationship with Layla — a bedrock on which he has stacked all of his plans for the future — but also his sanity and his willingness to compromise his values.
He finds himself wondering what he is willing to do for the woman he loves. And, even more pressingly, if the Layla that accompanied him to this bed and breakfast will ever truly be that woman again.
To say that I was eager to read this book would be an understatement. Since my late-to-the-game introduction to Colleen Hoover, I have been literally obsessed with her work. She consistently manages to map out complex plots, develop impossibly memorable characters, and shock even the savviest of readers with heart-wrenching twists.
Perhaps it is because my hopes for this book were so high that the degree of disappointment I felt in the novel as a whole was so severe. Though not without its strengths, this novel missed the mark for me in a way no previous Hoover work has.
As I expected she would, Hoover created two rich and dynamic characters in Leeds and Layla. From their first rom-com worthy meeting to their steamy — and graphic — sex scenes, it was easy to care for this duo.
It was probably because I cared about these characters so much that I devoured this book, reading it in just a couple sittings.
Another factor that impacted the pace with which I read this novel was my desire to get to the twist. Even when writing straight romances, Hoover has a habit of peppering in these entirely unexpected twists, making her work transcendent, special, and incredibly memorable.
Unfortunately, though, it was the twist I had been so eager to reach that entirely killed the novel for me. The problem with the twist, specifically, was that it was not at all surprising. The twist was so obvious, in fact, that it will likely be easy for most readers to guess it long before it is revealed.
Though I would certainly not say this novel was a dud, I do have to admit that it didn’t quite shine as bright as Hoover’s other works.
Layla, Colleen Hoover’s first stab at a supernatural romance, earns 3 out of 5 cocktails.
How do you feel about ghosts? Do you believe they exist. And, if they do, would you want to see evidence firsthand? Tell me about it in the comments, below.
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