Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - Layla

ᯓ★ Rating!
⤿ Plot: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.5
⤿ Spice: 🌶🌶 2.0

› Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Mystery/Thriller, Romance
› Medium-Paced, Stand-Alone POV

ೃ — When Leeds meets Layla, he's convinced that he'll spend the rest of his life with her—until an unexpected attack leaves Layla fighting for her life. After weeks in the hospital, Layla recovers physically, but the emotional and mental scarring has altered the woman Leeds fell in love with.

To be honest, I don't know why people hate this book, because I personally loved it. The plot was a page turner, and the story was so amazing. The concept of this book was unrealistic at some point, but that's what made it more beautiful and interesting. Colleen Hoover had a clever idea in creating the excitement and confusion in the story. I was really invested the whole way through that I get to finish it in just one sitting. Plus, the plot twist was unexpected. If you loved Verity, you should definitely give this book a try.

Note: The story contains triggering contents, so please check trigger/content warnings and read at your own risk.

› Finished: March 25, 2023

Content Warnings

queenbeelyn's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

katerpillar7's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

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mlinde35's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

hapalyn's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book is kind of a mindf-ck? Colleen Hoover needs to stop writing romance and just write thrillers like this one and Verity because it just seems to be her best works. She has a knack for writing interesting plots and captivating storylines, but her characters' romances are almost always toxic or inappropriate to some degree.

I don't think I need to nitpick every single toxic thing here, I think a normal person would see it (but I will mention the one scene where she's clearly not sober and he seems to be... and they.. yeah). I think this being a thriller of sorts makes it easier to just ignore the bad things that happen because the characters feel morally gray..ish. I think that part of the complication here is that when you finish the book, you're like "is Leeds toxic? was this the right way to resolve this? what about all the times he

thought Sable was Layla and did toxic things to her? What does that mean in terms of HIS ethics here??"

I think the paranormal aspect was intriguing, I think the resolution was somewhat forced to go perfectly (sister was a curveball...........). I think the only disservice Colleen does to herself most is she writes short, fast books. Which, naturally, those who hate long books would love this. I just felt like the suspense could've been way better if the details were drawn on more in the wayyy beginning to draw the connection between Sable and Leeds first before connecting the dots with Layla. If the reader had seen the toxicity in Sable, I think it would've been adding a nice element to the storyline. Just a lot of loose ends weren't tied up for me personally, but I can see why a casual reader would enjoy this.

Will also note, the sex scenes feel so out of place in this type of genre, so they're not "sexy" like they would be in a romance. They're just uncomfortable.

So overall, this would've been rated higher if it had just a little bit more. I think Colleen Hoover has potential in the thriller/paranormal/mystery genre. I hate that her talents are wasted on the romances she writes, they're just awful and toxic. I think this genre makes great use of her skills and you don't feel as guilty enjoying a toxic character.

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kenomilligan's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Holy shit.

I genuinely thought Leeds was going to leave Layla for Willow. A ghost. I hated him. How could you leave your girlfriend for a ghost??? But upon learning about the switched souls, everything made sense.

Colleen Hoover, you know just how to make me hate characters. But you also know exactly how to win them back.

The last two chapters made me want to bawl my eyes out.

Colleen writes some of the best plot twists ever.

Content Warnings

natbaggett's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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