Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Layla by Colleen Hoover

71 reviews

jaeleneh's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I did not live up to my expectations but it has a good twist that I haven't read about before which had me intrigued but yet it didn't captivate me. I felt somewhat underwhelmed. I think it is a good beginner for paranormal thrillers. 

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maddieowens's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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kaddl's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


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larainsidebooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

By the end of this book, I was just laughing and shaking my head at this absurd plot. I see that Colleen Hoover tried to do something here and mixing a different genre into her usual romance, but it felt like she suddenly had an idea for a plot twist that seemed cool, but it lacked everything that it needed to make it a good plot twist. It was just messy, underdeveloped and hard to follow.

And here's also the fact that this plot twist somehow excused all of the bad things the MC did to his love interest, even though he didn't know the plot twist was going to happen. He even acknowledged that what he was doing was bad and another person agreed with him, but he still did it?! I find that really hard to wrap my head around.

I read a book with a similar aspect couple of years ago (2019) and while the ending was also kind of absurd, I feel like that plot twist had more weight and shocked me more than this one. That made me guess what was going to happen in this one too, but here it was just bad. 

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emilys_editions's review

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Layla was an interesting book. My first CoHo read and it was a bit of a romance/thriller... Maybe? It was easy to read but slow and while I think the concept was good, the execution wasn't that great.

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scribblerpages's review against another edition

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3.75

What the hell did I just read?

First and foremost, Leeds? is by far the most annoying, selfish and big red flag character I have read this month.
The whole messed up plot is just a proof of how terrible and awful it is to be in a relationship with this guy, it's bad enough that I am stuck reading from his point of view. I had to take a pause every time he's being a big joke, and that's not the worst of it goodness he tries to justify and reason out his actions; there are a number 
of times that I'm supposed to feel empathetic towards him and I feel like I should but I didn't because every hardship he's dealing with? I think he brought it all to himself. 

I could go on and on and just explain and prove to you guys how dreadful Leeds is honestly. My hate towards him overshadowed the speck of mystery in this book. The supposedly shocking twist didn't surprise me, my initial reaction was a shrug, seriously? At that time I don't know what to feel anymore. Should I be thankful that all this time it wasn't cheating? But it definitely was and that's how twisted this story is. A Big Shiny Red Flag.

Just glad it's over, it wasn't a fun read and all I felt while reading is rage and disbelief.
If you're thinking of reading this for the romance? Run away dears, clearly this isn't one. 

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queengaynor's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

*C/W gun violence, suicide, death, domestic abuse, medical trauma and more*

Holy Fuckballs... This was not AT ALL what I expected... jeez.... i have so many feelings... its 4am and i devoured this in 1 sitting and I'm sat in total shock. yes. yes. yes. WHAT WRITING

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lea_talisa's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75


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katrinasherise's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.5


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nickgalentine's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.75

The more I ruminate on this book, the more I dislike it.
--
I enjoyed reading this one just because it kept me guessing, but I hated Willow before I knew she was Layla (and kind of after too) Sable and Leeds (what an awful fucking name). It was interesting, but I wouldn't say good. I don't think it deserves 3 full stars, but it deserves more than 2. It felt very... problematic.

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