Layla

by Colleen Hoover

[EBookObsessed]

This is my first Colleen Hoover novel but I really want to shelve it with my Stephen King collection.

Leeds Gabriel was the bass guitarist in a pretty terrible country band when he sees the most horrific dancer ever flailing around the dance floor, but Layla was just trying to make him smile. He never even realized that this was the moment that would change his life. Leeds was pretty much a loner, but after meeting Layla, he knew he wouldn’t be able to ever live without her.

Of course, just when they hit their highest high, fate has some other plan entirely, and a head injury leaves Leeds caring for a woman who is no longer such a spark in his life. In an attempt to get back what they lost, Leeds takes Layla back to the first place they met, a little hotel called the Corazón del Pais. But in the few months since they first met, it has closed down and Leeds pretends to be a potential buyer so he and Layla can revisit their first days together.

It doesn’t take too long for Leeds to realize why a lucrative and very popular B&B suddenly closed their doors. A spirit? ghost? is now living at the house and has made contact with Leeds. But their conversations are frustrating with just yes and no answers and Leeds has so, so many questions about this ghost, including her name. While he doesn’t know why he would ever suggest it, Leeds has the spirit possess Layla’s body so they can have a real conversation and he can get some answers to his burning questions.

But the more time he spends with Willow, the more time he wants to spend with her…and the less time he wants to spend with Layla.

Leeds knows that continuing to allow Willow to use Layla is wrong, so very wrong, but he just needs to spend just a little more time with her. And as their vacation time is almost up, Leeds begins to fear how he will be able to leave Willow alone in the house by herself while he leaves with a woman he doesn’t think he loves anymore.

This book that starts off with, “I placed two layers of duct tape over Layla’s mouth before I came downstairs, but I can still hear her muffled screams as the detective takes a seat at the table.” I just looked over at my husband and said, “I don’t think this is a romance.” It isn’t and yet, it is.

I liked the way this story unfolds. Leeds brings in an detective (For what? That part slowly unfolds as we go along), and then Leeds proceeds to the story to all of us: how he met Layla, the accident and coming back to the B&B to recapture their original magic and how he came to determine that there was a ghost already in the house, as well as what he allows the ghost to do. We also see Leeds beginning to favor his time spent with Willow over his time with Layla and you have to wonder what Leeds is actually trying to accomplish here. Who is this detective? Is he the police? Something else? Is the problem we trying to get rid of Willow or Layla? It is written in a way that compels you to keep going with just one more chapter.

Oddly, there was a moment in Layla where the investigator said something that had me going, “Wait! Wait! Wait! Nobody’s going to question what he just said? Nobody? Come on!!”

The whole story kept me very intrigued, even after I started feeling really, really bad for Layla. This type of story was also reminiscent of the kind of short story you would get in a Stephen King Anthology, except in one of his stories the detective would have been a demon and the he and Willow would have walked away with both Leeds and Layla’s bodies in an occult ritual or a BBQ.

This was a change of style from Colleen Hoover’s normal trope as well my first Colleen Hoover novel, but it is not the first one to catch my attention. I share my Kindle account and they have several of her books. I am going to have to share them into my account and check out some of her other stories.

If you think you can handle the tension, definitely give this one a chance.

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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