Sometimes I’ve browsed around for a book, read a few descriptions, and selected what I’m in the mood for.
Other times, I see a book by an author I’ve read before and just hope for the best.
Layla by Colleen Hoover definitely falls in the second category, and when I started reading it I had no idea it was a love story (kind of), or that it involved the supernatural (sort of).
Sitting down to write this book review of Layla, I thought hard about how I would categorize it.
Honestly, I was stumped. A paranormal romance? A plot-twisting romance not bound by the laws of this world? A straight-up ghost story?
I didn’t realize it truly would defy categorization.
While not actually a scary book, it does have some goosebumps moments and is full of inexplicable occurrences.
It’s a different genre for Hoover, that much is definite. And as difficult as it is to pin it down and get Layla’s genre wrapped up all nice and neat, it’s equally easy to say that this is a great read.
Author Colleen Hoover is wonderfully dependable in that no matter what she is writing about, she makes you care hard and fast.
Her stories draw you in and keep you under until you find it’s 2am and you really should be sleeping. But what’re a few more pages at this point?
Even her more traditional romances, like Reminders of Him, are impossible to put down. It’s what makes her one of my favorite authors.
In Layla, she brings her usual softness to describing the intricately complicated emotions of the main characters which makes them both interesting and infinitely relatable.
She makes it seem perfectly reasonable that the enduring spirit of love follows us into the afterlife. And why not?
The fact that the two main characters are as unsure of themselves as we are of them makes it all the more believable when we find resolution (sorry, no more can be said without spoilers)!
The best thing about this contemporary romance is just how different and strange it is.
As someone who reads a lot, coming across a trope you haven’t seen 50 times before is both unexpected and very welcome.
It’s such a unique novel that the unexpected twists will pull you along and keep you guessing. The end of this book is also both unexpectedly satisfying and satisfyingly complete.
I highly recommend that if you are a fan of romance, in any genre, you check out Layla.