Book Review: Layover

LAYOVER | David Bell
07.02.2019 | Berkley
Rating: 3/5 stars

Joshua Fields has a successful career working for his father. He spends week after week in the airport reliving the same series of departures and arrivals in various towns. While some might yearn for this life, Joshua doesn’t feel the same. He’s desperate to break this pattern.

Everything changes for Joshua the day he bumps into Morgan Reynolds on a layover. Morgan is gorgeous and there is an instant spark between the two. Joshua convinces Morgan to have a drink with him. While they sit and chat Joshua realizes he needs to know more about Morgan. As Morgan slips away to board her flight, Joshua makes a decision to change his life.It can’t end here. He goes after her. What he discovers on his quest to find Morgan is that there is a far darker story lurking underneath. Morgan is a missing person and she’s on the run for a reason.

LAYOVER is my third book by David Bell and I’ve come to notice a theme to those books that I have read by him. There is always a person who the main character is searching for, be it a lost child, a former lover, or someone they just met in an airport. To me this is a wonderful theme if executed properly, but it does run a high risk of spiraling out of believability. That spiral is what happened to me with LAYOVER. Let me explain…

The premise of meeting and falling for a stranger in the airport is one I can buy into. I mean who hasn’t seen this idea before in a movie or TV show and thought maybe that could happen? Going after the person you’ve had a crazy connection with to the point where you somehow are instantly able to know what flight they are on and then get on that flight with them…yeah, I’ve been to an airport and that’s just crazy talk! Not in this day and age do I see that working. Certainly not in the Atlanta airport!

I was able to set my apprehensions aside when and embrace the cat and mouse game Bell was aiming for until in just seemed to never end. Joshua we need to have a talk…Morgan is weird and clearly hiding something, why are you still into this?? Connecting with these two characters never happened for me.

Now I bet you’re wondering…if you were this annoyed by Joshua and Morgan, why didn’t you put the book down? Honestly, there was something that kept hooking me back in. Maybe it was my morbid curiosity to see how crazy this plot could get. Maybe it was fascination with how ridiculous I thought Joshua was. The reality is that I really enjoy David Bell’s writing style. He makes it so easy to fall into his books and become engaged with the story, even if that engagement isn’t love, it still made me want to know more. 

To be clear, I did at the end of the day like this book and in my review world 3 stars is still a positive review. I think this book would work really well for someone who doesn’t frequently spend time reading crime fiction/thriller/suspense books. I think since I spend so much time in this genre it was too easy for me to guess what would happen, so the twists fell a bit flat for me. At the end of the day, what didn’t work for me could certainly work for you!

This book is available to buy from: Amazon | Book Depository

Disclosure: Thank you Get Red PR and Berkley for sending me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Disclosure: What Jess Reads is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. This in no way influences my opinion of the above book.