The Layover

Newly engaged Ava Greene is ready to embark on a new, steady, reliable adventure with her fiancée. Which means, after nearly ten years, it's time to hang up her flight attendant uniform. Ava has just one more flight and with a layover in Belize it'll be quite the memorable way to leave regardless that she's sharing the flight with her arch nemesis Jack Stone. When mechanical problems force the plane to remain grounded for an extra day, Ava begins to take a look at all that she'll be giving up by leaving including one Jack Stone.

I really enjoyed The Layover starting out as this book dealing with this sort of new phase in Ava's life, a new journey. But I really loved what the story evolves into which is taking a look at who we are, show more where we've come from, and where we want to go. The reason that Ava is languishing in the idea of having a stable relationship is because she has never had one before. Yes, she has parents who love her, but they often give themselves over to their own wanderlust, forgetting their responsibilities as parents. So Ava wants stability. She wants a settled home. But there's also this sort of secret part of Ava that loves adventure and discovering new places. That longing is sated in her job as a flight attendant and she reckons it'll be easy to give it up for the man she loves. A lot of it, I think, is fear. Fear of turning into the people her parents were towards her own possible-future children. This is an aspect I wish we got a bit more closure on. Clearly Ava's parent's actions have left a mark upon her, but it's not something that she ever confronts them about. Because they are pretty clueless I think as to how they make Ava feel.

I like that Ava's tense relationship with Jack brings out these thoughts and feelings within. Through their interaction Ava comes to realize that Jack sees who she is better than expected and is not put off by her love of adventure. When Ava allows herself to realize that she can make her own way outside of the example her parents set for her, she realizes that her assumptions about Jack might be a little one-sided as well.

I just like how much Jack and Ava fit together. How they compliment each other. Like Ava, Jack has a complicated relationship with his family. He's not exactly met the expectations his father set before him. Also much like Ava's storyline, I wish we had a bit more closure to these feelings.

Maybe it's the fact that having certain conversations with our families doesn't always fix the internal issues we've grown with. A lot of times that can just be salved by the people we choose to surround ourselves with, by the people we choose to build our lives with.

This was just such a nice, feel good story. At a time when travel for many people has been non-existent, I loved getting to vicariously travel with Ava and crew. The behind-the-scenes look at the life/job of a flight attendant is an interesting one, one that I honestly haven't given much thought to before but most assuredly will the next time I book a flight somewhere. show less

This looked like it would be a lot of fun and it delivered. Flight attendant Ava Greene is ready to hang up her on the road job for a man. This last trip, with a layover in Belize, seems like a fitting end. Enter former pilot, now flight attendant Jack Stone, and the banter begins. The descriptions of the plane's workings were well done, from no one watching the safety spiel to the race Ava has against Jack (unbeknownst to him) to finish her section's beverage run first. The layover in Belize is beautiful, and extended by mechanical issues. Jack and Ava strike up an uneasy friendship, hoping to play matchmaker to fellow flight attendant Gen and pilot Paul. Their chemistry is great. There are laugh out loud moments along with beautiful show more descriptions of the bioluminescence they get to encounter out in the ocean. show less

The Layover has been beckoning me on by TBR for a while. I’m not exactly certain how it came on to my radar – the cover, TikTok or just a bookstore browse. It promised a enemies to lovers romance with the glamour of flying. It’s a bit more than that, but sometimes it just felt a bit lacking in depth. Sometimes debut novels suffer from too much of everything, I kind of felt that The Layover didn’t quite have enough detail at times.

The premise is sold – Ava is a flight attendant about to give it all away. She’s on her last series of flights before she settles down with her very rigid and very boring fiancé. (He even changed one of her photo frames so it fit in with his décor). Ava tells herself that she’s been craving to show more be in one place, steady and staid after her upbringing with her adventurous parents who never settled anywhere. But her last flights are marred by firstly, her nemesis Jack trying to take her awesome parking spot on arrival at the airport. (I feel you, Ava!) Jack then proceeds to ruin her last breakfast and then it turns out he’s flying with her. The annoyances don’t stop there, with the old man Ava chats with in a café turning out to be Jack’s dad and some super competitiveness in the air. But once the team reach their layover in Belize (which is a bit weird, because that’s the name of the country yet the city is never named – guessing it’s meant to be Belize City? I’ve not travelled there.), everyone is up for some fun. Jack and Ava start talking and she starts to realise she may have misjudged him. Plus, they are united in bringing together their colleagues Gen and Pilot Paul. (I don’t know about seafood nachos though!) Once everyone is Belize, they let their hair down and even more so once the flight back is delayed. Over the period of the extended layover, Ava learns that the steady one town lifestyle isn’t necessarily what she wants. Her fiancé becomes passive aggressive and it’s all over in a video call. (Good. He was quite controlling and looking for a trophy anyway). But it all gets messy as Ava starts to realise Jack could be a friend and more and the ante is upped with a brief appearance from an unexpected character and a disappearing boat. Can Jack and Ava get it together?

I really enjoyed the parts on the plane, with Ava, Jack and Gen doing their best to keep the passengers’ shoes on and fed and watered. Some horror passenger stories were also fun to read! I think the strongest part of the novel was the part after the layover where Ava had to deal with her feelings and make firm plans on how to move forward. Jack (and his pizza love) were the icing on the cake. He’s a fascinating character, as is Gen, possibly because the reader doesn’t get inside their heads much. Both were also accepting of who they are, unlike Ava who was still trying to figure that out for most of the book. Overall, the book was a light, fun read that had a unique aspect through Ava’s career and legitimately took the reader across countries in a short space of time.

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Ava Greene is about to get married to the man of her dreams. The only problem is that he doesn't want her to continue her job as a flight attendant. Ava has a love/hate relationship with travel since most of her childhood was spent with parents who were constantly taking her out of school on another adventure, leaving her without friends and the lack of an anchor in her life. When it turns out that she will be working with her nemesis, Jack Stone on her final flight, she wonders what else in her life can go wrong. She isn't all that surprised when their plane has mechanical trouble and gets stuck in an extended layover. What she finds is that Jack isn't what she thought he was and they might have more in common than she ever would have show more imagined.

The Layover is a cute rom-com with a strong message about figuring out what you want in life and going after it. The characters aren't all that well developed and Ava makes lots of choices that frame her as a bit unlikable, but there are several delightful scenes filled with quirky characters, adding layers that give the story more depth. Overall, The Layover is a light, entertaining story that reads like women's fiction with some romantic elements. show less

The Layover by Lacie Waldon
Publication date: June 15, 2021

3.5

I was very excited for The Layover! Belize, enemies to lovers trope, close proximity; what’s not to love?!

Ava was not a favorite character mine. She was immature with her hatred of Jack. Ava was struggling with trying to find herself and where she wants to go in her life, especially with her fiancé Alexander. Her character arc was well done but I felt it could have been done earlier in the story. Jack is the pilot that is the “enemy” in this enemies to lovers book. I enjoyed his character and he provided some much needed witty banter.

The supporting characters, Gen and Paul, positively added to the story and were enjoyable to read about. The writing is very well done show more and the descriptions of Belize had me wishing I was there. The ending felt rushed to me and I think adding more dialogue or perspective of Jack would have helped with understanding Jack more.

Overall it was a quick, romantic comedy. Perfect for a little escapism and some witty banter. I definitely won’t hesitate to pick up another book by Lacie Waldon. Another beach read to add to the list.

Thank you Putnam Books and Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. show less

If you want to know what it's like to be a flight attendant maybe this book is for you. There's A LOT of time spent describing opening soda cans and picking up trash. The job is at the center of this plot so we did have to spend some time talking about it....but not this much.

At the heart of this is a typical romance and there are some glimmers of good stuff here -- I liked most of the interactions between the main characters but that gets buried in things that I didn't care about at all. Author also relies heavily on describing eye color (and changing eye color) to convey just about every possible emotion and once I noticed it drove me crazy.

Overall verdict, it's fine. Perfectly pleasant but nothing to write home about.

Ava, after ten years of being a flight attendant is ready to leave her much loved position to put down roots with her fiancé, Alexander (where was that in the synopsis?). She's got one trip left before she bids her old life farewell but then she discovers that former pilot Jack Stone—a man she's held a secret grudge against for years is on her flight. Just when she thinks she never has to see him again after they land, their plane encounters mechanical problems, what should have been a quick stop at the Belize airport suddenly becomes a weekend layover. Getting stuck on a three-hour flight with her nemesis was bad enough. Being stranded with him at a luxury resort in paradise? Even with the sultry breeze and white sand to distract show more her, it will take all the rum punch in the country to drown out his larger-than-life presence. Yet the more time Ava spends with him under the hot Caribbean sun, the more she begins to second-guess everything she thought she knew about him and everything she thought she wanted from her life. And all too soon, she might have to choose between keeping her feet on the ground and her head in the clouds.

After reading a synopsis like that, I was more than ready for an enemies turn lovers romance filled with a brooding heroine (for once), funny banters, steamy moments and more, but once again I am met with another upsetting read.

First things first, readers are completely left in the dark when we are introduced to Alexander, Ava's lawyer fiancé who remains in a relationship with her for the first… what? 60% of the book. Picking this ‘romantic comedy’ up, I had no idea that the heroine was already in an established relationship prior to meeting the hero and not only that, the only person that knows of her engagement is her mother. It was misleading and was emotional cheating at it’s finest when she remains engaged and well into her romantic development with the real love interest. So readers, beware. This is one of the many many drawbacks of this novel.

In regards to the characters—Ava was a major hypocrite. I won’t indulge too much on it but those scenes where she showed face were very prominent and changed my view on the heroine. There wasn’t much to like about her and as the story progressed, my dislike for her only grew especially when she mistreated Jack. The hero was a little more bearable and more so present as comedic relief. Did I laugh? No, but he was the only character that didn’t annoy me. He was the complete opposite of Ava, so that was a major plus.

Plot/Storyline wise—it was an extremely uneventful read until the 70% mark and by then, I was no longer invested in this release. It was terribly boring, long, drawn out and the fact that Ava was already in a relationship while growing feelings for the former pilot left a bad taste in my mouth. Jack deserved so much better. I didn’t buy their relationship and in the long term, I know it would have never worked out. There wasn’t anything that stood out besides the behind the scenes of what flight attendants experience that interested me though some of the unprofessional behavior displayed multiple times by the characters didn't sit well with me. More so, this is no way shape or form a romantic comedy. There were 2-3 moments that were funny and everything else fell flat.

Would I recommend this? No. Would I read from this author again? Double no. Did I regret picking this up? Yes, one thousand times. Yes!

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