Audiobook Review: The Layover

Author: Lacie Waldon

Narrator: Jorjeana Marie

Audiobook Length: 9 hours 28 minutes

An unexpected tropical layover with her nemesis turns a flight attendant’s life upside down in this witty, breezy debut romantic comedy about life–and love–30,000 feet above the ground.

After ten years as a flight attendant, Ava Greene is poised to hang up her wings and finally put down roots. She’s got one round trip left before she bids her old life farewell, and she plans to enjoy every second of it. But then she discovers that former pilot Jack Stone–the absurdly gorgeous, ridiculously cocky man she’s held a secret grudge against for years–is on her flight. And he has the nerve to flirt with her, as if he doesn’t remember the role he played in the most humiliating night of her life. Good thing she never has to see him again after they land…. 

The Layover follows the main character, Ava Green, who is a 28-year-old flight attendant for fictional Northeast Air and has worked there for the past ten years. As she will be retiring from the industry in favor of becoming a stay at home wife to her new lawyer fiancé Alexander, she is preparing for her final assignment that will include a 24-hour stopover in Belize. Alexander represents the stability that Ava craves after living in a chaotic past. Before beginning the story, I was very excited for the location, as the Central American location is a place I really want to go, so I was happy to travel vicariously there with the characters.

The main story follows Ava on her final assignment where she also is stuck with Jack Stone who is a pilot turned flight attendant. The two of them have a sour past that started when Ava was dating another pilot, Rex Blackwell.  As Jack is assigned he same flight as Ava, the two of them are forced to work together. The more time they spend together, the more that Ava begins to questions her choices, including her stable fiancé back home. The attraction to Jack is there, but their relationship starts with the freedom in lifestyle that Jack represents. Aside from being a potential love triangle story, which on paper it is, the story is focused more on Ava’s turmoil with her own life. She has her job that she has a love-hate relationship with which has fun and adventure, yet she also wants stability that does not include having to travel with only a couple hours’ notice.

When Ava and Alexander first meet, Ava said she was not happy with her job and wanted to settle down. The life she presented to Alexander was she wanted to quit and stay at home with him. While Alexander has many faults in regards to his and Ava’s relationship, he is not entirely at fault given that he was under the impression of a lifestyle Ava wanted and was blindsided when she says that it might not be the plan anymore. I am not on his side with their issues, but, to me, the writing was written to automatically place blame on Alexander when he is not a mind reader and is upset when Ava’s feelings appear unexpectedly to him. As a reader, Ava’s thoughts and feelings are very apparent from the beginning, but to Alexander, he is completely in the dark for this one small instance.

Overall, I am on the fence with Ava as a character. While she does have her past with Jack, she is very harsh on him. She is a hypocrite who does not acknowledge her own behavior when she teases Jack on his reputation as a flirt and player yet she partakes on multiple occasions. Since she does not discuss her private life openly to her coworkers, Jack’s flirting is harmless on his side, as he does not know she is with another. While the reader is told multiple times about Ava’s kindness and other good qualities, they are greatly overshadowed by her judgmental attitude towards everyone around her. The entire novel had incredible potential, but Ava completely ruined the story for me. The other flight attendant Gen had tons of issues, but, at least provided some comic relief and Jack was an excellent character that kept me interested in the story. While some her character made this novel a miss for me, I did greatly enjoy the author’s writing style and would gladly try more of her works.