Category Archives: Books

Review: Layla

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No, we’re not reviewing former Divas Champion Layla El.

My obsession with Colleen Hoover books, despite the fact that they’re mostly unhinged and the twists are deeper than my love for Real Housewives, I was eager to pick up as many Hoover books as I could with my aforementioned Sarah gift card.

Continuing on in my quest of reading Hoover books, my adventure took me to Layla. This fictional novel tells the story of Leeds (Colleen looooves to pick unique names for her protagonists), a man who meets a deliciously eccentric woman named Layla and in true fashion, they fall in love. After a tragic accident puts Layla in the hospital, Leeds is by his woman’s side, helping her to recover. However, the scarring of the accident has changed Layla both emotionally and mentally, so Leeds goes to the troubles of trying to find the love back that he had prior to the accident.

Sorry, that isn’t the silhouette of former DIvas Champion Layla El.


Okay so, Layla wasn’t what I expected at all.

Besides reading the blurb on the back, I had no prior knowledge or expectations of the book so I went in with a fresh mind. Maybe bar the fact that because the title is just a feminine first name, I assumed it was going to be similar to Verity. Boy was I bloody wrong.

Without giving too much away, Hoover tried dabbling in the supernatural when she wrote Layla. I think she did a fair job if this was her first time in doing so, but from a personal standpoint, I prefer the realism of her thriller stories, so I wasn’t particularly the biggest fan of the supernatural touch to this book. I guess, in addition to that, it probably means I wasn’t the biggest fan of the book altogether.

Layla is written well as is to be expected by Colleen Hoover, and the characters are well fleshed out, which is to be commended. I think it’s important to mention that while I think the ‘slightly eccentric yet doesn’t know she’s beautiful’ archetype is a bit overdone and borderline unbelievable, that the character of Layla was actually very likeable. (If you’ve read this book, then take that sentence very literally.) Leeds was alright, I guess.

I also liked the isolation of the main characters at the B&B location so it meant that the storyline wasn’t too affected by the outside world, and of course, the sentimental reason behind this location to the characters was cute.

Because the big twist, and a main portion of the storyline, revolved around the supernatural, I just wasn’t as much of a fan of it as I probably could have been. When I inevitably got to the big reveal towards the end, I remember scoffing and saying “Ugh, really?”

Wid-o-meter
Storyline: 6/10
Style of writing: 8/10
Overall: 7/10

I think, if I can offer my readers any kind of advice before going into reading Layla, is to go in with low-to-no expectations, and if you’ve read Hoover’s other works, then go in knowing that what you’re about to read will be like nothing else you’ve read of hers. I think this was my downfall tbh.

Happy reading, lovebugs!

– by The Black Widow

Review: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

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Can you tell I’ve been reading a lot lately?

My dear friend Sarah’s Dymocks gift card really came in handy and went a lot further than I had expected, so this is the second book purchased in my “oh no, I better use this before it expires” panic rush.

In today’s episode of ‘What Has Nikki Been Reading?’ comes A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. This book came with a highly recommended sticker from my local Dymocks, and all of the reviews I saw of it were glowing, like Naomi Campbell strutting her ish down the runway glowing.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is a young adult mystery novel telling the story of Pippa Fitz-Amobi, an ambitious high school girl who takes on an extra project for school. The topic of her project? Investigating the murder of Andie Bell who was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh. Except Pippa doesn’t believe that Sal actually did it, and the more she uncovers about what happened that night, the more danger she puts herself in for those who want to keep the events of that night hidden.


The first thing I would like to mention is that I heavily prefer to read books in first person. It makes it easier for me to delve into the world the author has created if I can imagine that I am the protagonist, and thus makes it easier for me to absorb the narrative the story is sharing.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is written completely in the third person, and my first reaction upon seeing this was “Oh no”. However, Holly wrote it in such a way that you could still empathise with Pippa and feel what she was going through, while leaving the reader in the safe position as a third party observer, so I personally want to commend Holly for doing such a great job at this.

As with all mystery thriller type stories with a twist, it’s the storyline that keeps you glued to the book, and this story never missed a beat. The constant twists and turns kept you on your toes, thinking of new and different possible outcomes for this murder mystery investigation, and when you think you’ve seen all the twists, Holly surprises you with another one.

The characters were very well written and, most importantly, likeable. Pippa was written to be quirky, which is something that I think is overdone to the point that I find quirky characters to be highly irritating, but Pippa was believably quirky and witty and brilliant and very relatable. And my god, I just adored her entire family, especially her father. Authors should take notes from Holly on how to make female leads not be insufferable pick me’s.

Wid-o-meter
Storyline: 9/10
Style of writing: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10

All in all, an outstanding novel to read that I definitely recommend everyone to read, not just the mystery thriller aficionados as well. Holly does a great job of creating suspense on every page, and like me, you’ll find it very hard to put it down. And I’m very excited to get into the rest of the series to read more of Pippa’s investigative adventures!

Happy reading, lovebugs!

– by The Black Widow

Review: The New Husband

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Oh boy. Where do I begin with this one?

This book might seem like a far cry from my usual romance interests, and you’d be right; the author himself is even a bit of a far stretch from my comfort authors like Jamie McGuire and Colleen Hoover. So how did I stumble upon this book, you may ask? Because Dr. Nicole Martin recommended it on her Instagram, and I would do anything one of my favourite Real Housewives told me to do.

The New Husband, as recommended by Dr. Nicole Martin, tells the story of a woman named Mary and her husband Brent. After dealing with depression in working a thankless job, and having some marital struggles with his wife, Brent decides to attend a month-long wellness retreat. Mary can’t help but notice that her once reserved and unalarming husband has returned confident, optimistic, and full of life. To Mary, Brent seems like a whole new person. But something isn’t sitting right with Mary. Brent can’t have changed that much in the space of a month, right?

My newfound interest in mystery/thriller type novels that keep me on the edge of my seat, along with Dr. Nicole Martin’s recommendation, had me chomping at the bits to read this after reading the synopsis. And I can say that after reading it, I was not disappointed; however, I wouldn’t give it a perfect ten.

I think I started The New Husband at work in a lunch break and read a few pages, and after achieving my daily tasks when I went home, settled in to read some more. I didn’t intend on finishing the book in one day, but it was so captivating that I had no choice but to. I eventually went to sleep at around 2am, but it was worth it, because there was no way I could sleep without finding out what happened!

I’ll start by saying that Brian writes in a manner that I’m not particularly used to. Maybe because I’m used to romance authors who have a particular style of writing, but Brian seemed to write in a more direct manner. I’m not saying I’m against it, because all of the points he was trying to make did hit the mark, but it just wasn’t something I was used to.

Now onto the more fun part: the gripping storyline! My god, I simply could not put this book down because the story of Mary noticing small differences in her husband, or finding out that there was a random man in an SUV tailing her, was just so incredibly enthralling. And when you thought that maybe Mary had figured out that maybe something wasn’t all as it seems, Brent would give a valid reason why, and as the reader, you’re confused as to where this story is going; you want to give Brent the benefit of the doubt and attribute all of these changes to this amazing wellness retreat, but at the same time, you can’t help but be skeptical of him.

I couldn’t put it down, and neither will you. I will refrain from dropping any spoilers on it, but I’m sure you will love the twist! I will say, however, that most of the reviews I read before starting this novel were like “OMG absolutely did not see this twist coming”; meanwhile, I scoped the twist out at the halfway mark. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t eager to see how everything panned out, because as they say, it’s about the journey, not the destination.

Wid-o-meter
Storyline: 8.5/10
Style of writing: 7.5/10
Overall: 8/10

The New Husband is definitely a recommendation I would give out to friends and family, so I completely understand why Dr. Nicole Martin did in the first place. If you’re a fan of psychological thrillers, or just someone wanting to try something a bit new, go out of your way to pick this one up!

– by The Black Widow

Review: Never Never

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Another Colleen Hoover mindfuck coming at you.

First of all, I’d like to start this review by thanking my dear friend Sarah who bought me a Dymocks gift card for my birthday. This considerate gift was emailed to me, and even though I starred the email, I swiftly forgot about it. Until the memory of having an almost expiring gift card whacked me, and in my haste to make sure I used this gift card, I bought a stack of books, including Never Never by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher.

Never Never is a romance mystery novel telling the story of Charlie Wynwood and Silas Nash who have been best friends since childhood and grew up loving each other. And then suddenly, one day, neither of them can remember anything about themselves or each other. Charlie and Silas realise they need to work together to figure out what happened to them, before it’s too late.

nevernever

Let me tell you right now that I am a major Colleen Hoover mark. In fact, I spent majority of my gift card on Colleen Hoover books, and the premise of Never Never really struck me. I like a bit of romance, I love a bit of mystery, and to combine them both? Wow. This was also my first opportunity to read some of Tarryn Fisher’s work, and I am always a fan of authors collaborating on work.

Never Never was definitely a page turner. The mystery of why the main characters suddenly just lost their memory was so captivating, and then going on the journey with them to not only figure out what happened to them, but also try and piece together their own lives was very interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard of this concept being done before in both book and cinema, so I was definitely intrigued to the point that I stayed up til 1 or 2 in the morning to finish this book across two nights.

When I eventually read on and found out the reason why they had lost their memories, I was incredibly… underwhelmed. I won’t spoil it for anyone who wants to read it, but in my mind, I had built it up to be something big or shocking, and to me, it was neither big nor shocking.

A big thing for me, which I’m sure I’ve highlighted in other book reviews, is that I tend to find the female protagonist of romance novels annoying. I don’t know if it’s because authors are unintentionally perpetuating negative female stereotypes, but romance novel females are always whiney, insufferable and unaware of others around them. Colleen Hoover does a great job of making her heroines feel real, and have a likeable quality about them.

Charlie was very much a likeable book heroine. Her character was written to be layered and quite complex, which was a stark contrast to the Charlie pre-forgetting which seemed to be a bit one-dimensional. Her male counterpart Silas (Colleen really likes her pepelo male character names) also served his role well as the book hero, written to be charming, caring and handsome, but not unrealistically so, and was the optimistic golden retriever compared to Charlie’s pessimistic black cat.

The style of writing flowed very well between both authors, to the point where I had forgotten that one author had penned Charlie while the other had penned Silas. I believe Tarryn was Charlie, and Colleen was Silas, but I could be wrong. The language used from both authors evoked vivid imagery, and real emotions and feelings where you really connected to both Charlie and Silas.

Wid-o-meter
Storyline: 7/10
Style of writing: 8/10
Overall: 7.5/10

All in all, the book was great, and I would recommend it to others, especially if you’re into an interesting conglomeration of romance and mystery. I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite work of Colleen Hoover, but that isn’t really saying much seeing as Colleen is always hitting 10’s with her stories.

– by The Black Widow