Troubled Waters

by AnnaLisa Grant

Book, 2012

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Publication

Truman House

Description

College life for Layla Weston isn't starting the way she'd intended. She's revisiting the plans she once had to be the reclusive girl she wanted to be at Heyward Prep, and Layla is more than confident in her ability to succeed this time. After all, she's got a whole new bag of secrets to keep. Still reeling from Will's disappearance, Layla is doing her best to adjust to life back in Florida. She continues to hold out hope, confident she was meant to find Will's ring for a reason. Just as Layla starts to accept that she must keep moving forward, secrets from the past threaten Layla and her family. As Luke and Claire join with her to protect their family, Layla discovers that her uncle may not be the man she thought he was-- and that there's much more to Will's disappearance than she could ever have imagined.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Jennifer35k
Young love is best thought of in the plays by Shakespeare or the modern day vampire story. It is written as an intense thunderstorm and ridden like a fast roller coaster. By the time both people have landed back on the ground nearly all emotions have been spent and reality comes back to visit them
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with a swift kick. This book is like those other stories that brings the readers into the world of teenage love. It has the reader follow the story of a girl named Layla and her intense relationship with her newly dead boyfriend. At the end of her sanity and an attempt to sooth her despair, Layla moves in with her aunt and uncle. There she begins the attempt at having a normal college freshman life. However, while she is beginning to piece her life together an old friend reappears. Believing she is being met by a beloved comrade, she soon discovers that this friend has something else in mind. Not wanting to deal with this friend turned stalker, she turns to her aunt and uncle. She soon discovers that her family is not what they appear to be and neither is her past. How will Layla recover from her boyfriend’s death? Can she get the weirdo ex-best friend to leave her alone? Will Layla salvage some sort of happiness in her life?

This book was an interesting combination of teenage romance and fairy tale expectations. On one end you have a young woman that is truly attempting to pull her life together, but at the same time is not allowed to be independent. As soon as she finds some stability, her reality is torn to shreds and everything she holds true is false. I had a hard time with the main character of this story. I found her to be codependent and clingy at best. I did not like her boyfriend and thought her family was a little neurotic. I did like the history that the author provided and I must say she did a good job writing. She hit the sappy love scenes right on target and I think a book like this would do well with teenagers. The characters were well thought out and the descriptions were amazing. However, I just did not like Layla. I wanted her to become more independent half way through the story. I slowly became frustrated with how docile she seemed. I know that if I encountered a few of the issues she had in the story, I would have started swinging at people. I enjoyed the relationships that Layla had with her aunt and uncle, but I found them to be a little overbearing. Overall the story is good and the author did a great job. I would recommend toning down the gushiness of the book though. It gets hard to handle toward the end and becomes a tad unrealistic. I would recommend it for light reading to anyone, but believe it best geared toward the teenage population. I must add that I won this book in a goodreads giveaway and I would like to thank both the author and goodreads. I appreciate the opportunity to read it and had a great time.
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