Review: Layover by Amy Andelson and Emily Meyer

Title: Layover
Author: Amy Andelson and Emily Meyer
Format: ARC
Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers
Publish Date: February 6, 2018
Source: Publisher

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Flynn: At first we were almost strangers. But ever since I moved to New York, Amos was the one person I could count on. And together we were there for Poppy. (I mean, what kind of parents leave their kid to be raised by a nanny?) I just didn’t expect to fall for him—and I never expected him to leave us.

Amos: I thought I was the only one who felt it. I told myself it was because we were spending so much time together—taking care of Poppy and all. But that night, I could tell she felt it, too. And I freaked out—you’re not supposed to fall for your stepsister. So I ran away to boarding school. I should have told her why I was leaving, but every time I tried, it felt like a lie."

My Two Cents:

"Layover" is the story of step-siblings Amos and Flynn and their half-sister, Poppy. They are getting ready to go on a family vacation to Bora Bora with a layover at LAX. Poppy overheard something their parents said and tells Amos and Flynn. It upsets them so much that they decide they won't meet their parents in Bora Bora and that they will stay in their layover location, Los Angeles, instead. I had high hopes for this one but it fell sort of flat for me. 

This book was really just ok for me. I had a really hard time caring about any of the main characters in this book. Flynn is the total "not like other girls" heroine, which falls really flat for me. In trying to make her different, she keeps making comparisons between herself and the other girls around her and how she is so unique and different. It got old. Amos just isn't particularly interesting. Poppy was probably my favorite character. She is 10 years old but incredibly precocious (in some cases, too precocious that it didn't feel real). She kept the story going and in many ways, proved to be more insightful than the other characters.

The writing of the book was okay. I liked that the story was told from the perspectives of Flynn, Amos, and Poppy but I wish the voices of the different characters had sounded a little more separate from each other.