51 pages • 1 hour read
Colleen HooverLayla
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaInterview 1 and Chapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Interview 1 Summary
The novel opens with Leeds’s first interview with UndercoverInc. In his first-person narration, Leeds says that he had to tie Layla to the bed in a room upstairs and put tape over her mouth to keep her quiet while he did the interview. The man asks him to start at the beginning. He tells the man that he met Layla when he was playing bass in a band for her sister’s wedding one year ago at the bed-and-breakfast where they are currently residing.
Chapter 1 Summary
The first chapter is a flashback to when Leeds and Layla meet. Leeds is playing with a band that he does not like, and he is not enjoying himself until he sees a young woman dancing terribly in the crowd. He’s not sure if the bad dancing is ironic, but it makes him smile. He agrees to stay and have a drink with the wedding party in hopes that he will get to meet her.
Leeds then summarizes his backstory: He does not need the money from the band, because his father left enough for his mother and him to live on. This financial security contributes to his feeling of being lost or lacking motivation because he doesn’t need to earn a living.
He later finds Layla floating in the pool with her bridesmaid dress on. She introduces herself as the bride’s sister and tells him she had been dancing the way she had to cheer him up because he looked sad while playing with the band. He joins her in the pool with his clothing on.
They engage in flirtatious banter wherein she asks him who the most important person in the world to him is, besides his mother, and he tells her that it is her. Layla’s sister brings her a small white pill, and Layla tells her to give one to Leeds as well. Leeds thinks the pill is a narcotic, and he attributes much of his intense attraction to Layla to being on drugs.
They kiss in the pool, and Layla tells him that the bed-and-breakfast is called Corazón del País, which means heart of the country in Spanish, because it is located in the exact center of the contiguous United States.
They go back into the inn and find themselves in the grand room, which has a piano. Layla asks about Leeds’s music, and he plays one of his songs. She loves the song and tells him that he should quit the band and launch a solo music career. They make their way to Leeds’s bedroom and sleep together. Afterward, they discuss whether they believe in heaven or another type of afterlife. Leeds is skeptical, but Layla asserts that she thinks people exist in multiple realms. They sleep together again, and the chapter ends with them completely enamored of each other.
Chapter 2 Summary
In Chapter 2, Leeds and Layla wake up together and learn more about each other’s lives. Leeds lives outside of Nashville and Layla is from Chicago. The wedding took place in Kansas because that’s where the groom is from. She tells him that she and her sister are very close, but she is not a fan of her new husband, Chad Kyle.
They shower together, and Layla’s sister interrupts when she comes looking for them. She tells her that their mother knows she spent the night with Leeds and that his band is leaving soon. Layla and Leeds extend their stay at the bed-and-breakfast and let his band and her family go home without them.
Interview 1 and Chapters 1-2 Analysis
The short interview at the beginning of the book establishes that something has gone wrong with Leeds and Layla’s relationship, even before we know the story of how they met. The juxtaposition of the scene of apparent abuse with the romantic story of their first meeting creates curiosity about what happened in the intervening months. This structure, with the interviews taking place later than the main narrative, casts a mood of ominousness over their courtship.
Chapters 1 and 2 portray the whirlwind romance that kicks off Layla and Leeds’s relationship. They fall for each other quickly and intensely. They also discuss concepts that become central to the plot when the supernatural element is introduced. Layla says she believes that people can enter multiple realms and not necessarily remember being in previous ones. When Leeds is talking about his distaste for his band, he says that each show “eats away at [his] soul […] there won’t be anything left besides a body” (7). This demonstrates his belief that the soul or spirit is something that inhabits a body but is a separate entity.
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By Colleen Hoover
