The story includes three different point of views : Molly Diamond - 33 year old married mother who lives in Flynn Cove, trying to discover her passion in life, Jake Danner - former music artist and Molly's first true love , and Sabrina - clever, up-to-no-good , secret keeping woman that is on a mission.

This book was so jam packed with drama, especially girl drama. It was highly entertaining and I'm glad I picked it up! The story itself was very predictable. It reminded me of the movie 'Obsessed' featuring Beyoncé , 'YOU' the TV series or even 'The Last Mrs. Parrish' but a little more tame and less savage.

I know a lot of people thought this was to be a thriller, so just be warned that its definitely more of a domestic drama.

Thank you so much St. Martin's Press for the advanced E-book.

This book hit stores June 14th, 2022!

3.5/5 stars

I went into this book expecting it to be a thriller. And while it definitely has some aspects of a thriller it could also be considered romantic suspense or women's fiction.

This book has three POVs. And goes back and forth between the past (2013) and present (2022).

The main POV is Molly (3rd person POV). In the past we have Molly and boyfriend Jake (rock star). In the present Molly is married with a young daughter.

Then there is Sabrina (1st person POV). I found this character to be the most interesting right from the start. She is obsessive and I love getting into the mind of characters like this.

The beginning of this book was really good. But I didn't like the middle as much. Also I didn't love the back and forth (in time). I definitely preferred the present. The last part of the book was very action-packed. And I was very interested to see how the story would play out (I really wasn't sure).

The last few chapters did make me a feel a lot. So I'd say the book has a strong beginning and end. There is romance. Much more than in a usual thriller. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about the epilogue. It was an interesting choice for the narrator. But I wanted to know more. Overall this was a good read.

Can’t Look Away, by Carola Lovering

Short Take: I really wanted to love it.

(*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*)

Hello Duckies! Time is short today, so let’s just dive right in, shall we?

Some of you may remember that I read, reviewed, and could not gush enough over Ms. Lovering’s previous novel, Too Good To Be True, and with that delicious morsel in mind, I could not WAIT to get my hands on her newest effort. I was ready for intrigue, suspicion, twists and turns, and characters that I wanted to live with forever.

It was not to be.

Can’t Look Away follows the passionate love affair between Molly, an aspiring writer, and Jake, an up-and-coming pretty boy rock star in the halcyon days of the mid 2010’s. They are super passionate and their love just burns too hot to last, so they fight and make up and fight and make up and get really really passionate throughout. Of course, we need a villain, so meet Sabrina - Jake’s ex who will do anything and everything to destroy their relationship, or at least, just Molly.

In the present day, Molly is married to Hunter, a perfectly lovely man, and they have a perfectly lovely daughter and live in perfectly lovely small-town Connecticut. Molly even has a perfectly lovely new friend and you’ll never guess who it is…

My beloved nerdlings, in case you hadn’t noticed, I just wasn’t picking up what Ms. Lovering was putting down this time. Jake & Molly literally lock eyes once while he’s singing and that’s it, they are in love forever. Molly is the pathetic friend who stays with the guy who’s bad for her, then gloms onto the Nice Guy Trope who has lingered longingly in the background just waiting for his turn to shoot his shot. No real growth, not a shred of independence, just always sobbing and letting someone else take care of her. We get way too many words about how much her writing means to her, how haaaaaard it is, how much she wants to succeed, but as soon as Jake isn’t cheering her on, she quits writing.

I also couldn’t get my head around Molly’s friend group. There are a bunch of 20-something young women in the Jake Era chapters, and as such, of course everyone is a mess, but they all just keep comforting Molly and soothing her through her moods. If she ever reciprocates or does anything for anyone else, we never see it. There’s also a bit where a never-before-mentioned “friend” conveniently materializes long enough to help Molly get a job, then disappears into the ether. It’s yet another example of how Molly treats people. The never-ending torrent of mollycoddling (heh) is kind of ridiculous.

Jake brings nothing to the table. He’s hot. That’s it. He’s overwhelmingly selfish, and when things with Molly don’t work out, his choices become even more questionable (I won’t spoil it here, but it made as much sense as anything else in this book which isn’t really much).

Sabrina’s too lame to even get into. She’s rich, beautiful, obsessive and single-minded. And again, her fixation is on a guy who’s an emotional black hole but he’s just so goshdarn dreamy.

True story, duckies: More than once, while reading this book, I wondered if a guy had written it. A fairly misogynistic, creepy, incel-forum-regular who only sees women as weepy doormats or evil caricatures, and men as either abusive jerks who get all the girls or sad sacks who just need to hang around long enough to get their chance eventually.

The Nerd’s Rating: TWO HAPPY NEURONS (and a drink made of vodka and disappointment, thank goodness I have plenty of both.)

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC of this book. This was the first novel I’ve read by this author and I really enjoyed it.

This book tells the story of Molly & Jake’s love story. They meet in their 20’s in NYC, Molly is a writer and Jake is in a band that goes on to be pretty successful. The story alternates between the story of their relationship & the present day where Molly, now married with a daughter, makes a new friend named Sabrina. But Sabrina isn’t at all what she seems. This book is not a domestic thriller, but it does have some spooky elements of a thriller. It’s not a romance but parts do read like a romance. I’m really not sure this book fits into any genre but it held my attention and was fast paced

Carola Lovering grabbed my attention when I read her second novel "Too Good To Be True." Her writing is very gripping and will immediately suck you into the plot. "Can't Look Away" was no exception. As soon as I picked up the book, I could not put it down. The drama, the secrets and the twists. It's everything that I need in a good book.

Unfortunately, this genre always ends up disappointing me. Domestic thrillers always leave me with wanting something more, there is never enough "thrill" and too much drama. I get addicted to the story awaiting a moment that leaves me utterly shocked yet it never comes.

Don't get me wrong, I was absorbed into this story. All the characters are unreliable which I love. I was constantly suspicious of every little moment that happened in the plot. There are tons of secrets and dramatic moments that hooked me but the "thrill" never got there. I would get closer and closer to the ending wondering when something truly chaotic would happen but it was nothing but miscommunication and jealousy.

Lovering's is very talented when it comes to her writing. This one fell a little flat for more solely for the fact that I was at the end of my seat awaiting a character to be revealed as a killer. I would love to see how a murder mystery by Carola Lovering would be since I am always immediately enthralled with her adult fiction novels. Her stories are so great but I just want something extremely shocking and twisty to happen.

Can't Look Away by Carola Lovering

In 2013, Molly and Jake, both twenty three, meet and immediately become a couple despite Jake possibly still being attached to someone else. He seems a bit fuzzy on that. But then Jake can be fuzzy about a lot of things, makes excuses, says he gets too focused on the group and "forgets". Despite really being into each other, Molly and Jake have a rough time of things, Jake may be selfish but Molly ends up letting him keep being selfish.

In 2022, Molly is married to Hunter and they have a five year old daughter. They live in a wealthy community although Molly really doesn't enjoy the people there. It's not until Sabrina moves into the community that she finally finds a real friend, someone she can enjoy talking to and spending time with, someone who even sees the same fertility doctor that Molly sees. Sabrina gets Molly in a way no one ever has gotten her.

We get the story from three POVs. We see things through the eyes of Molly, Jake, and Sabrina, with chapters going back and forth from the past to the present day. I was very bored with the story at first but then began to enjoy it in a gossipy soap opera-ish way although I do not like soap operas. But it drags, deep down no one really changes even though their lives have changed. Also, these 32 year old grown ups act like things that happened just 6-9 year ago happened centuries ago. Like 6 to 9 years ago is ancient history even though they are secretly obsessing about those times constantly. So by the end of the story, which does get resolved in a tidy manner, I was back to not enjoying the story so much anymore. There really isn't much going on and this is not a thriller even though it's listed as one. More like a low, slow burn that slowly dies out.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

What a PERFECT book for the summertime! I thought this was a lot of fun. Molly was one of my favorite characters I've encountered in the thriller genre. Perfect blend of back stories and I enjoyed the alternating narrative chapters.

Nine years ago, Molly Diamond was an MFA student/barista when she met Jake Danner, lead singer in a bar band. Their connection was instantaneous and she truly thought she'd found her soulmate, quickly moving in together in Brooklyn. As his band found greater success and her writing seemed to be on the verge of publication, she learned the downside of living a creative life--Jake's moodiness and preoccupation with his own career overshadowed every aspect of her life.

Today, Molly is married to a much more stable man, with an adorable five-year-old daughter, and part-time work as a yoga instructor. While her suburban Connecticut life seems picture-perfect, Molly often feels she doesn't fit in with the other, snobbish women and keeps her fertility struggles a secret. When gorgeous Sabrina starts coming to her yoga classes and confides that she and her husband also are having trouble getting pregnant, Molly thinks she's found the friend she's missed since moving away from NYC. However, as she begins finding inconsistencies in the things Sabrina has told her, Molly wonders if she can really trust her new friend.

But there are some surprises in store for Molly as she unexpectedly has to confront her unfinished past with Jake. This is a beautiful love story about growing up, reevaluating your dreams and choices you've made. #CantLookAway #NetGalley

Can’t Look Away is another soap opera disguised as a thriller. There is really no mystery here. Sabrina is trying to hurt Molly because Molly had the love of Jake. So she worked as hard as she could to get between them. There is one reveal that is not really a reveal so much as extremely obvious from the beginning.

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE by Carola Lovering is one of my favorites, so her newest has been a much anticipated read for me. Lovering is an incredible suspense writer — intricately weaving together details, leaving no loose ends. CAN’T LOOK AWAY is a slow build that sucked me in right away. The multiple POVs and alternating timelines had me turning the pages as fast as I could. I was captivated by Molly’s story and with finding out what Sabrina would do next. In addition to the suspense, there was also romance. I will read anything by Carola Lovering at this point — CAN’T LOOK AWAY is addictive and highly entertaining.

This was a fun, fast-paced thriller that would make a great vacation read. While I wasn't necessarily shocked by any of the twists, I still enjoyed seeing things fall together (and apart) through the dual timelines. Molly was a great protagonist, with depth and lots of reasonable insecurities that made her easy to empathize with. Seeing the changes in her in each timeline made her feel real and complete. I also LOVED all the pop culture references (for example, having Jake's band open for real bands like Vampire Weekend) because they firmly planted the story in reality. I almost could have done without the Sabrina chapters at all--I wanted more mystery from her, but I felt like I knew exactly what she was thinking at each step of the story, rather than being shocked and having to put pieces together like Molly does.

Can’t Look Away by Carola Lovering

First of all, this is not a thriller like the cover makes it look like. It’s a domestic drama and romance type of story. There is a creepy and obsessive ex girlfriend character which explains the thriller vibe on the cover.

I think I liked this book, but am a bit unsure. I loved it at first, it’s very addicting and I was so invested in finding out what happens to these characters. But by the end I didn’t like them. I hated the lying and secrets and they seemed like toxic people. But the writing was very well done and I’m sure it will be a popular one!

Thanks to @netgalley, @macmillan.audio and @stmartinspress for both the audiobook and ebook! This one is out on June 14th.

What summer book releases are you looking forward to?

#cantlookaway #books #ebooks #audiobooks #bookishthoughts #kindle #bookreview #bookthoughts #netgalley #stmartinspress #macmillanaudio #books #canadianbookstagrammer #bookstagram

Can’t Look Away is an exciting read. I found Molly likeable and easy to root for. Hunter is a dream that felt comforting in tough times. The pace of this novel is rhythmic and perfect – especially the audio. Narration is spot on and adds to the experience. The choices Molly makes are challenging yet understandable given the circumstances she’s faces. I was invested in all the main characters – past and present POVs. I classify this is as a romantic, domestic suspense.

3.75-4 stars

Content warnings for a lot of discussion about fertility issues, IVF, miscarriages, etc.; they’re central to the plot, not just passing references.

This wasn’t quite what I was expecting from the writer’s new book; it had the typical domestic thriller/suspense elements, which was fine, and I enjoyed the layers of the story about creativity, expression, music, etc. However, as I felt about the last book I read from this author, the ending felt a bit too picture-perfect to be believable. I’m all for feminism and empowered female characters and not mindlessly hating on other women for making mistakes…but when you spend years of your life aggressively stalking, manipulating, and trying to get revenge on someone for a perceived wrong, you don’t all of a sudden forgive them, wish them well, and move on because something bad happened to them. I don’t know…it just didn’t feel totally realistic. Either way, I did largely enjoy the book, and I’m sure I’ll check out whatever the writer puts into the world next.

I received an ARC of Can't Look Away in exchange for an honest review. This is a romance novel with a twist. There is a little bit of a thriller in the story as one of the characters is slightly obsessed with another character. The story is told in two timelines 2013 and 2022. The love story revolves around Molly and Jake. Jake is a member of a band that is starting to become big. Molly is his girlfriend. The story follows the ups and downs of Molly and Jake's romance and then throw in a scorned girlfriend.

Sabrina, Jake, and Molly are in a love triangle. What's scary is this: Sabrina is the only one who knows. She is also our only perspective which is in the first person. So, we get to watch her play the long game and see that she is a manipulating (ahem) B-word. One thing I really liked about this story was the opportunity to watch for clues and see how Sabrina was pulling the strings and causing chaos. Another was the band that is a prominent piece of the plot -- Jake is the frontman. This is quite low-key as far as thrillers go. There is one perilous scene and the rest is domestic drama at a 5-star level (in my humble opinion). So, why not five stars for the rating? Well, the f-bombs are overused (you are totally correct on that point, Kat) and the author seems to be obsessed with Frozen. There is one paragraph where that movie is referenced four times! It is a Frozen birthday party, but come on. (Kat, you also noted that shortcoming in your review.) That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

Just like the title…Can’t Look Away, I couldn’t and didn’t want to stop reading this one, especially near the halfway mark! The top genre listed is a thriller, but to me it was a suspense, romance, which made for an interesting dichotomy that I loved. Lovering is now 3 for 3 on writing fantastic, engrossing novels! I can't wait for the next one.

Can’t Look Away is a mix of drama with suspense. I enjoy the author telling the story from the characters different viewpoints. It’s a quick read perfect for summertime.

2.5 stars rounding up to 3. This was an easy to read family drama. It really didn't make much of an impression on me - it was like a Lifetime move. Everything wrapped up a little too perfectly at the end - even the 'villian' got a happy ending. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

Can’t Look Away is a well written domestic drama. It kept me reading and I totally enjoyed the storyline, but it definitely is not in the thriller category. There is so much angst between the four main characters, with one stalker doing anything she can to get her man, one never having gotten over her first love but content with her husband, one still in love with his first love and not so happily married, and one happily married. Put them all together and….
I really appreciated the flexing of timelines telling the story, as well as the points of view. It was a bit like a puzzle and I found myself putting the pieces together until the end when all the pieces formed a completed puzzle. The writing flows easily and is very engaging.
Many many thanks to Carola Lovering, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for affording me the pleasure of reading an arc of this soon to be published book.