A lot of family drama with little surprises. The story features Molly in two different time frames. The story was not what I was expecting. Just not for me.

Huge thank you to Netgalley, St. Martins Press, and whoever listed this as a Read Now so I could grab it.

I devoured this. I didn't have a ton of expectations going into this since this is the first of Lovering's books I have read, but now I will be reading everything she writes. I absolutely loved Molly. She was a great character and the dual POV's were really nice to get along with her. I had no idea where this was going, all I knew is I wanted whatever the best scenario for Molly to happen and I think I got that. I totally lost it and cried at the end and it was just the most bittersweet ending. I loved the past/present timelines and I think these were done really well without being confusing. I would've liked to have just a little more on Liz & Molly in the end, or some sort of resolution but oh well.

I will be recommending this one all summer. This is out 06/14!

This is one of those novels that sucks you in from the very beginning! Molly and Hunter are happily married with daughter, Stella. Then Molly has a new client, Sabrina in her yoga class and things begin to go sideways. Alternating in time, the book shows us Molly's first love, Jake as their relationship evolves as well as her present marriage and family life with Hunter. Enough said. This is one you won't be able to "look away" from either as the stakes get higher on each page! Captivating and realistic, this novel kept me reading long into the night!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

In 2013, Molly was a barista wanting to be a writer. She meets Jake who is in a band. They quickly fall in love. Now the year is 2022 and Molly has given up writing, is married to Hunter and feels she doesn't click with her life. Molly teaches yoga and is trying to conceive her second child. Molly makes a new friend Sabrina and they bond over their fertility issues. This is when the fun begins! Secrets and lies make this quite the drama filled book. I tend to think this is more drama than thriller but it is a really good read! I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

Can't Look Away is the second book I've read by Carola Lovering. It is a story told in 3 POVs and in 2 different timelines of the past and present. Molly and Jake meet across a crowded club while Jake is performing with his band and become an instant couple. They fall hard and they fall fast. But life with a musician isn't always what it's cracked up to be. They have some pretty high highs and some lows that are hard to come back from. And we get to witness their love unfolding and crashing at various speeds.

In the present, Molly is now married to Hunter living the suburban housewife life with their daughter Stella and all the snooty housewives of Connecticut. She just can't connect with them until a new woman comes to town and they become fast friends. She's almost too good to be true. They have a lot in common and even more than Molly initially knows.

This is a hard book for me to review because while I was totally consumed by this story and couldn't put it down, I also felt like I kept waiting for something more to happen. Something big and significant. But I never got that. I think part of the reason is because this is being marketed as a mystery/thriller. I would classify it more domestic drama with a small side of suspense. I loved the stalker aspect that was added and the history of the character and their stalking from past to present. It gave me a slight feminine Joe Goldberg (from You) vibe. I wish we got more of that and for it to have turned a bit darker so it was more unexpected. What I got was good, but felt more toned down for the thriller it was trying to be.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and the characters, but I just wanted more. It was so close to giving me all those vibes with the stellar writing and great characters, I just needed that push into darkness. The story and the characters' history and where it went in the present was all put together so nicely at the end. Almost too nicely. Like a made for tv movie. But in the end, this book was entertaining and kept me hooked from beginning to end. I just expected more thriller aspects to push me to that edge. If you only need a slice of suspense, this book will do the job as the characters are captivating and will draw you in. Just don't expect anything too far out. It was predictable but well written and entertaining.

This is a tougher one for me to review and summarize. I went into this thinking it was a thriller or mystery. It is most definitely not either. I would classify it more as a psycho-crazy drama. The first third of the book did suck me in and was the part I did like the most but I never got invested enough after that due to the path it was going down. Sometimes I seem to be able to completely engage in totally cray-cray, but this time it didn't work for me as much as I expected as the story progressed. Molly and Jake are head over heels - Molly is an aspiring novelist getting her MFA and Jake is a singer in a band on the eve of becoming a star. We have to mention Sisi - Jake's Ex that he left before Molly / for Molly. The difference of the reason is perception vs. reality. I did consider putting this one down a few times but like the title, I "Can't Look Away". Very good marketing on the team's part there as it was a bit of train wreck but I did want to see how it wrapped up. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy in exchange for my honest option. Can't Look Away will be available on 6/12/2022.

I wouldn’t really call this a thriller, but I did enjoy it. The storyline was gripping and sweet. Likable characters. Not a ton of action.

Molly is working on jump starting her writing career when he meets Jake Danne. The lead singer of Danne Lane and Molly quickly fall in love. Jake easily falls into the world of being famous and isn’t great at communication while on tour. It’s been years since their relationship ended, and Molly is happily living in Flynn COve with her husband and daughter. When she meets a new friend Sabrina, the two are quickly attached at the hip. Until they decide to have a double date and Molly walks in to see Sabrinas husband…Jake. What does Sabrina have up her sleeve?

This was a slow burn, but that didn’t keep me from wanting to know what Sabrina’s plan was. I really felt all the emotions through this book. Love, betrayal, jealousy, longing, heartbreak, depression, safety, warmth, it really went through them all. There were definitely a few times when we went back to earlier years that I wanted to punch Jake, and ask Molly why she was putting up with this nonsense. Overall I found this one really enjoyable. I was rooting for Molly throughout in whichever relationship she was in. Also Sabrina was a bit bat shit crazy…

From the author of Tell Me Lies & Too Good to Be True, comes Carola Lovering's Cant Look Away, a sexy suspense novel about the kind of addictive, obsessive love that keeps you coming back-- no matter how hard you try to look away. Highly recommend this page-turning and mind blowing read.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this eARC.

"Obsession has always interested me. The best artists, the most brilliant innovators, they've all been driven by it. It straddles the line between passion and insanity; it instigates creativity and genius despite the darkness in which it lingers. To be obsessed with someone or something is to adopt a single-minded drive that reduces the rest of the world to sheer insignificance."

Molly is 23 years old and living in New York City. She has tightknit group of supportive girlfriends and when one of them asks her to be their wing-woman for the night by hitting up a seedy bar that her crush is at Molly can't say no. She has no idea that this night will change her life forever.

The band playing that night is Danner Lane led by the very sexy and very charismatic, Jake Danner. When his eyes find hers during their warm up they never leave her for the rest of the night. Kismet? Serendipity? Call it what you will but these two people don't just want to be together. They NEED to be together.

Everything is perfect. They are perfect. Danner Lane is getting more and more successful pulling Jake away on tour more often than Molly would like. Jake being irresponsible as he is often forgets to call her when he's away. Weeks go by while Molly sits worrying and wondering if he's okay. When Molly receives an email from an unknown source she is devastated when it's a picture of Jake and another woman together. This plants the seed of uncertainty in Molly's heart in which she can't seem to overcome no matter what Jake's excuses are.

Flash forward to the present.

Molly is happily married to a wonderful man and they have a beautiful five year old daughter, Stella. They live in a small but ritzy Connecticut town where she teaches yoga at her yoga studio. One day she meets Sabrina at one of her classes and they really hit it off. She's ecstatic, feeling like she's finally made a true friend but it appears that Sabrina has a motive all her own and that motive is less than genuine.

This book, along with all of Lovering's books, have very mixed reviews. I have friends that downright hated this, some that were lukewarm about it, and others - like myself - that absolutely loved it. I'm not surprised that I loved it as I have loved her two previous books as well.

No one writes about love, longing, dysfunction, and obsession quite like Lovering does. Her books make me feel ALL of the feels. I'm a person that is all too familiar with these types of relationships so perhaps that's why I have such an affinity for her work. I can simply relate to the female characters she creates and I, too, used to get weak-kneed over the charming yet selfish suiters that these women inevitably choose. I hate to say it's life experiences that make me love her books but I do think it's a factor I can't ignore.

I cared about all of the characters here. All of them. Even Sabrina, the one with hidden motives, because I could also see and understand where she was coming from too. It all gets a little bit blurry, just like in real life, when you can empathize with someone even though you don't necessarily agree with the choices their making.

I'm emotionally spent after reading this. I devoured this book word for word and page by page and I dreaded having to put it down. I can't wait to see how Lovering plans to break my heart next. ALL. THE. STARS.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my complimentary copy.

I enjoyed the many twists and revelations in this book, but the best part for me was the character development. This book should appeal to a large audience of readers. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I knew from the beginning Sabrina wasn’t someone who could be trusted. The way this book was written, I couldn’t put it down. This book kept me guessing til the very end.

Carola Lovering gets better with each book. This one had Taylor Jenkins Reid vibes to it but with a little dark side. Perfect summer read!

What in the Lifetime movie of the week kind of book kind of Bushwick is this?

Struggling musicians that don't really work and yet - can live in fairly ok apartments in 2013? "MFA" students who maybe wait table or teach a yoga class or two and can go out endlessly with their friends..... I don't know. I'm a full grown adult and know people in successful bands who still worked full time jobs so...let's get real.

That being said - There were some other issues with this stupid story - the fairly obvious 'baby daddy' storyline that was going to happen. Sabrina/Sisi. How ...naive Molly was. How just... awful Jake was as a person, a boyfriend, a husband, a bandmate, a human.

Hard pass. HARD PASS on everything.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for a review.

Ugh. I wished I would have liked this one. I just am at a loss for words at this time. Maybe I’ll post a full review on Goodreads later.

Told in third person from the points of view of Molly and Jake and from Sabrina in first addressed to Molly, this story contains a dual timeline. The current time details Molly’s life in Flynn Cove, Connecticut with her husband, Hunter and daughter Stella as she navigates the local mom groups and infertility issues, while the former timeline describes what happened when Molly met Jake she was in college pursuing creative writing in 2013 New York City where he was in a band with his BFFs from his hometown.

This was more of a domestic revenge drama than the “thriller” or “sexy suspense” it was described to be. There’s not really a mystery. Sabrina pretty much reveals who she is, what she’s doing and why pretty early in the story. It was just a matter of it playing out. I didn’t find any of the reveals surprising. They were rather straight-forward and/or predictable. The writing and characters kept me following along even though this is not my typical genre read. It reminded me a bit of Big Little Lies without the murder and ensemble. Recommended to fans of domestic drama involving musicians.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the free copy provided for an honest review.

I loved Carola Lovering’s book, Tell Me Lies so I was so excited to get a copy of Can’t Look Away! It kept my attention from start to finish and left me looking forward to whatever the author writes next.

Here’s what you need to know:

In 2013, twenty-three-year old Molly Diamond is a barista, dreaming of becoming a writer. One night at a concert in East Williamsburg, she locks eyes with the lead singer, Jake Danner, and can’t look away. Molly and Jake fall quickly and deeply in love, especially after he writes a hit song about her that puts his band on the map.

Nearly a decade later, Molly has given up writing and is living in Flynn Cove, Connecticut with her young daughter and her husband Hunter—who is decidedly not Jake Danner. Their life looks picture-perfect, but Molly is lonely; she feels out of place with the other women in their wealthy suburb, and is struggling to conceive their second child. When Sabrina, a newcomer in town, walks into the yoga studio where Molly teaches and confesses her own fertility struggles, Molly believes she’s finally found a friend.

But Sabrina has her own reasons for moving to Flynn Cove and befriending Molly. And as Sabrina’s secrets are slowly unspooled, her connection to Molly becomes clearer––as do secrets of Molly’s own, which she’s worked hard to keep buried.

Meanwhile, a new version of Jake’s hit song is on the radio, forcing Molly to confront her past and ask the ultimate questions: What happens when life turns out nothing like we thought it would, when we were young and dreaming big? Does growing up mean choosing with your head, rather than your heart? And do we ever truly get over our first love?

I enjoyed the plot, the characters, and the pace and I think it’s going to be a big hit when it comes out in June!

This one was so crazy! I love a good stalker/obsession story and mixing it with a complicated love story made it even better. The combination between love story and thriller was balanced really well. The characters were complex; I both loved and hated them, but it made them more relatable. I feel like I shoulda saw the all the mini twists coming but I was so sucked in I didn’t. I devoured this book in a day and definitely recommend it for when you need a quick read!

Can't Look Away is the first book I've read by this author. I think I was expecting something a bit different, but it was enjoyable, hence the 4 stars.

The characters were interesting, but many of their choices were very juvenile. Even though they were adults, the behavior was more that of high school or college kids. The constant worry about what's he thinking, who is he dating / sleeping with / texting, or how can I get back at him, get his attention, etc.

As I said the story was enjoyable, but as a tale of obsessive behavior and excess, it would have been better had the characters been a little more mature.

If you get into obsessiveness combined with mystery, go for it. You will probably enjoy it!

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for an ARC at my request. All thoughts are my own.

This book was like the chocolate bar just waiting to be devoured on my shelf of TBR's. Pure unadulterated emotional manipulation and toxic behavior. I don't even care that this book was predictable- because I CAN'T LOOK AWAY... ok sorry, I had to... I'd say this book is for fans of reality tv shows. Pure toxic emotional diarrhea and I mean that in the best POSSIBLE WAY here! The fact that Sabrina, one of our two main characters knows what she's doing and the fact that she is very self aware AND emotionally manipulative makes her character even more sinister in my eyes. Events start to reach a fever pitch the more they alternate back and forth between past timelines and present, finally converging into a flurry of constant drama & craziness as if the reader is witnessing a train wreck and is powerless to stop it! I agree with most other readers however, that this book should not be listed as a thriller but rather a domestic suspense. Still doesn't detract from the fact that I couldn't stop compulsively reading this! I know this book may not be everyone's cup of tea BUT IT WAS DEFINETLY MINE! Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for my advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.