The author is good at character-driven storytelling and weaved this web of deceit, obsession, and revenge very well. I do agree with other reviewers that it’s less thriller and more romantic suspense. Thanks so much to St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy!

I just finished Can't Look Away by Carola Lovering, and it was great! . Talk about can't look away---can't put it down! Definitely a quick read! Molly, the main character, lives with the idea of what would her life be like if she had been with the love of her life when she was younger. Based on the idea of the one who got away, it made me reminisce of a past love who got away to connect with the characters deeper than usual. It's hard not to think about what could have been. Molly and Jake face this issue head on as their past comes back to their present lives. All loose ends were tied up, which really helps make this a must read! I think many readers will be able to relate to this story line and maybe go back and connect with their past. Well done!

I received an ARC of this title from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I’m not sure what this book wanted to be. Part love story, part thriller, part women’s fiction…It was like a genre mashup. The plot and shorter chapters kept the pages flying, but I think overall I was expecting a slightly different take on the story based on the description. In general, it was good enough, but most likely not a story I’ll remember by the end of the year.

Lovering catapulted to the top of my favorite authors list with last year's Too Good To Be True, and secured the standing with Can't Look Away. Another 5 ++ star, fantastic and captivating read with twists I could never imagine. But she led me there and oh the angst and heartbreak, and treachery. I worried but I was very satisfied with the ending. I highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Carola Lovering's Can't Look Away. I was immediately drawn to the alternating backdrops of Brooklyn and Manhattan, leaving me nostalgic for my own post-college adventures in the city. I was also captivated by the alternating perspectives of Molly, a young aspiring writer whose boyfriend Jake is an up and coming singer and Sabrina, his ex-girlfriend who makes it her mission to know every detail of Molly's life.

Where do we draw the line between love and obsession? Molly.has moved on after her break.up with Jake and lives in a small Connecticut suburb with her husband and their young daughter. But when Sabrina becomes her neighbor and.befriends Molly while hiding who she really is, everything in Molly's life spirals out of control.

You may have to pick.your jaw up off of the floor more than once as you delve deeper into the not-so-perfect lives of these unforgettable characters. Get ready to read this in one sitting.

This is an addictive story about the one that got away. It does have some Lifetime qualities, but it gave me enough interest to stay connected to it until the end. I could not wait to find out what becomes of a past love and if the feelings were still there.
7 years back, Molly and Jake were a beautiful couple envied by many. He was climbing the charts with his band and a hit song written exclusively for her. After trust issues and his rising popularity, many events obstruct their relationship from staying connected. Molly decides to move on without him and gives up her dreams of a writing career and teaches yoga instead.
Molly meets Hunter, the perfect husband. They are struggling to conceive their second child, but she is blessed to have met a perfect father and companion. Living in a wealthy suburb, she finds it hard to connect with friends until Sabrina walks into her life. She enjoys her company. Little does Molly know, Sabrina has a hidden evil agenda to accomplish.
Jake, unknowingly, he is about to waltz back into Molly's life. Is the connection still there? How did this happen and how is it going to play out?
At times, it appeared too easy, and the characters were not catching on.... LOL....but other than that it worked for me. It was a suspenseful story, and definitely a psychotic female character. The last part appeared to be lacking some information, but the ending is guaranteed to work for many.
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this title in exchange for my review.
6 likes

This one was just ok for me. Usually this sorta premise is right up my alley, however this one did not measure up. Perhaps my standards are too high, or the writing style was not for me. Not a bad read by any means. It just could have been better.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy. I requested it because it was marketed as a “sexy suspense novel”. It turned out to be a love story with a little suspense.

I did enjoy the book though, with the different timelines and points of view. It was very entertaining and well worth reading. I thought there’s no way the story could end well but it did. I didn’t buy the villain’s change of heart; she got off too easy.

This book is so juicy and quick-paced — something I was really in the mood for. Molly falls in love at 23 with up and coming rock star Jake, who’s song about her becomes the next big hit of 2013. A decade later, Molly is living with her life with husband Hunter and their daughter Stella. A good life, even though Molly feels left out. So when she meets Sabrina, she thinks she hit the friend jackpot. But Sabrina has her own reasons for befriending Molly.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It’s part domestic suspense, part sexy romance — and it totally works. Bravo!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Carola Lovering can really write suspenseful women's fiction that really makes you feel. I loved the characters in Can't Look Away and though you might not agree with their choices, you can understand why Molly, Jake and Sabrina make some of the choices they do. Lovering does a great job capturing the feelings of that all encompassing first love that many people experience in their early twenties. Of course, most people don't have quite as much drama surrounding them as the characters do, but that's what made this such an enthralling read. I was drawn in from the very beginning and read the last half straight through.

Wow, this is my first review in a year! That’s saying something.

This duo is one of my favorites for physiological thrillers, Hendricks and Pekkanen always have great characters and such smart writing. The Golden Couple was no exception.

A little slower than their other books, I still felt engaged the whole time. Especially with Avery and Marissa’s point of view. I also loved the difference between them. Avery, a sharp witted and aggressive therapist and Marissa, a fragile and soft spoken boutique owner. They ended up making fabulous characters.

If you love domestic thrillers with a twist than The Golden Couple will be you’re cup of tea! You won’t know who to trust and you will most definitely be manipulated a time or two but it will so be worth a read!

Plus, try going in blind with this one! I did and it made the twists all the more better, so I tried not to give anything away.

Exactly the kind of thriller I am looking for! Definitely one that you will not want to put down anytime quickly. Exciting and the characters were crazy! In the best way possible for a thriller.

4.5 stars —- I think some of the mixed reviews on this one are coming from a mislabelled genre — would definitely call this more romantic suspense than sexy mystery/thriller but holy wow was it GOOD. Stayed up way past my bedtime because the tension was too unbearable to put it down.

Molly is in her early thirties living a quiet life in suburban Connecticut with her husband & young daughter. A far cry from her former life in Brooklyn a decade earlier as the muse & partner to a rockstar, Jake Danner.

The drama between Jake, Molly, and mystery woman Sabrina runs high as jealousy, lies, and misconceptions paint each of their own versions of what happened when Molly & Jake’s relationship ended years ago. Told through each of their perspectives across multiple timelines, each character begins to take shape as the book progresses and their motivations for their actions, past and present, are made clear. The truth is emotional and messy and the pieces all finally come together in the most dramatic way.

One of the reasons @carolatlovering ’s writing enraptures me is the way she describes feelings: new feelings, old feelings, fleeting feelings and lasting feelings. With the heroines of her work I find myself identifying with different parts of each one. It’s like we’ve all lived the same experiences and as I read the connection that I have to the characters grows. Also I admittedly fall in love with Lovering’s male characters just as quickly as her characters do. I identify with her character’s big hearts and sit in solidarity with them in their weakest moments. The conversations Lovering’s characters have with their friends are the kinds of conversations I wish I had with mine. She makes me want to be part of that friend group.

One of Lovering’s signature styles is writing from different POVs. Actually being inside of multiple characters brains really brings each moment to life.

I get so lost in Lovering’s writing I lose track of time and place. And then sometimes I pause, unsure of how I want the story to continue. And knowingly that it doesn’t always go how I assume. What I’m saying is, she’s one of the greats for a reason, and this third novel is no exception. There are times I speed read through and the pages just turn and turn and other times one line sets me back into refection for hours. Some characters, books, setting just stay with you.

Solene and Hayes. Isabelle and Gaetan. Kya and Tate. Celia and Marco. Lucy and Steven. And now, Molly and Jake.

I can’t wait for you to meet them when Can’t Look Away is released in June!

What are the odds that the new girl in town that you instantly become besties with is married to your retired rockstar ex? Molly meets Jake Danner at one of his NYC shows and they have a hot start. As their relationship heats up so does his career, fast forward 9 years later and they’ve ended up living in the same suburban town married to other people. Is Flynn Cove big enough for Molly and Jake’s reunion?

@carolatlovering #cantlookaway @netgalley

I really enjoyed this! It was fun to see how the present-day mess was created, and how it unravels … I couldn’t put it down.

I read Carola Lovering’s last book, Too Good to Be True, last year and it was a wild ride. This upcoming release, Can’t Look Away, was a wild ride as well. I had listened to Too Good to Be True on audio and expect that this one will also be good on audio because she used a similar style with each chapter going back and forth between three characters. The characters in Can’t Look Away have a complicated history which has developed into a very complicated present. There are themes of love, loss, grief, and revenge.
.
As you dive deeper into each of the character’s lives and history, you’ll wonder what went wrong, what’s coming next, and how this could possibly resolve. These characters are messy, complicated, and often unlikable. This is a twisty book and I recommend adding to your TBR if you enjoy alternating perspectives from characters with lots of secrets. This releases on July 14,2022.
.
Thanks @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the eARC.
.
.
.
#currentlyreading #bookstagram #booklover #shelflife #booklife #bibliophile #bookworm #booknerd #bookstagrammer #reading #bookish #read #goodreads #amreading #bookreviews #booksofig #booksofinstagram #readmore #readmorebooks #whatiread #bookrecommendations

Lovering is a must read author for me and this book solidifies why. More of a romantic suspense than thriller but it’s totally enthralling. It’s told from Molly as a 23 year old in young love and a present day Molly married to a different guy. When Molly runs into her first love the book takes off in only the way Lovering can do. This book was packed with emotion and heart. Loved it!

Carola Lovering has once again blown me away with her latest novel! Can’t Look Away is a fascinating mix of a love story and a domestic thriller that I found unputdownable! Carola Lovering masterfully builds a storyline that is full of unexpected twists and turns that left my jaw hanging wide open—love that! I found the characters extremely well-developed and enjoyed that we got alternating viewpoints throughout which added so much to the storyline. Can’t Look Away is a 5+++ star novel that I will most definitely be recommending to EVERYONE! Carola Lovering is an automatic must read for me and I already can’t wait to see what she comes out with next!

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Can't Look Away by Carola Lovering.

Oh my goodness, what a delightful steaming vat of upper class foolishness.

Molly is happy and in love with her small family, her daughter and husband Hunter. But what not everyone knows is that Molly once dated super famous band member Jake Danner, who wrote a song about Molly, putting them both on the map. So what happened ten years ago that ended their red hot romance?

Back to present day, Molly enjoys teaching yoga and keeping up with the Jones's, all the while not quite feeling like she fits in. But that all changes when Sabrina appears in her class. Sabrina is cool, different, and just the friend that Molly has been craving. But Sabrina knows more about Molly than Molly could ever guess.

This starts out nice and juicy, the perfect little bit of harmless gossip. But the further in you get the more it goes off the rails until you're like, STOP, I nEVEr AskED fOr tHis! It's a bit too batstuff for me. I love me some drama as much as the next Liane Moriarty fan, but this was just a bit TOO much frosting on the cake.

Can't look away is a story of love, suspense and reflection on 'the one that got away'. Told from 3 different perspectives and shifting from present day to 2013-2016, we learn about Jake and Molly's love story. But Jake and Molly don't end up together. The use of parallel timelines and multiple points of view work well for this story. The author is skilled at building tension and slowly portioning out details so the reader can work out what exactly happened that Jake and Molly ended up so far from where they started.
This is a fast paced and well-written novel full of enigmatic characters and fun NY details. I enjoyed the contrast of light and dark in this story. A good read for the psych-thriller fan who has a soft spot for love.
Thank you to the author and publisher for the opportunity to read and review this ARC,