Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC.
It must be my age (I'm a grandmother), but I didn't like this book ... I think I'm the only reader who couldn't get into the story.
It's more of a romance than a mystery, telling the story of a attractive and famous musician and the two women in his life. Both women were in their 20's when they met and fell hopelessly in love with him. Fast forward to 2022 and we meet all 3 again, older but not necessarily wiser. Unfortunately, I couldn't care less about them. Also, I found the constant naming of brands irritating, it felt like advertising. It was just not for me, sorry!

Can't look Away is my first book by Carola Lovering and I really enjoyed this one. It was part romance, part mystery and held my interest throughout the book.

In a multiple point of view, multiple time line novel, we meet Molly who working as a barista and is simultaneously working on her MFA. She dreams about becoming a successful writer. What she is not expecting in her future is to fall in love with the lead singer of the up and coming band, Danner Lane. Their love affair is intense, exciting, and not without problems. Shoot forward, and we meet Molly again, married to Hunter and living in the suburban town of Flynn Cove with with their 5 year old daughter , Stella. Molly is not in love with the other women of Flynn Cove, as they tend to be more interested in the country club and the latest fashion than genuine friendship. This all changes when Sabrina walks into her yoga studio. She is down to earth, doesn't care what others think and they share similar issues with fertility, which bonds them together. Molly is in for a huge surprise when she goes to Sabrina's house for dinner and her past is brought roaring into the present when meets her husband, a true blast from her past. Now Molly has to figure out how to hold on to the life she has built, when her life is turned onto its head.

I really loved this book. It’s hard to categorize. Part thriller, part romance, part women’s literature.

I just thought it was a lovely commentary on who we are when we are young and how we change as we age. And how love can mean a lot of different things. We can hold so many people in our hearts in different capacities.

Honestly the thriller elements are okay, but the character development and relationships are what will stick with me

After reading Lovering’s Too Good To Be True, I knew that it wouldn’t be the last. Can’t Look Away has everything you would want in a psychological thriller. Lovering does such a fantastic job at character development & also the imagery she uses in her writing that gets her readers hooked. A few of my favorite things upfront about this novel was the setting (New York) and all of the restaurants, bars, & coffee shops that I could look up while reading. I love when an author incorporates real places into their novel. This novel starts takes place between 2013-2022 in NYC & Flynn Cove. It’s 2013 & Molly, an introvert, aspiring writer, is dragged out to drinks at a bar with Nina, swooning over The Lane Brothers when she suddenly makes eye contact with one of the band members. Jake, one of the members of The Lane Brothers, tracks down Jeb, the owner of the bar to get Molly’s number. On their first “meet up” Molly discovers that Jake is currently going through a break up. Red flag! Fast forward 9 years we learn that Jake was so invested in his musical career that Molly is married to her now husband Hunter, with a 5 year old daughter Stella, living in a very affluent community of Country Club desperate housewives in Flynn Cove where she doesn’t quite fit in. Molly passes time by teaching yoga where she meets a new girl to her class, Sabrina who she for once actually connects with. However, little does she know, she has a lot more in common with her than she thinks.

❤️Book Review❤️

Ok friends!! Get your Goodreads app open, get your Amazon account open, and hit the save button here, because you do not want to miss this gem of a romantic thriller when it comes out next June!! Hit Want to Read and preorder this baby because it is absolutely amazing!!

One night when she was drug to the bar with her friend, Molly Diamond locks eyes with the lead singer, Jake Danner, and they fallquickly in love. Jake brings out Molly’s inner writer and she starts work on her first novel. The two have a whirlwind romance and Jake writes a number one hit song about Molly. Fast forward ten years later and Molly and her husband, Hunter, (gasp…where’s Jake??) are struggling to have their second child. Molly loves and adores her husband and daughter Stella, but absolutely loathes their small ritzy social climbing town they live in. When Sabrina moves to town and shares she same feelings about these horrible people and similar fertility issues they become fast friends. How Molly’s past and present come together is a ride you don’t want to miss!

I am a complete sucker for books when the author pins the first love against someone’s current love and books with alternating timelines and perspectives. You give me a book with those things and chances are I am going to love it! This books gave me allllll those things and soooo much more. I found myself opening NetGalley at stoplights, while brushing my teeth, cooking, and many other random times during the day because I needed to know what in the world was going to happen with Molly! I was very invested in her and I needed to know more of her story. I absolutely devoured The Paper Palace this summer and this books has very similar attributes, but a little bit more light hearted. There are still intense subjects, but not as intense or deep. I will remember these characters for a long, long time and I will be wondering how they are from time to time because they all just felt so real to me. I loved Too Good To Be True, but think this one is even better! I can’t wait for you all to read this book! It’s amazing and you will burn through the pages. Save the date for June 14, 2022.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
I would definitely be recommending this book to readers on my Instagram bookstagram account.

Thanks to netgalley for an advanced reader copy. I was so excited to see this author on netgalley! I loved Too Good To Be True. I felt this was more of a contemporary genre rather than a psychological suspense as the description made it out to be. . I did want to continue seeing what would happen, and wasn’t in love with the ending of how it turned out with Sabrina. . Overall, writing was really good, so I would keep reading books from this author.

I loved Too Good To Be True, which was my first book by Lovering, and while Can’t Look Away carried her amazing writing, with deeply developed characters and anxieties of their own that I could relate to, I didn’t click with this book. I set it aside for a while to see if that would entice me back, but something was missing, and I can’t put my finger on it, which is disappointing, because I really enjoy the author. I will still continue to auto read books from the author, despite this.

Considering I stayed up until 3am to finish this book in one sitting tells you how much I enjoyed it! The story was engaging and likable- seeing the story play out through the different perspectives of the characters was enough to keep me reading. Some parts were predictable but I didn’t mind it too much! Thanks for the opportunity to read this ARC!

THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD! It’s a story about young Molly Diamond, an aspiring writer & Jake Denner, an aspiring singer. One evening, while Jake is up on stage & Molly is in the crowd, they lock eyes and can’t look away. They quickly fall in love- end of story? Nope, not really. Like all love stories, no one is without their flaws. Molly is working hard at her book & Jake is working hard at their new album & touring schedule.

Fast forward nearly a decade later & Molly is married (not to Jake) & has a young daughter. She lives in the suburbs & is trying to fit in with the suburban housewives, when she meets a woman that she clicks with instantly. She finds out that woman is married to Jake Denner! Which forces Molly to confront her unresolved past as secrets and lies start to unfold amongst the four of them.

I absolutely fell in love this with this book. The multiple POVs between current Molly and previous Molly kept me hooked! The book is easy to read & touches on real-life struggles.

This book is out June 2022! Def add to your TBR 😍

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was the first book I have read from Carola Lovering and I really enjoyed it. I found myself wanting to continue to read and find out what happened between Molly and Jake. I recommend this book for a unique hybrid between a triller and love story.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Molly is happily married to Hunter and they have a 6 year old daughter but in a strange turn of events, her ex boyfriend from some years back, Jake, re-surfaces in her life and turns things upside down.

I am sorry to say that after really enjoying Too Good To Be True, this author’s previous novel, this one was ok at best. The problem is I really don’t see how this could be billed a mystery/thriller at all and that is what I was expecting. Her previous book wasn’t necessarily a mystery, but there was a lot of suspense and some reveals that I was truly shocked by. It had lots of twists and turns and I really couldn’t put it down. My only complaint was that it got a little sappy at the end. This book honestly was a romance or women’s fiction. There were some nefarious actions perpetrated but they were predictable and they did not make this a mystery. I really hate when books are wrongly classified because I get something I didn’t expect and give it a poor to mediocre review when I could have just skipped it. I will definitely read the reviews on her next book to check the true genre before diving in.

This was basically a romance novel with some suspense added in. This suspense, together with multiple timelines and POVs, lifted the story out of the ordinary and made it a really fun book. My copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

Overall, this was a fun thriller that kept me entertained! Haven’t read anything by this author, and I really enjoyed her writing style.

Can’t look away , is a great book about those loves of your twenties. Those are the loves which you never get over. These loves shape the way you will handle every relationship of your life. We are hurt and we hurt when in those young relationships. I know that I will never get over my twenty love

ARC provided by NETGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Overall rating - 4.5/5 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1/2
{trigger warnings- miscarriage}
"Can't Look Away" is a beautiful and sentimental journey through first love and the hold it has on us throughout life, and staying true to the title - I just couldn't look away from this book!
I found all of the characters (yes, even Sabrina) endearing and I empathized with every perspective they each provided. I think most of us have found ourselves in at least a few of these mindsets throughout our lives. The only thing I had a slight issue with was the first, third-person switches but wasn't too bothered by it overall.
I just loved the general sentiment of this book. While the bonds of first love may reach across time and grab hold of our hearts, we only need to be brave enough to take off the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia and appreciate these new phases of life just as they are. "Can't Look Away" is a beautiful reminder of the duality of growing up; being thankful for youth and first loves, the memories and growth made during that time, and also accepting that sometimes we outgrow these people and need to let them go in order to be our best selves.

Wow! Part romance, part suspense, all encompassing awesome story! I didn't want to put this one down and when I had to, I couldn't stop thinking about it! Wondering which way the story would twist and what would be revealed throughout the story and with a few surprises thrown in. Molly and Jake's story is one I won't forget any time soon. Highly recommend!

Overall I enjoyed this book very much. After having read the authors last book (and completely blown away by it) I could not wait to read this one, I really liked the beginning and thought the various POV’s worked very well, love the writing style and the pace. I was annoyed however with the constant name abbreviations (Neens for Nina? Stell, Hunt, Moll, Sees etc) Ugh! Also don’t think this book should be billed as a mystery/thriller as it left me wondering “this is all?” by the end.

I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is my third book by Carola Lovering, and I had high expectations for this book because of how much I loved the previous two. It was still very enjoyable, but I did find it fizzle and deflate towards the end.

The book caught my attention right away, alternating between 2005 and 2022 (the present ), starting with Molly and Jake's meetcute, straight out of a romcom, then the next chapter- she's now trying for a baby with her husband (not Jake) and living a completely different life- what happened between the two?

Then enters a stalkerish third person- who seems obsessed with Molly and from her past, who injected herself into the present. Who is she and what's her connection? I thought this angle was brilliant, turning a romantic YA book to a thriller.

The author mislead me with a few times deliberately in the story, choosing intentionally misleading words and leaving the same type of clues.

Molly was a bit MarySue, everyone talks about how special she is, Jake practically worships her, Hunter was infatuated with her with a glimpse as well, I didn't see what the book kept on describing "You know Molly's different."

My final thoughts are the conflict resolution in this book is very idealistic, everyone in this book forgives really easily and doesn't seem to hold a grudge at all, well, except for you-know-who.

I couldn’t stop thinking about this book and had to finish it as quickly as I could. It get a little hard to categorize. Was it romance? Mystery? Family drama? It felt like a little of all of them. Overall, the story is about Molly and Jake, their love story and what happens after it doesn’t work out. The personal growth of the characters was phenomenal! I really enjoyed reading this!