If you’ve ever experienced that type of hopeless, passionate, completely head over heels in love connection to someone, you’ll recognize the relationship that Molly and Jake have. It’s the kind of love that is so completely consuming, that realistically, it has no chance of lasting long-term. And as it turns out, it doesn’t.

Fast forward 10 years. When Molly meets Sabrina, a new comer to her sleepy New York suburb, she’s very excited. She’s never met someone in her little town that she truly felt she could connect with until Sabrina. And when she shows up in the office of Molly’s fertility specialist, Molly is even more excited to have a friend who understands what she is going through. But, just as true love was too much to last, apparently it’s also too much to ask for a true friend. Things are not as they seem and someone is lying.

Lovering does an amazing job in Can’t Look Away of creating realistic characters with realistic emotions. Sure, some of them are off the deep end, but that’s realistic too. It’s a great book, an amazing page turner and it was nostalgic revisiting the feelings of hopeless love and angst that many of us felt in our teen years.

Special thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced e-galley that I took way too long to read. But I’m so glad I did! This one is available now.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I love that it was told in past and present. The suspense kept me on my toes waiting for the ball to drop. It was a great romantic suspense novel!

i feel like this genre is everywhere right now. is it domestic thriller? i'm not sure but it's definitely all about people who desperately keep secrets that inevitably get revealed anyway. they strain credulity.

Can't Look Away is just another entry in this genre. the characters feel stock but at least the pacing is good. would recommend as a beach read.

teetering between 4-4.5 stars. really enjoyed this book and it pulled me right out of a reading slump 👏🏼

this is definitely a romantic suspense—so don’t expect a thriller going it! there are twist and turns throughout, and each time i thought i guessed what was coming next, i was wrong.

reminded me more of TELL ME LIES than TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. lots of music intertwined and gave me some DAISY JONES & THE SIX and EVERYTHING AFTER vibes.

full review to come on my IG closer to pub day! thanks to St Martin’s for the gifted copy

This is exactly the type of romance novel that I crave -- unpredictable, complicated characters, and a relatable story line. I thoroughly enjoyed the escape.

👀 I expected this book to be a thriller – from the cover art and title, but also from the description and the genre it is listed under. But this wasn’t a thriller to me at all. It is definitely more of a domestic drama or women’s fiction in my opinion.

👀 While my initial assumptions probably skewed my perception of this book a bit, I still enjoyed it. I really connected with Molly. The depiction of her relationship with Jake when they were younger really rang true to me and reminded me of one of my relationships during that period of my life.

👀 I did feel like the book dragged a bit at times, but not so much that I was removed from the story. I just felt like it was a bit repetitive occasionally.

👀 The ending was appropriate and realistic, and I was personally very happy about how everything was resolved.

👀 This story is a good example of how life doesn’t always turn out the way we expect it to, but sometimes (and often) that is a good thing.

Thank you @NetGalley and @StMartinsPress for an eARC of this book, which I have read and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

This one is a twisted psychological thriller. Molly and Jake were dating and in love almost 10 years ago but broke up. Now as Molly is married with a child, she runs back into Jake and he is married to her new best friend. A book where everyone has a secret. Some you will guess and some you will never see coming. A good cat and mouse game.

Wow this is a crazy intense novel of first loves & the intense way they grip your heart and mind and sometimes never let go. This is an insanely amazing book that will keep you reading long into the night. I know because I sure did!!!!!!!!

Having read Lovering's last book I went into this one rather blind and expecting a thriller. Instead this was more of a romance. However, this is a romance I really enjoyed. Rather than being a typical will they won't they style book it was more of a what could have been. I enjoyed learning the backstory of the characters as well as their relationship of the past and the present. There were some suspenseful elements, but by in large I would classify this more as a suspenseful romance. I will read anything that Carola Lovering writes!

DNF

Not a book for me. Lots of melodrama between females pretending to be friends. Lots of switching back and forth between timelines, neither of which interested me all that much. I didn't like anyone and I didn't care, so I stopped reading.

This was a very unexpected book for me - in a good way! I had no idea what the book was about so I was not ready for a semi-romance. This book takes place in two timelines - current day 2022 and 2013. In 2013, Jake and Molly meet at Jake's concert when they lock eyes. They fall fast in love and Jake even writes a hit song about Molly that shoots his stardom. Then in present day, Molly is married to someone else. As the story unfolds we find out what happens. While my description so far sounds like a romance, this book is actually a thriller and there is another woman involved.

I loved the way this story unfolded. I wanted to know what happened in 2013 for Molly and Jake to no longer be together. I wanted to find out what happened with the thriller part of the book. There were some predictable parts but also some twists I wasn't expecting. I also really enjoyed the way the story ended.

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy. Opinions are my own.

I’ve said it a million times that my reactions could be blamed on right place/right time way more than 50% of the time. The giant banner advertising the series Tell Me Lies kept slapping me right in the face until I finally realized I had an unread Carola Lovering ARC sitting on the Kindle and I decided to give it a whirl.

First things first, I hate the cover. I mean you had to see that one coming. And a warning for anyone looking for a super twisty stabby good time, this probably isn’t the story for you. What it turned out being was sort of a love triangle . . . with a twist. Molly is married to Hunter but used to be rock star Jake’s muse. This is the story of Molly and Hunter’s present life in Connecticut interspersed with Molly and Jake’s love story from the past. I can’t imagine any of the big reveals will come as a huge shocker to most readers, but it was some tasty brain candy when my head wasn’t capable of retaining anything but soap opera style yumminess.

Can’t Look Away was a step up from Colleen Hoover’s style. Stick around 10 years and all the kids on BookTok will discover this author and tell y’all to read her *eyeroll*

3.5 Stars

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!

This was boring. It is nothing like Gillian Flynn. The main plot was underwhelming and the characters were all flat.

I always look forward to Carola Lovering's books and was really excited to read this one. i enjoyed it alot! Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review this one. Can't wait for the next one!

I read this book in 1 day. I was racing to get to the end. I was on the edge of my seat. Part love story part suspense. This book was a winner.

Felt very formulaic and predictable but I still enjoyed the story and most of the characters. It makes for a good quick beach read.

This story is not a thriller. The title and cover photo make you feel there might be “more” around every twist but nope that’s not this kind of story

On the other hand I did like The story. It’s follows Molly and the love of her life Jake back when they were 23 and present day of Molly and her husband Hunter. The story is told from 3 perspective in two different time lines. The 3rd narrator is Sabrina who is obsessed with Stella and not in a good way.
I don’t want to give too much away but I am happy with the ending.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc copy of this story.

I was totally drawn in by this domestic suspense!! It was hard for me to put down. I loved the different POVs of Jake, Molly and Sabrina. I also enjoyed the past/present time line. I do wish it would have been a little more twisty, but that’s a personal preference!! I could totally see this one as a movie.

I’ve been a big fan of Carola Lovering ever since I read and loved Tell Me Lies. For some reason her books always get marketed as thrillers, but I’d say they’re all (this one included) more of a domestic drama/suspense.

Things I loved:
-multiple narrators and dual timelines. You get POV from Molly, Jake and Sabrina - the three that have a complicated web of a story weaved among them
-SO good on audio with multiple narrations
-don’t know who to trust - lots of sketchy decisions made by the characters - some made me roll my eyes, some made me happy about the way it took the story
-loved that Jake was a front man in a bad, loved hearing about touring, the band politics etc
-was surprised by some parts of the ending and loved how it all unfolded

Things that weren’t my favourite:
-didn’t love the epilogue and I don’t know what I would have preferred instead, but it was just underwhelming after such a fun ending

I really enjoyed this novel, personally I would highly recommend it. It was interesting and entertaining. It kept me wanting more throughout the entire book!