What are you willing to do for a second chance with the one that got away? The dark story of Molly, Jake, Hunter, and Sabrina addresses what happens when you can't look away from your addictive, obsessive first love.

Wow! From the beginning, I was invested in this domestic suspense drama that focuses on love and secrets. With POVs from three of the four main characters, all of the characters are well defined and intriguing. The dual timelines give insights into everything leading up to the present day where all four characters find themselves together in the small town of Flynn Cove, CT. With all four in the same place at the same time, the past and present collide.

While Can't Look Away can't boast of surprising twists or thrills, Carola Lovering's storytelling is excellent so I didn't miss either. You know what's coming and simply can't look away. The unraveling of this tangled web of secrets is oh so compelling and entertaining!

I alternated between reading and listening to Can't Look Away. The talented team of Caitlin Davies, Karissa Vacker, and Zachary Webber narrates this captivating listening experience. They bring the nostalgic Molly, the calculating Sabrina, and self-absorbed Jake to life, keeping you riveted to every detail of their messy shared history and hidden agendas.

Get ready to get hooked on this binge-worthy drama!

Rating: 4.5 Stars rounded up to 5

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Macmillan Audio for early digital and listening copies of this book.

👀 Can’t Look Away
by Carola Lovering 

Available 6/14

📕 This was a quick, fun read/listen that I would recommend as a starter thriller, or for someone that wants to dip their toe into the genre, but doesn’t want anything too dark. I really enjoyed the story!

✌️ The dual timelines and multiple POV helped build suspense while you became familiar with each character’s stories and background, and I loved the stalker vibes. However for me I’d call it a light thriller, drama or romantic suspense but overall still a great read!

🎶 And speaking of drama…is there ever! We meet Molly in her college days, in NYC, and it’s here that she meets Jake, the frontman of a band. When they connect, they fall fast into a passionate romance, a relationship I was definitely rooting for. He writes a song about her which ends up becoming a hit, putting his band on the map. 

👯‍♀️ A decade later, Molly is living in Connecticut with her husband Hunter and young daughter, and while it’s a picture perfect neighborhood, Molly is feeling a little lonely, missing her old friends and not really meshing with the other women in her circle, coupled with her own personal struggle with IVF. When she meets newcomer Sabrina, who shares some of her own similar struggles, Molly thinks she has found a friend, until she begins to uncover who Sabrina is and why she happened to come into her life.   

📖 This was a super quick read for me, and I fully enjoyed indulging in this fun fast read.

🎧 The audio narration was fantastic, provided by Caitlin Davies, Karissa Vacker and Zachary Webber. 

🌟 Thanks to netgalley and macmillan audio for the early audio listening copy of this great new read.

Can't Look Away is domestic drama/suspense from Carola Lovering.

"Ten years ago, aspiring writer, Molly Diamond was the girlfriend of Jake Danner, the frontman for the hot, new band - Danner-Lane. Now she's given up writing and living in Flynn Cove with her young daughter and husband, Hunter. Molly struggles to fit in with the other women of Flynn Cove until she makes a new friend in Sabrina. Molly finally feels like she has someone to confide in.
But Sabrina has her own reasons for being in Flynn Cove. As her secrets unspool her connection to Molly becomes more clear. And Molly's secrets - the ones she kept buried for ten years - are being threatened."

If you love a novel full of obsession and revenge - this is the book for you. This is not a thriller even though there are a couple of twists at the end you'll probably guess. There is tragedy too.
You probably know someone like Sabrina - obsessed with revenge and ruining a life or two, no matter the collateral damage. Molly, who is struggling to find her way. And Jake - the musician with a hit song, who can't seem to get out of his own way.

Great audiobook performance from Caitlin Davies and Zachary Webber. The only thing that would have made it better would be a version of Molly's Song playing in the background.

Good choice if you're looking for drama (but not a thriller)

2/5 ⭐️
DNF at 30%
I haaaate DNFing books but for the life of me I couldn’t get into it! Maybe it was to slow or the characters were too black but ack!

What a rollercoaster of emotions!

What first made me gravitate to this book was the cover, it just exuded a mysterious and hidden story that just made me want to know what was in the mind of the woman on the cover.

After reading the description, I was excited to see a topic that you don’t read as much about: fertility issues. As someone who does not know a lot about it, but has friends who know and are willing to educate me and others about things really has opened up the conversation and the broadened the knowledge; making it was less taboo.

This is the first book from this author that I have read through; I did have the audio version which really gave a bit more to the tone of the story as it was read by multiple narrators for the different character perspectives. I did prefer some narrators over others. Having multiple points of view can be fun as it gives us the full story, but from multiple angles at different times so, when you get a part of the story, you may jump to conclusions and be surprised if it veers off kilter from what you suspected.

This was not a thriller in the traditional sense, but had some twists and turns throughout to make the story whole. I did find it a little slow at the start and the end wrapped up very quickly.

Without any spoilers, this was a quick story to get through with some relatable characters.

Thank you so much to the author, Carola Lovering, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the arc audiobook!

Can’t Look Away is the story of Molly Diamond a future writer who falls for the cute lead singer Jake. They have a whirlwind love story culminating in him writing a hit song after her. Flash forward 10 years later…Molly is living married life with her husband Hunter (not Jake!) and her 5 year old daughter. When newcomer Sabrina strikes up a friendship with Molly things are going well but little does she know Sabrina’s ulterior motives.

Multiple POV’s and dual timelines with a juicy story had me hooked. I really enjoyed this one and Sabrina’s intentions had me 🤯 highly recommend this one if you want a sexy suspense read!

5/5 Stars!

Thank you Macmillan Audio for allowing me to review this advanced listening copy!

It's 2013 and 23-year-old Molly meets budding rock star Jake Danner, falling quickly and madly in love. Together, they chase their respective dreams and start building a life together. Fast forward 10 years later, to Molly's new life in Flynn Cove, mother to a beautiful daughter and married to Hunter. She's no longer writing or pining over Jake Danner, and something is missing from her life. At first, her budding friendship with new-girl Sabrina feels like just what Molly needs... until it doesn't. Sabrina has some secrets of her own and, let me tell you, what a tangled web they all weave.

I loved this one! This is my first Carola Lovering book and it did NOT disappoint. I went into this book blindly and expected it to be a thriller and, though definitely more a drama, it had thriller vibes that kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. The narrators for each character were fabulous and exactly what I would have liked each of them to sound like. The plot was fast-paced and had great flow, making this impossible to put down. Can't Look Away is right!

Molly has a truly iconic love story in her 20s. She goes to a concert of an up=and-coming band, and the lead singer, Jake Danner of Danner Lane, falls for her, just a face in the crowd. Flashing back and forth to this romance and 6 years later to Molly, a mom of a really great kid and wife to a truly perfect husband, Hunter, the story of how that love story unfolded — and the role a third party, Sabrina, had to play throughout then and now.

OK, so where to start. I wasn't the biggest fan of Too Good To Be True by the same author so I super hesitated on this but wowow was this such a great story. It felt like a movie and I adored it. Definitely wouldn't call it even a domestic thriller. It's more like a suspenseful romance, and I was so here for it! I finished it within 24 hours!

Read if... you loved the movie A Simple Favor and devoured The Light We Lost.

Can’t Look Away by Carola Lovering just might be one of the most addictive books I’ve ever listened to. Wow! Before I say much more, I just want you to know that this book is definitely NOT a thriller. It seems to be marketed as one, but I’d have to disagree. Big thanks to Katie over at @basicbsguide for giving me a heads-up. Reading her review and a few others beforehand put me in the right mindset, so I knew not to expect a thriller. Hopefully this insight will be beneficial to you as well. So, how would I best describe it? Hmmm, a domestic drama, maybe? A cryptic love story, perhaps? A web of complicated relationships? All I gotta say is that it’s entertaining AF, and super juicy. I couldn’t stop listening! It’s a big ball of deceit, desire, obsession, revenge, and a bit of suspense all rolled into one! Honestly, I recommend skipping over the synopsis, just go in blind, and buckle up for a heck of a ride! If you do get the opportunity to listen to this one, I’d take it. With three different readers, the narration is PHENOMENAL. It was such a great listening experience. Can’t Look Away releases on June 14th, and I give it 4.5/5 stars! Highly recommend!

I thought this was a thriller, but it's really more of romantic suspense - rooted in obsession and revenge.

Molly Diamond can't believe she is dating Jake Danner, the gorgeous frontman of a hot new band. Their love for each other is passionate and deep. It should be a love that lasts a lifetime - 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘺.

Years later, Molly is raising her beautiful daughter Stella with her husband Hunter in a Connecticut suburb. They are trying desperately to have another baby via IVF. Molly is missing her friends from Brooklyn, so Molly finds it lucky when Sabrina drops into her life and befriends her. But it's not a coincidence on Sabrina's part.

𝐂𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐲 offers the emotions of love and heartbreak with the suspense of stalking and manipulation. I didn't feel it had the thriller atmosphere; instead, the romances, yes plural, took center stage. Tension does build as the timelines jump back and forth. I also didn't feel this had big twists or turns, but it delves into first loves, sacrificing for love, and those who won't let go. I flew through this one!

🎧 I listened to the audiobook from @macmillan.audio and it was fantastic with excellent narrators: Caitlin Davies, Karissa Vacker & Zachary Webber.

Thank you to @stmartinspress for a gifted copy.

I think this might be my least favorite read of the year so far. As someone else mentioned, this is absolutely not a thriller. The “action” is at the very end and is a Monday morning for those of us who like darker mysteries. The scheming and games were pretty flat and uninteresting.

My biggest issue was that this book is beyond predicable. I am not joking when I say that I anticipated every.single.thing that happened. The only reason I actually finished listening to this was to see if I truly predicted every “twist” that unfolded. You could have read one of the first chapters, one in the middle, and the last few and would have gotten the gist. Long story short: miscommunication, distrust, lies, insecurity, and distance tore Jake and Molly apart, but they can't stop thinking about each other even in their adult lives.

Listen I’m not opposed to a sexy suspense story, but only when the characters are ACTUALLY enticing. I want to know who signed off on such a MEDIOCRE man being shoved down our throats. Literally everything Jake did was laughable. While we get a lot of background on Molly’s relationship with him, all it did was make her look like a whole fool for putting up with him and later ~reminiscing~ about their unhealthy relationship. For real though - despite the background we get on them, I could not understand what about Jake was so jaw dropping. So he knows how to strum a guitar and has craaazy blue eyes. His personality is TRASH. He still treated her like TRASH. I mean honestly lies from the jump!!!

Molly isn’t a particularly interesting main character either I can sympathize with her career troubles, but at the end of the day Jake and Hunter were initially stuck by her looks. She just happened to be a sweet person. Honestly, her fertility issues are the most interesting part of her adult life. There was potential here for the author to make a simple story far more compelling.

I could go on. But ultimately, this was not for me. The saving grace was the narrators. Without the emotion they put into this lacking story, I would have DNFd.

1.5 stars.

Molly lives in a quiet, CT suburb with her husband and daughter when someone from her past unexpectedly reappears and inserts herself into Molly's life. I'm in the middle on this audiobook. It was good but not something I'll remember in years to come. Dual narrators successfully add a great deal of tension. The chapters narrated by Sabrina were very successfully conveyed her warped mind gave good insight into how she functioned. The narrator did an excellent job with these chapters.. Other than that, I don't have a lot to say. It wasn't particularly original and there weren't any exciting twists.

This book is a perfect melding of Daisy Jones and the Six and You. The book is told by three separate narrators on multiple timelines, but it’s done so well you don’t find yourself lost in time. Can’t Look Away centers on a girl named Molly. Molly is an English major that just so happens to catch the eye of Rockstar Jake Danner while his band is on the rise. What seems like everlasting love with a few flaws makes this a good book for scratching a light romance itch. You almost feel transported back to that romance you had in your twenties where the love was deep, and the fights were frequent. On another timeline Molly is in her thirties and married to someone other than Jake. This alone would be enough to keep me turning the pages to find out how they fell apart but then in walks Sabrina. I loved how this book split into two genres, and both made you want to see what would happen next. I was drawn in by the love story and I was propelled forward by the thriller. The complexities of human emotion are splashed on the pages in a realistic way. How do you let go of an all-encompassing love? How do you measure up to who you wanted to be when you were in your twenties? While this is not my favorite book by Lovering it was still a good read, and I will continue to look for her new releases. I recommend this book to fans of Nicholas Sparks, domestic thrillers, and realistic romance.

Carola Lovering is quickly becoming an auto-buy author for me! I didn’t know if CAN’T LOOK AWAY was going to be able to top how much I loved her last novel, TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. However, I think this one is my new favorite of her’s! Her plot lines are always unique and fast paced with a sprinkle of romance and this one is no different. I highly recommend this to everyone, but warning: make sure you have time to binge it in just a couple sittings, because you won’t be able to put this one down 😉 4.5 stars from me! The narration was also fantastic by all 3 narrators, which is rare to come by! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for this alc.

This book is marketed as a mystery/thriller but to me it reads more like a drama, maybe with some suspense. I would say this is a domestic drama. Despite being disappointed coming into this book thinking it is one thing and finding out it is something completely different, I really enjoyed this book.

In this novel we follow Molly Diamond and Jake Danner. They fell in love as soon as they locked eyes on one another. Molly is an aspiring writer and Jake is a musician at the beginning of his career. They start dating, move in together but some years later they break up. They are going to find each other six years later in a completely different circumstance.

The story goes back and forth in time. The character development is great. I was so invested in this story that I could not stop listening to this book. I felt connected to these characters, to their complicated lives and relationship. I suffered with them, my heart broke for them. This book portrays perfectly how messed up real lives are.

The audiobook is narrated by Caitlin Davies, Karissa Vacker, and Zachary Webber. Their voices were very fitting for the characters and I was instantly captivated by their narration. Their pacing was great. Overall, the narrators deliver a stellar performance of this story and the audiobook completely captures the atmosphere of this story.

Can’t Look Away is a book about friendship, love, betrayal, revenge, obsession. There are some unexpected twists along the way and the narrative is very well done. I would recommend it to everyone and I am very interested to reading more from this author.

I got into this book pretty quickly and it helped my attention all the way through. With that being said, there was no real mystery or suspense as I expected. For me, this book was just OK. I found the ending to be rather cheesy.

I listened to the audiobook version and didn’t really like the narrators.

Can't Look Away is the 2nd book I have read by Carola Lovering. I don't think it was a thriller like I was expecting but it was more of a romantic suspense novel. I did enjoy listening to the audiobook. It took me just a little bit to get into it since I wasn't reading along trying to figure out who all the characters where and get my timeline straight as it does go back and forth from past to present. I did enjoy Molly's story and I was glad with the way the story ended.

Flibbergibblets! 😳😯🤯

My goodness this was one crazy, spicy & revengeful novel. I'm gonna start off by saying, this isn't quite a thriller to me as it's been categorized. I found this was more romance suspense. Now that being said, I did still enjoy it - albeit romance is not my cup of coffee, I still enjoyed the suspense it provided. Think, love triangle, with a devious, dark aspect of a jealous, possessive ex-girlfriend. Lush is an understatement for this yummy plot.

Mყ 𝐒ყɴ𝐨ρѕιѕ: Molly was twenty-three, an aspiring writer, when she came across Jake, an up and coming lead singer in a band. Their relationship started strong and fierce, until Jake's band became more infamous and broke down their relationship. Eight years later, Molly is married to Hunter, with a darling five year old daughter and is a yoga instructor. But even in her picture perfect life, she's lonely. Something's missing. She meets Sabrina, a woman who also shares her issues of infertility, and as they become close friends, Sabrina secretly knows Molly very, very well. And as Sabrina unveils her secrets, it will threaten Molly's too.

This was freakin' juicy like a chocolate covered strawberry, with the suspense, revenge, bitter, dark feelings of a scorned woman. There wasn't much as far as thrill or mystery, etc. Which, for me was disappointing. And I felt this was a bit overused for a plot. But I still enjoyed to love and dislike the characters & keep me interested.

Thank you to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for this Audio ARC!
Release Date: June 14, 2022

𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭: 3.5 / 5 Beach Waves! 🌊

This book was pretty interesting. To listen from all of the people as independent chapters is always a structure I like. The story kept me listening, not sure if it was super suspenseful, but definitely worth a listen.

If you’re looking for a good romantic domestic suspense about obsession, read this book!

Fast-paced, juicy, and filled with twists (albeit, some predictable), this is a great book to get you out of your reading slump.

Perfect if you’re a fan of Gillian Flynn, Paula Hawkins, or Caroline Kepnes.

Cannot wait to read Carola’s other novels now. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my gifted copy!