This book was so good. Right from the start I was invested and I did not want to put it down.

Rose and Luke Miller are on holiday in a luxurious villa on a Caribbean island. It should be a week of sheer relaxation but just hours before they are due to fly home Rose drops a bombshell. She killed someone and the body is currently lying in their apartment. It was her ex-boyfriend, who used to beat and rape her until she left him, changed her name and started a new life in London. In shock and panic, she hurriedly booked a holiday for her and Luke. Now she doesn’t know what to do.

Mickey used to be a lawyer in Ireland but became disillusioned with the legal system when she left for London and now helps women who have been abused to escape and make a new life for themselves. Mickey knows Luke from years ago and while they didn’t part on the best of terms she can’t ignore his call when it comes through.

This story takes us from the Caribbean to Ireland and to London. There are many twists and turns along the way all of which will leave you gasping out loud. There are two main timelines: the present day and the previous year when Rose and Luke met which give us an insight into them both.

As I said above, this book is so good and a real page turner. You won’t be disappointed.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced read copy of the book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

A little more drawn out than I'm used to with a Jo Spain book, but that didn't put me off as the story contains plenty of unexpected turns. It also has you travelling round the world quite a bit, between the Caribbean, Ireland and England. The characters have a plethora of secrets between them that keeps you turning the pages.

Definitely, one to pack in the suitcase for your holidays.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Another brilliant book from the fantastic JO Spain. I'm looking forward to reading the next book from this author.

Jo.North once again comes up with a cracker of a read. I know not to be shocked by the twist but I always am. This was no different to all her other books that hit you right between the eye with at least one dramatic event.
If I have any little complaint it’s the amount of time given to Rose’s back story or lead up to the marriage. Some of this can be explained by the ending but it was still too much to me.
Fabulous book though as always from this author.

Fast paced, action packed and thrilling, DON’T LOOK BACK was full of twists and red herrings, with great characterisation and a gripping plot.

Very twisty! This one leads you right down the garden path and back up again several times!
I did find it a bit too convoluted towards the end and I have to admit to being a wee bit confused as to where to the feuds originated. But overall I did enjoy this one.

Wow! This one had me hooked from the beginning and was full of twists and turns right to the end. Thanks to NetGalley for the privilege to read and review this book.

Another excellent read by the brilliant Jo Spain! You always know there's going to be an unexpected twist and in this one, we have twist upon twist!
I find her style of writing very engaging. It keeps you spellbound from the first page till the last.

How far would you go to protect someone you love?
Luke's wife unexpectedly fetches him from work and tells him she booked tickets for them to go away on a holiday to the Caribbean. All goes well but on the day they are supposed to return home, she tells him he must leave without her. Something terrible happened and she's not able to go back.
This is when all the twists start. How well does he know his wife?
With Mickey's help (a friend with whom he shares a complicated past) they try to figure out what is going on.
Who is hiding what from whom?
What I love about most of the characters are that they are all flawed and that makes them very relatable.

Highly recommended!!
Thank you to Netgalley and Quercus for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

This was one rollercoaster of a book,I read it in a day. Rose meets Luke one night out with work mates,and there's an instant connection. Luke is totally transfixed with her. But Rose knows it can't go anywhere. She's too damaged. Her abusive Ex has ruined love for her. Luke can wait,he's that adamant they're meant to be. Both have secrets from their pasts but in order for them to get out of the latest bind they're in(and it's a biggie!!),they must come clean with each other.
Luke acquires the help of mickey,his ex who was once a lawyer..they haven't spoken in ages either so his call was a shock.
Just when you think you have this plot sorted....no you don't. I was back and forward guessing the guilty party. I won't say if I got it right but I will say stay focused. Its a really good read.

This is one of those arcs I starts without having read the blurb as Jo Spain is a favorite. This was a favorite thriller: well plotted and gripping.
The characters are fleshed out and the tightly knitted plot never drags.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

My thanks to Quercus Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Don’t Look Back’ by Jo Spain.

I very much enjoy domestic noirs/psychological thrillers and Jo Spain’s latest definitely hit the spot.
The narrative follows the viewpoints of a few characters and there’s occasional flashbacks to events in the recent and more distant past. These shifts are announced in the chapter headings.

Luke Miller has been experiencing a perfect life (oh-oh watch out Luke). His wife, Rose, had surprised him with a belated honeymoon and for the last week they have been luxuriating on the Caribbean island of Saint-Thérèse. But as they pack their bags to return home, Rose breaks down and confesses that a violent man from her past had tracked her down and broken into their home. In her terror, she had accidentally killed him and now there’s a dead body in their posh apartment.

Luke naturally freaks out and reaches out to Mickey Shiels, a former flame who had been a solicitor but now works with victims of domestic violence. Luke knows that Mickey won’t deny a woman who needs help. He is right and she promises to deal with things. Of course, this is just the start of a twisty tale full of secrets, lies, and revelations.

The narrative moves between London, the island of Saint-Thérèse, and County Donegal, Ireland. Aside from Luke and Rose, there are chapters from the points of view of Mickey as well as her business partner, Elliot Ibekwe, who travels to Donegal in order to look into Rose’s past life.

Overall, I found ‘Don’t Look Back’ an engaging read and the kind of book that is easy to curl up with. I expect many will find it a great summer read.

Don't Look Back is a fast paced, twisty story that I could not put down. I was completely hooked from start to finish and I highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for my ARC.

WoW.......Don't Look Back by Jo Spain was a brilliant fast-paced thriller from start to finish it was so addictive, with great characters. I ended up reading it in one long sitting. (so glad it was take away night!)

Jo Spain's book have all been an excellent read and I highly recommend them especially this one. Its another 5 star read,

Big thank to NetGalley, Quercus Books and the author Jo Spain for my ARC of Dont Look Back in exchange for an honest review.

An enjoyable, fast paced thriller with interesting characters. I liked the action switching from London to the Caribbean and then to Ireland. Though some of the story was a little unbelievable, it is a a great holiday read.

I haven't read anything by Jo Spain before but after reading Don't Look Back, I will certainly be keeping my eyes open in the future as I enjoyed this.

Don't Look Back is a twisty thriller with great characters, not all of whom are likeable, and an intriguing plot with some great twists. Be warned, it deals with domestic violence so if this is a trigger, I would steer clear.

Travelling from London to the Caribbean and to Ireland, this is one twisty book that is told at a good pace, from multiple points of view and with some flashbacks. The plot is complicated but it all comes to a satisfying conclusion in the end.

All in all, an enjoyable thriller that kept me reading into the night and I must thank Quercus Books and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of Don't Look Back.

This book takes us from London, to the Caribbean, to County Donegal Ireland, and back again. It has a really well written complicated plot that was tied together beautifully by author Spain.

The characters in the book are a) damaged b) on the border of criminality through their connections/actions or c) both. Three of the characters have a history of abuse in their lives that is a unifying theme in the book.

But it is Rose's fear and need to be on the run from her past that drives the story. Even when she's on a Caribbean island for a belated honeymoon she's arranged with her new husband, Luke. But then she presents him with the real reason they're on the island: she's been attacked by her ex, and now there's a dead body in Luke's apartment. She wants to run; Luke wants to stay and fight. He calls in a woman from his past, Mickey, a former attorney and now an advocate who helps women in similar situations.

But now, the unexpected has happened, and Mickey isn't sure whose side she's on. And now there's more than one person running.

I enjoyed Spain's book, The Perfect Lie, and as with that, this book did not disappoint. It's an intelligent story that will keep you riveted.

Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books for an advance reader's copy.

EXCERPT: the expression on her face . . . it's not one Luke has seen before. It's terrifying. She's terrified. As if she's too frightened to speak. And then she finds the words.
'I can't go back,' she says.
Luke suddenly feels very cold. His conscious brain is thinking, whatever it is, it's fine; we can go home and sort it out. Nothing could have happened that warrants this sort of fear.
But Rose is trembling and Luke knows whatever she's about to tell him is not going to be good.
'He's dead,' she says.

ABOUT 'DON'T LOOK BACK': For one week, everything in Luke Miller's life is perfect. Surprised with a belated honeymoon by his wife, Rose, he's had seven days with her in a Caribbean paradise. It's more than he ever thought he'd deserve.

But as they pack their bags, Rose breaks down, confessing that on the day they left London, a violent man from her past tracked her down and broke into their home. He wasn't expecting her to fight back. And, in her terror, Rose killed him. Now there's a dead body in Luke's apartment, and only one person he can think to turn to.

Mickey Sheils never expected to hear from Luke again, not after he disappeared the first time. Luke knows Mickey can't deny a woman who needs help, so she promises she'll deal with things - she'll make sure Rose doesn't have to keep running.

But it turns out, some lies are too big to run from.

MY THOUGHTS: It took me a little longer than usual to become fully immersed in Jo Spain's latest novel, Don't Look Back, but once I was, I was hooked right until the end which, unfortunately, left me a little disappointed.

But the bulk of the novel had me alternately entranced and on the edge of my seat going wtf as Jo Spain's trademark twists took me in unexpected directions. There are some wonderfully suspenseful moments that had me holding my breath and wondering just what was going on and where the truth lay.

I really couldn't get a handle on Rose. She's a chameleon, different things to different people. Sweet? Injured? Needing protection? Or coolly calculating and manipulative? And Luke - too good to be true? Or is he really a great guy. Whatever these two characters may be, each is hiding something from the other.

Mickey and Elliott I adored, and I would love to read more about them, and the same for Detective Marcel Alleyne in Saint Thérèse, a very unusual character.

I liked Don't Look Back a lot, but I didn't quite love it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

#DontLookBack #NetGalley

I: : @jospainauthor @quercusbooks

T: @SpainJoanne @QuercusBooks

#contemporaryfiction #mystery #suspense #thriller

THE AUTHOR: Jo Spain is the author of the bestselling Inspector Tom Reynolds series and several international No. 1 bestselling standalone novels. Her first book, With Our Blessing, was a finalist in the 2015 Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller.
Jo, a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, writes TV screenplays full-time. Her first crime series was broadcast on RTE in 2018 and she's currently involved in a number of TV developments including adaptations of her own novels. In 2021, she co-wrote Harry Wild, starring Jane Seymour, with the Emmy award-winning David Logan (airing 2022).
Jo lives in Dublin with her husband and four young children. In her spare time (she has four children, there is no spare time really) she likes to read. Her favourite authors include Pierre Lemaitre, Jo Nesbo, Liane Moriarty, Fred Vargas and Jodi Picoult. She also watches TV obsessively.
Jo thinks up her plots on long runs in the woods. Her husband sleeps with one eye open. (I can see why!)

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Quercus Books via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Don't Look Back by Jo Spain for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

I enjoyed reading this book. The pace was good, the story was great, and the characters were well written. I thought it packed a punch, and it certainly kept me entertained. Good book.

Feeling a bit down on the last day of your holiday is understandable, no-one wants to go back to real-life!

But when Luke hears the reason that Rose doesn't want to go home after their spur of the moment getaway, he is stunned.

Luckily he has a contact back home who he trusts, so he sends Mickey to check things out, but unfortunately, she does not find what he was expecting, making this issue even more complex than they thought.

With some great characters, particularly Mickey, and a very twisty story, this was a highly entertaining read!

Likes:
⚛️ Fast-paced thriller
⚛️ Really good characters that I actually cared about
⚛️ Incredible plot twists
⚛️ Page-turner

Dislikes:
🥴 Some things felt a bit cliched
🥴 The end was packed full of twists, and maybe because I read it when I was a bit sleepy I found myself getting confused with all the information overload.

𝕱𝖎𝖓𝖆𝖑 𝖁𝖊𝖗𝖉𝖎𝖈𝖙: Liked this twisty page turner! Recommended for sure ✔️