Can't Look Away by Carola Lovering - Book Review

Can't Look Away by Carola Lovering

Publication Date: 14th June 2022

Genre: Contemporary Women, Drama 

2 Stars 

One Liner: Duh! 

*****

2013: Molly, a 23-year-old MFA student, and Jake Danner, the lead singer and guitarist of the Danner Lane band, meet and fall in love. Their relationship is intense, draining, and explosive, with the two of them wanting forever. 

A Decade Later: Molly is married to Hunter and has a six-year-old daughter Stella. She and Hunter are trying for another child through embryo transplantation. Molly is lonely and unable to fit into the wealthy lifestyle of Flynn Cove. 

She meets Sabrina, who seems to be just like her. The two hit off instantly and become good friends. As Sabrina spins her web, Molly can’t help but feel torn between her past and present. Sabrina won’t stop until she gets what she wants. 

Can Molly deal with the aftermath? What will her past cost her? 

My Observations: 

• First 33% - Not sure if I was too tired or bored to not care about the characters 
• Next 33% - Hmm… can the plot move ahead, please  
• Last 33% - At least, it’s over 

The story comes in installments of past and present from Molly and Jake's limited third-person POVs and Sabrina’s first-person POV. 

There’s a lot of story (info dump) despite the segregation of the plot into different segments. Sabrina’s present chapters were interesting of all. 

Sadly, none of the characters made me feel anything for them. Not even dislike. I didn’t care for any of them for the majority of the book. Stella was the bright spot whenever she appeared. 

There’s so much drama, but it felt so distanced that I was bored rather than feeling sad for either character. The writing is too much YA-ish, but I enjoyed some YA books way better than one. 

And no! This is NOT a thriller. It is a drama. I didn’t find anything remotely ‘thrilling’ in the book. The twists can’t even be called twists, IMO. 

It’s kind of ironic that the book has scenes about multiple edits required to polish and fine-tune a manuscript. If only… 

I can’t say who the right audiences for the book are, but it’s not me. I was bored more than half the time. (I'm repeating myself. Can't help it). 

The pacing is super slow. I finished it in 3 days only because I started to speed-read from the first day. No way I would spend more than 3 days on a 320-page book that claims to be a thriller. 

To sum up, Can’t Look Away is a drama that reads a lot like a YA book with NA characters. However, read other reviews before you decide. 

Thank you, NetGalley and St.Martin’s Press, for the eARC. 

#NetGalley