Can't Look Away: A Novel

by Carola Lovering

Overview

In Can't Look Away, Carola Lovering "delivers another winner...a propulsive page-turner about young love and second chances. You won’t be able to put this down." —Laura Dave, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me.

"Fans of Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins will enjoy this one." —Publishers Weekly

It is 2013, and twenty-three-year-old Brooklyn barista Molly Diamond has just locked eyes with Jake Danner, the front man of an up-and-coming Southern rock band. It’s not long before Molly and Jake fall deeply in love, inspiring each other’s writing and planning for a life together filled with creativity, passion, and adventure.

But nearly a decade later, Molly is teaching yoga and living in a posh Connecticut suburb with her young daughter and husband, Hunter—who is decidedly not Jake Danner. Molly is lonely in picture-perfect Flynn Cove—until Sabrina walks into her studio. A newcomer in town, Sabrina has her own reasons for seeking out Molly, and their blossoming friendship will set both women on a collision course of deep-rooted secrets, lies, and manipulation.

Meanwhile, a new version of Jake’s hit song is on the radio, forcing Molly to confront her past and ask the ultimate questions: What happens when life turns out nothing like we thought it would, when we were young and dreaming big? Does growing up mean choosing with your head, rather than your heart? And do we ever truly get over our first love?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250759917
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/25/2023
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Carola Lovering is the bestselling author of the novels Tell Me Lies, Too Good to Be True, Can’t Look Away, and Bye, Baby. She is a graduate of Colorado College, and her work has appeared in Vogue, New York Magazine, W Magazine, National Geographic, Marie Claire, and Yoga Journal, among other publications. Her novel Tell Me Lies is now a television series for Hulu. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and two young children.

Editorial Reviews

"Lovering unspools a taut, twisty, humdinger of a plot that encompasses the vagaries of true friendship as well as those of true love. A slow-burning literary tease that plumbs the heights and depths of young love, creative ambitions, friendship, and betrayal." —Kirkus (starred review)

"Sexy suspense and the kind of obsessive love that keeps you coming back—Carola Lovering never disappoints." —Create + Cultivate

"Thriller alert…get ready to be on the edge of your seat." —TheSkimm

"What a book! Layered characters, evil exes, cute kids, bitchy women and handsome rock stars all rolled into one fabulous package...definitely a page-turner." —Mystery and Suspense

"Lovering’s nuanced characterizations and interweaving of different voices and timelines add depth to her story of obsession. Fans of Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins will enjoy this one." —Publishers Weekly

"Carola Lovering delivers another winner with Can’t Look Away, a propulsive page-turner about young love and second chances. You won’t be able to put this down." —Laura Dave, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me

"Sexy and tense, Carola Lovering's Can't Look Away is the kind of book meant for an all-night binge read. Obsession in all its forms tangles with ideas of first love, frenemies, and that most haunting of questions—What if?—to create an especially sophisticated and complex thriller." —Rachel Hawkins, New York Times bestselling author of The Wife Upstairs

"Get ready for rock and roll, heady nights, and the sting of unrequited love that marinates into a dangerous obsession. Can't Look Away is part love story, part domestic suspense, and Lovering weaves her characters tighter and tighter until the tension is ready to snap. You won’t want to put this one down!" —Julie Clark, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Flight

"Carola Lovering gives us so much to love in Can’t Look Away—toxic friendship, long-held secrets, the one who got away—all wrapped in gripping obsession and tight with tension. You’ll be racing to the end." —Ashley Audrain, New York Times bestselling author of The Push

"In Can't Look Away, Carola Lovering holds the reader in the palm of her hand, giving both a nuanced exploration of love and loss, along with a seductive portrait of no-holds-barred obsession. You will not be able to put it down." —Mary Dixie Carter, author of The Photographer

From the Publisher

★ 2022-03-10
In a fancy Connecticut suburb, a woman is forced to come to terms with the choices she made nearly a decade earlier.

Molly has a seemingly idyllic life in tony Flynn Cove, Connecticut, where she teaches yoga and resides with her reliable, catalog-handsome husband, Hunter, and adorable daughter, Stella. The only visible cracks in this picture-perfect world? A dearth of good friends, a rash of unpleasant fellow mothers, and fertility issues. Oh, and within the opening pages of the book, there are suggestive hints of the one who got away: That would be Jake Danner, a musician boyfriend from Molly’s years in New York City, a time when she was working on her MFA in creative writing and rich in close friends. When the beautiful, entertaining, and intriguing Sabrina turns up at both Molly’s Flynn Cove yoga class and her fertility clinic, she immediately ameliorates the lack-of-friendship aspect of Molly’s life, bringing a welcome relief from the stuffier elements of the community. But as Lovering introduces narrative threads beyond Molly’s, the mystery element of the story rises sharply. Weaving together several distinct timelines—Molly and Jake’s meeting and falling in love in 2013, the paradigm shifts in their evolving relationship, and Molly’s life in high-flying Flynn Cove—Lovering unspools a taut, twisty, humdinger of a plot that encompasses the vagaries of true friendship as well as those of true love.

A slow-burning literary tease that plumbs the heights and depths of young love, creative ambitions, friendship, and betrayal.

Kirkus Reviews