Can't Look Away
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In 2013, at a concert in East Williamsburg, barista Molly Diamond locks eyes with the lead singer, Jake Danner, and can't look away. They meet, and he writes a song about her that puts his band on the map. Nearly a decade later Molly has given up writing and is living in Flynn Cove, Connecticut with her young daughter and her husband Hunter. Their life looks picture-perfect, but Molly feels out of place with the other women in their wealthy suburb, and is struggling to conceive their second child. Sabrina walks into the yoga studio where Molly teaches and confesses her own fertility struggles-- but she has her own reasons for moving to Flynn Cove and befriending Molly. When a new version of Jake's song is on the radio, it forces Molly to confront her past.
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YESSSSSSSSS.
Carola Lovering's debut novel, ‘Tell Me Lies,' is one of my all-time favorite books about young (twisted) love. Her second, ‘Too Good To Be True,' was a letdown - I feel like the plot ran away with the characters. All that to say, I wasn't sure what to expect with her third - but lucky for us, ‘Can't Look Away' is excellent. I would have devoured it in a single sitting had I not asked my partner to hide my Kindle for a few hours so I could prolong the excitement of another great read by Lovering.
If ‘Tell Me Lies' is character-driven and ‘Too Good To Be True' is (too) plot-driven, ‘Can't Look Away' is that excellent, elusive combination of both. Throughout the story, I found the characters' choices - even at their most shortsighted and extreme and conniving - to be believable because of their backstories and beliefs. Without giving anything away, I loved the ending.
I will say that, like her other novels, nearly all of the characters are white, well-educated, and well-off - but there was some exploration of financial privilege this time around. If you like stories about what could have been, about love darkening into obsession, about revenge in the digital age, about love triangles where you don't know who to root for (in particular, if you liked ‘The Light We Lost' by Jill Santopolo, this is for you!) - you'll want to read this. Thank you, Carola Lovering, for another great book that brought me back as vividly to what it's like to be 22 as Taylor Swift's Red re-release today!
ARC provided by NETGalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review.
