Can't take my eyes off you - Clare Dowling

Can't Take My Eyes Off You by Clare Dowling
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

'Clara's been away for too long. So, after ten great years in London, and with boyfriend Matthew in tow, she arrives home in small-town Castlemoy. The family welcomes her with open arms: her diet-shy mother, her closet-living sister and her actor brother who scratches a living doing voiceover ads for chicken. Not everyone is delighted to see her, though. Jason, her long-ago ex, seems to have old scores to settle. Soon Clara finds herself being watched, followed and manipulated from afar. How can she make him stop? And as Clara's dreams of happily-ever-after begin to shatter, will she be able to wrestle her life back?'




This is the first book I have read by Clare Dowling, she is one of those authors I just never got round to reading. So when I was sent a copy of her new book from the publishers to review I was really looking forward to it.

From never reading any other of Clare's books, I am unsure of her style and the pace her books take. I found it a bit tricky to get into as not a lot of was happening.

This is a story about Clara, who moves back to her home town in Ireland with her boyfriend. Clara's ex still lives there and she catches his interest straight away. Jason, the ex seems to begin to be supportive and pleased that Clara has moved back and tries to help her new business take off, but all is not as it seems.

I thought that the book covers a lot about Clara's family and background stories and not enough on Jason and his developing obsession with Clara. This I felt should have been the main focus of the story.

Personally I think that Clare Dowling has taken on more than enough in this book, she has tried to cover large issues based with obsession, health issues and stalking as well as others and I feel that these should perhaps been addressed as separate issues in different books.

I would say this is not your average chick lit book and if you are looking for something a bit more meaty then this could be for you. I would have given the book 3 and a half stars if I could have as I feel that the main story line (obsession with an ex) wasn't covered as well as it could have been. I also felt that perhaps there were too many issues going on in the book for you to draw a clear connection with the characters and actually feel for them.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending me this in exchange for an honest review.